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Abstract
The central themes of this project are transition times and aida (間; betweenness, in-between, relationality), which are explored in three independent papers in the core of this dissertation. Aida (and other readings of the same character such as ma) imply spatial, temporal, and/or interpersonal relationality. This project takes an ethnographic approach to attend to betweenness in transitions practices and rituals between activities within the day at a Japanese hoikuen (daycare) focusing on the birth to three classrooms.In Chapter One, I briefly introduce the notion of aida as an everyday expression and as a philosophical notion, this project's purpose and goals, the ethnographic methods employed in this study, and the previous bodies of literature on the anthropology of early childhood education in Japan and on in-betweenness in early childhood education and care globally. In Chapter Two, the notion of aida as an emic notion of relationality and pedagogy guide an exploration of a transition ritual that marks the border between transition times and activity times. In particular, it explores how tempo and speech register changes in the ritual serve to demarcate and prepare children for a new context in which different norms of behavior are required. Chapter Three proposes a methodological framework for exploring emergence, causality, and multiplicity in transition times guided by Kimura Bin’s (e.g., 2005) phenomenological notion of aida in conversation with Jane Bennett’s (2010; 2020) ideas of vital materiality and causality as assemblages of influence. Chapter Four applies the methodology of Chapter Three to a micro-analysis of short interactions in a single transition time in the infant classroom transitioning between nap time and snack time. This paper explores assemblages in the classroom that are hubs of energy, drawing other entities into engagement, and discusses notions of the qualities of these entities/assemblages, their multiplicity, and co-arising/emergence among (aida, in-between) the assemblage. In Chapter Five, the conclusion presents the contributions, limitations, and future directions of this project, attending to the benefits of using multiple methodological approaches to explore the same theme: transition times.