Fragile Resonance: Caring for Older Family Members in Japan and England

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"With compassionate yet unflinching ethnographic attention, Fragile Resonances explores fragile care ecologies. As systems of care rely on increasingly isolated unpaid carers, Jason Danely describes these acts of care as both transformative and devastating, as beautiful and dangerous, as intimate and alienating."

Anna I. Corwin, Saint Mary's College of California, author of Embracing Age: How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Aging Well

"A beautifully-written, insightful, and very moving book on a topic–unpaid family caregiving–of enormous importance that has received far too little scholarly attention."

Janelle Taylor, University of Toronto, author of On Recognition, Caring, and Dementia

"Jason Danely brings to life the voices of Japanese and British caregivers, expertly conveying their moral reflections and understandings."

Susan O. Long, John Carroll University, author of Final Days

"A well-written and important book, Fragile Resonances is an outstanding ethnography that thoughtfully wrestles with issues faced by both carers and care recipients."

John Traphagan, University of Texas at Austin, author of Cosmopolitan Rurality, Depopulation, and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in 21st-Century Japan

Fragile Resonance describes the paths carers take as they make meaning of their experiences and find a sense of moral purpose to sustain them and guide their decisions. When a parent or partner becomes frail or disabled, often a family member assumes responsibility for their care. But family care is a physically and emotionally exhausting undertaking. Carers experience moments of profound connection as well as pain and grief. Carers ask themselves questions about the meaning of family, their entitlement to support, and their capacity to understand and sympathize with another person's pain.

Based on his research gathering stories of family carers in Japan and England, Jason Danely traces how care transforms individual sensibilities and the role of cultural narratives and imagination in shaping these transformations, which persist even after the care recipient has died. Throughout Fragile Resonance, Danely examines the implications of unpaid carer's experiences for challenging and enhancing social policies and institutions, highlighting innovative alternatives grounded in the practical ethics of care.

From the back cover…

Vulnerability is a fundamental aspect of existence, giving rise to the need for care in various forms. Yet we are not all vulnerable in the same way, and not all vulnerabilities are equally recognised or cared for. This transdisciplinary volume considers how vulnerability and care are shaped by relations of power within contemporary contexts of war, development, environmental degradation, sexual violence, aging populations and economic precarity.

It proposes that care for vulnerable populations or individuals is inseparable from other political processes of recognition, welfare, healthcare and security, whilst also exploring vulnerability as a shared, generative condition that makes caring possible. Ethnographic and narrative accounts of vulnerable life and caring relations in various geographical regions - including Japan, Uganda, Micronesia, Iraq, Mexico, the UK and the US - are interspersed with perspectives from philosophy, International Relations, social and cultural theory, and more, resulting in a compelling series of intellectual exchanges, creative frictions and provocative insights.

Table of Contents

Bodies, Resistance, Despair

1:Bodies that Still Matter, JUDITH BUTLER
2:Decolonial Feminism and Global Politics, ROSALBA ICAZA
3:Meteorological Moods and Atmospheric Attunements, C. JASON THROOP
Response: The Terror of Invulnerability, RAHUL RAO

Ambiguity, Affectivity, Violence

4:The Problems and Potentials of Vulnerability, ERINN GILSON
5:Vulnerable Civilians: Coalition Checkpoints and the Perception of Hostile Intent, THOMAS GREGORY
6:Revealed in the Wound: Medical Care and the Ecologies of War in Post-Occupation Iraq, OMAR DEWACHI
Response: On the Condition of Being Open, VÉRONIQUE PIN-FAT

Narrative, Relationality, Disclosure

7:The politics of care: from biomedical transformation to narrative vulnerability, JACKIE SCULLY
8:"It rips you to bits!": Woundedness and Compassion in Carers' Narratives, JASON DANELY
9:Disclosing an Experience of Sexual Assault: Ethics and the Role of the Confidant, ANN CAHILL
Response: Tenuous Moorings, YASMIN GUNARATNAM

Dependence, Distribution, Waiting

10:Vulnerability as Radically Social: Cash and Care for the Elderly in Uganda, LOTTE MEINERT
11:Watchful Waiting: Temporalities of Crisis and Care in the UK: National Health Service, LISA BARAITSER AND WILLIAM BROOK
Response: The Hopeless Hopeful Time of Caring, TIFFANY PAGE

An ethnographic look at grieving, giving, and growing older.

Based on nearly a decade of research, Aging and Loss examines how the landscape of aging is felt, understood, and embodied by older adults themselves. In detailed portraits, anthropologist Jason Danely delves into the everyday lives of older Japanese adults as they construct narratives through acts of reminiscence, social engagement and ritual practice, and reveals the pervasive cultural aesthetic of loss, burden, abandonment, and hope.
This is the first volume in the new series, Global Perspectives on Aging, edited by Sarah Lamb (Brandeis) and published by Rutgers University Press.

"Devoid of academic jargon, Aging and Loss addresses several key theoretical questions in anthropology today. Its elegant prose makes it accessible to wider audiences, attesting to the power of ethnographic storytelling as a form of knowledge-making."

--Shunsuke Nozawa, University of Tokyo, writing in Anthropological Quarterly
 

" A gracious, observant, and sensitive ethnography. Jason Danely contemplates the experience of aging, mourning, and memorialization in Japan. Danely is interested in capturing the texture of these experiences: the space that loss creates, incompleteness, transience, hope, giving things up, and finding new clarity. This aesthetics of loss has its context in the broad repercussions of Japan's declining population—closed, vacant schools; inadequate welfare support; and the loss of traditional values."

--Amy Borovoy, Princeton University, writing in American Ethnologist

"Aging and Loss is a beautifully written piece of work that could be enjoyed from multiple perspectives beyond the lenses of anthropology or Asian studies. The fact that the stories took place in Kyoto - an ancient capital and the heart of Japanese traditional arts and culture - will further instill interest among those curious about the rich culture, nature, and changes challenging the city."

--Leng Leng Thang, University of Singapore, writing in American Anthropologist
 

"The in-depth stories and analyses of this interweave with theoretical reflections resulted in a rich ‘‘story,’’ which is both an academic study and a piece of fine art"

--Els-Marie Anbäcken, Malardelen University (Sweden) writing in the International Journal of Aging and Later Life 

"Danely tackles the complex topic of aging and loss with a great sense of tact and sensitivity. He addresses the topic by employing a skillful analysis of folk stories, films, and delicately conducted interviews … Far from being dry ethnography, this book is written in a poetic and emotive voice. Yet the pictures of aging in Japan are far from overly optimistic."

--Ilana Maymind, Chapman University writing in New Asia Books 

“Danely (2014) eloquently outlines how one can age amidst the environment around us, our past and reminiscing, and our struggles and anxieties. All of these components can help us in our own journey through aging or in supporting older adults in creating a meaningful narrative.”

—Grace Sandblom, Baylor University, writing in the Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging

From intimate reflections on life transitions, to the ways aging is transforming our political and economic world, this volume features ethnographic accounts on five continents from some of the leading voices in the field.

“…an important contribution to the field...excellent chapters within a comprehensive anthropological framework that touches on an increasingly important global demographic trend. The book counters the universalizing tendency of some disciplines to model aging after Western lifestyles.”  ·  Philip B. Stafford, University of Indiana

“This is a well-crafted volume and an important addition to the literature on aging and the life course.  It provides an invaluable cross-cultural perspective that emphasizes how the life course is framed within a cultural context and how cultures change over time. The chapters focus on a large number of ethnographic cases and are organized well for use by students or professionals wanting an updated overview.”  ·  Dena Shenk, University of North Carolina Charlotte

“This volume is a welcome addition to [the literature], particularly because it speaks to concerns in the cross-cultural study of aging and in anthropology.  It was a pleasure to read.”  ·  Peter Collings, University of Florida