Kondo, Crafting Selves

1. Keeping in mind our discussion last week about Salaff's problematic use of the term "individual," how does Kondo define and use this concept? Why, in your opinion, did Kondo entitle her book Crafting Selves? What concepts of personhood and selfhood does she wish to convey? How does her notion of selfhood compare to that demonstrated by the Japanese workers whom she interviewed? If there appears to be a gap, what does this suggest to you about Kondo's analytical framework?

2. How does Kondo define and depict the household? What kinds of spatial and emotional relationships are associated with the household? What is the relationship between work and the household or family? How does Kondo's depiction of the household differ from others which we have read?

3. How are the identities of artisans and part-time workers in the sweets factory described by Kondo created and gendered? How do these identities relate to broader discourses about and institutions which shape law, work, households, and power? Can a woman be an artisan? Why or why not?

4. How do "artisans" and "part-timers" relate to each other, both as individuals, and as broader conceptual categories of work? How does Kondo's account of work and self-realization compare to that of Durkheim?

5. How does Kondo describe her position as the ethnographer and relate this to a conception of self, particularly in Chapter 1? How does she establish her authority as ethnographer and author? What are the advantages and disadvantages to her approach?

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu