scholarly journals Cook it, eat it, Skype it: Mobile media use in re-staging intimate culinary practices among transnational families

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 788-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Marino

This article discusses video-based platforms as drivers of transconnective spaces for transnational families to do familyhood. By looking at how Italians living in London use Skype to re-stage family rituals at a distance, I examine the centrality of culinary practices in relation to family work. In doing this, I also expand on the role of polymedia environments in enabling emotional proximity and the formation of a sense of mediated co-presence within transnational contexts. In-depth interviews were conducted with members of the Facebook group Italian Gals in London to unpack how lived geographies of migration intersect with media technologies and practices to create a new transconnective habitus around food preparation, cooking and dining. The study reveals that while Skype provides emotional connectivity, communicative challenges and tensions can also occur as a result of the ‘ephemerality’ of video calls and as technological asymmetries emerge among transnational family members.

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 784-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Dhoest

The key role of digital and mobile media for refugees is increasingly acknowledged, but while the literature on the topic tends to celebrate the advantages of digital media, it is important to also acknowledge limitations. Thus, the focus on the creation and maintenance of connections through digital media may obscure experiences and practices of disconnection. This is certainly the case for forced migrants with non-normative sexual orientations, for whom experiences of homophobia within the family and ethno-cultural community in the country of origin may extend to fraught situations in the country of residence. As with digital media in general, it is important to consider the ‘offline’ social and cultural conditions determining online media uses. This article focuses on the specific challenges for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer refugees, both in general and in Belgium, drawing on desk research and expert interviews, as well as nine in-depth interviews with gay-identifying male refugees. While the refugees are relatively positive about the Belgian situation, they do identify a number of challenges. They use digital media to stay connected to family and other people in the country of origin, but often this connection has become difficult. Social media and dating sites also offer a way to connect to other gay men, but these connections can be equally fraught, particularly in the country of origin for danger of exposure but also in Belgium as social media transcend national boundaries. For this reason, some participants created new or parallel profiles, to keep their gay lives disconnected from their family lives. Overall, then, digital media are a tool not only of connection but also of strategic disconnection for gay refugees.


Author(s):  
Christina Neumayer

This chapter explores the role of mobile phones and smartphones for activists in political protest. Activist practices and modalities of organizing and coordination, identity formation and representation of political protest, production of visibility and maintenance of security may have changed as a result of the presence of these technologies. The chapter engages with this issue as a sociotechnical process at the intersection of social movement studies and (mobile) media studies. It explores the evolution of mobile media technologies and political activism and illustrates the tensions that have emerged in this interrelationship. It emphasizes the extent to which political protest has become dependent upon and constrained by mobile phones. The chapter concludes by arguing that political activism and mobile technologies are interdependent and that it is at this sociotechnical intersection that we must ask critical questions concerning the roles mobile phones play in political protest today.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 488-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brita Ytre-Arne

This article analyses how changing life situations affect media use, conceptualized as a question of how biographical disruption could destabilize media repertoires and public connection. To answer this question, the analysis draws on qualitative data from a comprehensive study of media use in Norway, with in-depth interviews and media diaries. The theoretical approach joins domestication and media repertoire theory with research on public connection, considering the ubiquity of digital media in contemporary society. Findings indicate that smartphone use is key to people’s reorientations in periods of change, and that intimate and emotional responses to mobile media warrant closer attention. The article contributes to debates on the transformation of media repertoires, a question of growing concern within research on cross-media use, and to long-standing interests in the role of media in everyday life and as central to public connection.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelien D’heer ◽  
Steve Paulussen ◽  
Cédric Courtois

Multiple screens in the living room: a study on simultaneous media use Multiple screens in the living room: a study on simultaneous media use Today’s (home) media environment is becoming increasingly saturated. Smartphones, tablets and laptops enter our living rooms and possibly alter our television viewing experience. In this paper, we want to grasp to what extent the use and role of television changes in the presence of multiple mobile media technologies. Through a multi-method approach we explore TV viewing behavior in a media-rich living room. Survey results indicate that the ownership of multiple media technologies in the home environment promotes their use whilst watching television. In addition, in-depth interviews reveal that in these media-rich living rooms media consumption becomes both more individualized and more social. According to the interviewees, social interaction within the living room has not decreased, but rather complemented with online conversations. These conversations can be in accordance (or congruent) with television content, but most of the time they are unrelated (or incongruent).


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nare Galstyan ◽  
Mihran Galstyan

AbstractSocial remittances- the transfer of ideas, practices, and codes of behaviors- are a well-documented subject in migrant transnationalism literature and transnational family studies. However, the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak has generated unprecedented regulations around the world which require widening the conceptual basis of social remittances in a state of emergency. As the pandemic progresses, most countries require civilians to follow a number of norms deemed as the “new normality,” while other countries continue to operate under their “old normality,” with minor or no restrictions. As national pandemic policy responses vary across countries, transnational families live under different regimes of “normality.” In these settings, the study of transnational families offers a valuable opportunity to examine a special type of social remittances practiced during global crises, and analyze whether the exchange of rules, practices, and ideas across national borders has any impact on re-shaping and renegotiating pandemic-coping “new normality” practices for both migrants and their families. The paper is based on 13 in-depth interviews conducted with representatives from Armenian transnational families with migrant members in Russia, the Czech Republic, or Belarus. These countries provide a backdrop for an examination of social remittances among transnational families that we term “pandemic transnationalism.” The study shows that the circulation of safety rules and “good practices” actively shapes the everyday behavior of migrants and their families, their level of perceived danger towards the coronavirus, and their practical knowledge of safety measures. The latter are often harnessed in informal collective settings despite being in conflict with the obligations and regulations of their home society.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Ahmad Tohri ◽  
H. Habibuddin ◽  
Abdul Rasyad

This article discusses the Sasak people’s resistance against MataramKarangasem and Dutch colonial rulers in the 19th century in Lombok, Indonesia. It particularly focuses on Tuan Guru Umar Kelayu and his central role in the emergence of Sasak people’s resistance which transformed into Sasak physical revolution local and global imperialismcolonialism. Using the historical method, this article collected data through observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The data analysis involved the historical methods of heuristics, verification or criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The findings show that Sasak people’s resistance was not only caused by economic factors but also related to other factors such as social, cultural, and religious ones. Tuan Guru Umar Kelayu played a key role in the Sasak people’s resistance in that it was under his leadership and influence that the resistance transformed into a physical struggle against MataramKarangasem and Dutch colonialism as seen in Sakra War and Praya War which were led by his students and friends.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Mochammad Arief Wicaksono

The ideology of state-ibuism has always been interwoven with how the New Order regime until nowadays government constructing the “ideal” role of women in the family and community through the PKK (Pembinaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga) organization. However, in Cangkring Village, Indramayu, the ideology of ibuism works not because of the massive government regulating the role of women through the PKK organization, but it is possible because of the structure of the kampung community itself. Through involved observations and in-depth interviews about a kindergarten in the village, a group of housewives who dedicated themselves to teaching in kindergarten were met without getting paid high. From these socio-cultural phenomenons, this paper will describe descriptively and analytically that housewives in the Cangkring village are willing to become kindergarten teachers because of their moral burden as part of the warga kampung and also from community pressure from people who want their children to be able to read and write.


Author(s):  
Matylda Szewczyk

The article presents a reflection on the experience of prenatal ultrasound and on the nature of cultural beings, it creates. It exploits chosen ethnographic and cultural descriptions of prenatal ultrasounds in different cultures, as well as documentary and artistic reflections on medical imagery and new media technologies. It discusses different ways of defining the role of ultrasound in prenatal care and the cultural contexts build around it. Although the prenatal ultrasounds often function in the space of enormous tensions (although they are also supposed to give pleasure), it seems they will accompany us further in the future. It is worthwhile to find some new ways of describing them and to invent new cultural practices to deal with them.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092199469
Author(s):  
Gowoon Jung

Scholarship on marriage migrants has examined the impact of class and gender ideology of receiving countries on their marital satisfaction. However, little is known about the role of transnational background in explaining women’s feelings of gratitude for husbands. Drawing on qualitative in-depth interviews with marriage migrant women residing in the eastern side of Seoul, Korea, this article explores the micro-level cognitive processes in understanding women’s gratitude for their husbands. Categorizing marriage migrants into two groups, ‘gratified’ and ‘ungratified’ wives, the author demonstrates how the gratified wives’ feelings of contentment is mediated by their active comparison of Korean husbands with local men in their homelands, and how these viewpoints conversely affect their aspirations for return. Bringing the sociology of emotion into an explanation of marriage migrants’ marital satisfaction, this study aims to develop a transnational frame of reference as an underlying dynamic for comprehending marriage migrants’ (in)gratitude.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4023
Author(s):  
Silvia Marcu

Using the case study of Romanians in Spain, this article highlights how the COVID-19 crisis presents both challenges and opportunities when it comes to human mobility and sustainability. Drawing on in-depth interviews with mobile people during the period of lockdown and circulation restrictions, and in accordance with the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the paper advances and contributes to the relevance of sustainability and its impact on people’s mobility in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. I argue that even in the midst of the crisis, sustainable ways may be found to promote and protect human mobility. The paper raises the way sustainability acts as a driver, gains relevance and influence, and contributes to the creation of new models of resilient mobility in times of crisis. The conclusions defend the respect for the SDGs regarding human mobility and emphasise the role of people on the move as sustainable actors learning to overcome distance and the barriers to their mobility during the pandemic.


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