Material Cultures, Migrations, and Identities

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Anna Pechurina

      Pages 1-11

3. Diasporic Homes, Identities, and Communities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13

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   2. The Meaning of Diasporic Homes and Identities

      • Anna Pechurina

      Pages 15-28

   3. ‘New’ Ways of Accessing Diasporic Homes and Communities in Social Research

      • Anna Pechurina

      Pages 29-60

4. Researching Russianness: A Discussion of Methods

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61

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   2. Researching Russianness: A Discussion of Methods

      • Anna Pechurina

      Pages 63-85

5. Interpreting Research Results: Objects and Homes in Immigration

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

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   2. Objects and Identities: Researching Migrants’ Lives through Home Possessions

      • Anna Pechurina

      Pages 89-113

   3. Food and Cooking Practices

      • Anna Pechurina

      Pages 114-131

   4. Conclusion. Interpreting Research Results: Diasporic Objects or Diasporic Homes?

      • Anna Pechurina

      Pages 132-147

6. Back Matter

   Pages 148-171

   PDF

Focusing on the experiences of Russian migrants to the United Kingdom, this book explores the connection between migrations, homes and identities. It evaluates several approaches to studying them, and is structured around a series of case studies on attitudes to homemaking, food and cooking, and clothing.

• Material culture
• migration
• cultural identity
• Russian migration
• home ethnography
• visual ethnography
• culture
• identity
• methods

"In this richly descriptive and highly analytical book, Anna Pechurina introduces readers to a world in which migrants (in this case divers waves of Russian immigrants) achieve their diasporic identity through the use and display of material objects in the home. Using visual methodologies combined with in-depth interviews, she explores how a sense of Russianness is created in complex and even contradictory ways. A wonderfully evocative book which deserves to be read by students of migration, the home and family life alike." - Carol Smart, University of Manchester, UK

"A gracefully written analysis of what constitutes Russianness for those migrants who made new homes abroad and how material possessions they took with them from Russian motherland become an important means linking people, places and memories together. This is a fine example of investigative scholarship that explores the complex relationships between things, homes and identity in the context of transition, migration and change." - Elena Katz, University of Oxford, UK

• Leeds Beckett University, UK

  Anna Pechurina

Anna Pechurina is Lecturer in Sociology at Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom. She researches homes and material cultures in the context of movement and migration. Specifically, she studies the connection between post-socialist migrants' identities, homemaking, and sense of belonging.

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