Material Cultures, Migrations, and Identities: What the Eye Cannot See [Hardcover]

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.Introduction
1. The Meaning of Diasporic Homes and Identities
2. 'New' Ways of Accessing Diasporic Homes and Communities in Social Research
3. Researching Russianness: A Discussion of Methods
4. Objects and Identities: Researching Migrants' Lives Through Home Possessions
5. Food and Cooking Practices
6. Conclusion. Interpreting Research Results: Diasporic Objects or Diasporic Homes?
Appendix 1: List of participants

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