Dealing with Transforming Self/s of Japanese Women Studying in Australian Universities: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

This article presents the conceptual framework underpinning the study of transforming identities and perceptions of femininity of Japanese women studying in Australian higher education. A feminist, postmodern position on identity and concepts of self is taken, arguing that the self is socially, culturally and historically (re)constructed, unfixed and multidimensional. By looking at the seven key themes of the study’s theoretical and operational concepts, the article attempts to link globalisation, higher education and re-creation of women’s femininity and identity. The seven key themes are: i) globalisation, ii) higher education and the emergence of a new Japanese cosmopolitan woman, iii) postmodern identity, iv) empowerment and identities, v) femininity as ‘performance’, vi) ‘performing self’/’expressed self’, and vii) cultural hybridities and intentional unfixity of self.. This article also provides a review of the relevant literature on the global mobility of Japanese women and the status of contemporary Japanese women in order to show the links between these seven operational concepts and the wider body of knowledge encompassed within literature dealing with identities and femininity of Japanese women.