Lorraine Plourde

Papers

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About

Lorraine Plourde is a cultural anthropologist whose research sits at the intersection of affect, labor, and sensory experience in contemporary Japan. Her most-cited work, "Cat Cafés, Affective Labor, and the Healing Boom in Japan" (2014, 57 citations), offers a groundbreaking analysis of how urban Japanese consumers engage with animals not as private owners but as paying customers seeking therapeutic, sensory encounters. Plourde argues that cat cafés exemplify a broader "healing boom" (*iyashi būmu*), where affective labor—the management of feeling and touch—becomes a commodified remedy for social isolation and economic precarity. By foregrounding the embodied, intimate interactions between humans and cats in commercial spaces, she challenges conventional understandings of pet-keeping and care. Her work illuminates how neoliberal pressures reshape emotional life, making healing a transaction rather than a relationship. Plourde’s contributions are vital for scholars of affect theory, animal studies, and Japanese consumer culture, demonstrating that even the softest purr carries the weight of structural change. Her research continues to influence discussions on post-Fordist labor, nonhuman agency, and the politics of comfort in late capitalism.