International Journal of Cultural Studies, Ahead of Print.
Peace is usually studied by looking at nation-states. Recently, peace scholars have become interested in peace found in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I argue that media scholars can contribute to this effort because they are well-equipped to capture fleeting manifestations of everyday peace. However, the problematic legacy of peace in Israel/Palestine necessitates a different conceptual framework. I highlight encounters in and through media between Israeli Jews and Palestinians and contend that they present opportunities for constructive dialogue. I demonstrate this point by analyzing the Israeli television show Arab Labor, focusing on its production process, and the plight of Jewish and Palestinian characters on the show. By fusing text and context, I suggest that media do not persuade people to believe in peace; instead, media encounters, both on and off the screen, function as cultural forums for discussing complex issues undergirding violent conflicts.
Category Archives: SAGE Publications Ltd: International Journal of Cultural Studies:
‘When it comes to the true crime community, Taylor is a legend’: Social and symbolic capital among murderabilia fans
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Ahead of Print.
This article explores and clarifies the usage of social and symbolic capital as applied to fan studies. It illustrates the author's definitions with a case study from the neglected arena of dark fandom. I argue that ‘social capital’ should be used to refer to the network of friends and associates agents possess within a subculture, whether dyadic, triadic or multidirectional, but that to qualify as social capital, there must be mutual recognition of the tie. I illustrate this argument through a case study of the online presence and persona of Taylor James, the owner and proprietor of leading murderabilia auction site CultCollectibles.org. ‘Murderabilia’ refers to items formerly possessed by or associated with celebrity criminals, particularly serial killers. I further establish that contra Thornton, we do not observe mainstream condemnation generating subcultural capital within this sphere, but rather, mainstream media attention can be negotiated by appeals to traditional forms of expertise.
This article explores and clarifies the usage of social and symbolic capital as applied to fan studies. It illustrates the author's definitions with a case study from the neglected arena of dark fandom. I argue that ‘social capital’ should be used to refer to the network of friends and associates agents possess within a subculture, whether dyadic, triadic or multidirectional, but that to qualify as social capital, there must be mutual recognition of the tie. I illustrate this argument through a case study of the online presence and persona of Taylor James, the owner and proprietor of leading murderabilia auction site CultCollectibles.org. ‘Murderabilia’ refers to items formerly possessed by or associated with celebrity criminals, particularly serial killers. I further establish that contra Thornton, we do not observe mainstream condemnation generating subcultural capital within this sphere, but rather, mainstream media attention can be negotiated by appeals to traditional forms of expertise.
Online gathering in times of physical (im)mobility: Facebook practices of Malagasy mothers in France
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 6, Page 750-767, November 2023.
Based on a thematic content analysis of 813 in-group posts, the study presented in this article aimed to analyse first the implications of (social) immobility and lockdowns for vulnerable communities such as immigrants and mothers among them due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and then how Facebook groups helped these communities to cope with such challenges. The analysis was conducted within Le Groupe des Mamans Gasy de France – a Facebook group restricted to France-based Malagasy mothers. It revealed that the group was used as a safe space of benevolence amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, a space for self-acceptance and empowerment, and a space for Malagasy cultural and identity anchoring. These findings align with Leah Williams Veazey's ‘migrant maternal imaginaries’ and Laura Candidatu's ‘diasporic mothering’ conceptual frameworks.
Based on a thematic content analysis of 813 in-group posts, the study presented in this article aimed to analyse first the implications of (social) immobility and lockdowns for vulnerable communities such as immigrants and mothers among them due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and then how Facebook groups helped these communities to cope with such challenges. The analysis was conducted within Le Groupe des Mamans Gasy de France – a Facebook group restricted to France-based Malagasy mothers. It revealed that the group was used as a safe space of benevolence amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, a space for self-acceptance and empowerment, and a space for Malagasy cultural and identity anchoring. These findings align with Leah Williams Veazey's ‘migrant maternal imaginaries’ and Laura Candidatu's ‘diasporic mothering’ conceptual frameworks.
Healthcare (im)mobilities and the Covid-19 pandemic: Notes on returning to the field
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 6, Page 785-801, November 2023.
This article proposes a mobilities-informed approach to social science research on healthcare and migration. It engages with evidence gathered during the Covid-19 pandemic that suggests that when confronted with a public health emergency, health systems can be responsive to the needs of mobile populations. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, health resources shifted routine services online, spurring an acceleration of telemedicine. The roll-out of these practices intersected with the phenomenon of digital exclusion, making healthcare partly or completely out of reach for those who could not connect. We argue that these efforts could have been more successful if they grew out of a recognition of healthcare's ‘sedentary bias’. National health systems are configured to serve settled populations. They are not designed for people on the move, with uncertain residential and immigration status. Yet this bias can be alleviated when health interventions are rethought from the point of view of the mobile patient.
This article proposes a mobilities-informed approach to social science research on healthcare and migration. It engages with evidence gathered during the Covid-19 pandemic that suggests that when confronted with a public health emergency, health systems can be responsive to the needs of mobile populations. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, health resources shifted routine services online, spurring an acceleration of telemedicine. The roll-out of these practices intersected with the phenomenon of digital exclusion, making healthcare partly or completely out of reach for those who could not connect. We argue that these efforts could have been more successful if they grew out of a recognition of healthcare's ‘sedentary bias’. National health systems are configured to serve settled populations. They are not designed for people on the move, with uncertain residential and immigration status. Yet this bias can be alleviated when health interventions are rethought from the point of view of the mobile patient.
Apps, mobilities, and migration in the Covid-19 pandemic: Covid technology and the control of migrant workers in Singapore
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 6, Page 636-654, November 2023.
In this article we discuss the entanglement of apps, mobilities, and migration – and the way that apps work as migrant infrastructure in a Covid context. We develop our analysis through a case study of Singapore's response to the pandemic during 2020–22, centred on the control of migrant workers through the use of Covid apps. We argue that Covid apps enact ‘managed inequality’ in blatant as well as subtle ways for migrants and the societies in which they live and belong.
In this article we discuss the entanglement of apps, mobilities, and migration – and the way that apps work as migrant infrastructure in a Covid context. We develop our analysis through a case study of Singapore's response to the pandemic during 2020–22, centred on the control of migrant workers through the use of Covid apps. We argue that Covid apps enact ‘managed inequality’ in blatant as well as subtle ways for migrants and the societies in which they live and belong.
Researching (im)mobile lives during a lockdown: Reconceptualizing remote interviews as field events
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 6, Page 802-821, November 2023.
This article foregrounds the benefits and challenges of deploying remote interviews to investigate the digital practices of older adults from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds during a series of stay-at-home orders in in 2020 and 2021 in Victoria, Australia. By critically examining the employment of technologically mediated data collection (via video and phone call), we reconceptualize remote fieldwork as a collection of ethnographically significant field events. We draw on the socio material approach to map the impact of human–digital assemblage on the processes, possibilities and limits of collecting data remotely. The study reveals the ways participants' differing digital access, competencies, and social relations engender and undermine methodological interventions. Indeed, it offers a nuanced perspective on deploying remote fieldwork especially among older migrants in an increasingly digital world.
This article foregrounds the benefits and challenges of deploying remote interviews to investigate the digital practices of older adults from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds during a series of stay-at-home orders in in 2020 and 2021 in Victoria, Australia. By critically examining the employment of technologically mediated data collection (via video and phone call), we reconceptualize remote fieldwork as a collection of ethnographically significant field events. We draw on the socio material approach to map the impact of human–digital assemblage on the processes, possibilities and limits of collecting data remotely. The study reveals the ways participants' differing digital access, competencies, and social relations engender and undermine methodological interventions. Indeed, it offers a nuanced perspective on deploying remote fieldwork especially among older migrants in an increasingly digital world.
Revise and Republish Notice
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Ahead of Print.
Physical immobility and virtual mobility: Mediating everyday life from a Karen refugee camp in Thailand
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 6, Page 732-749, November 2023.
This article reflects on how offline and online everyday life coexists for encamped, young Karen living in protracted displacement. As part of the special issue ‘Cultures of (im)mobile entanglements’, edited by Earvin Cabalquinto and Koen Leurs, I centre the voices of young Karen living in Mae La refugee camp in Thailand and unpack how personal and social relationships are built and maintained physically in the camp, as well as in digitally mediated spaces. I focus on the tensions of (im)mobility and how life and presence were mediated before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. I emphasise the influence of culture, society, and infrastructure on my participants’ living trajectories and find how social media expands their lived reality far beyond the confinement of the camp.
This article reflects on how offline and online everyday life coexists for encamped, young Karen living in protracted displacement. As part of the special issue ‘Cultures of (im)mobile entanglements’, edited by Earvin Cabalquinto and Koen Leurs, I centre the voices of young Karen living in Mae La refugee camp in Thailand and unpack how personal and social relationships are built and maintained physically in the camp, as well as in digitally mediated spaces. I focus on the tensions of (im)mobility and how life and presence were mediated before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. I emphasise the influence of culture, society, and infrastructure on my participants’ living trajectories and find how social media expands their lived reality far beyond the confinement of the camp.
‘The pandemic helped me!’ Queer international students’ identity negotiation with family on social media in immobile times
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 6, Page 714-731, November 2023.
This article examines queer international students’ negotiation of sexuality and family ties maintenance during the Covid-19 pandemic. In considering the transitions in queer identity making, I highlight the complexity of coming out to parents. The performative dimension of social media allows queer international students to curate selective presentations and connect with their families digitally in immobile times. However, the technological affordance of social media is porous and productive, triggering the possibility of leakage and accidental outings but enabling negotiation afterwards. Drawing on two rounds of in-depth and social media scroll-back interviews with 20 Chinese queer female international students in Australia in 2021, this article identifies the social roles of social media in managing ties between queer international students and their overseas parents (shielding, leakage, and routing). It also complicates the extant implications of pandemic immobility in a specific context of queer transitions.
This article examines queer international students’ negotiation of sexuality and family ties maintenance during the Covid-19 pandemic. In considering the transitions in queer identity making, I highlight the complexity of coming out to parents. The performative dimension of social media allows queer international students to curate selective presentations and connect with their families digitally in immobile times. However, the technological affordance of social media is porous and productive, triggering the possibility of leakage and accidental outings but enabling negotiation afterwards. Drawing on two rounds of in-depth and social media scroll-back interviews with 20 Chinese queer female international students in Australia in 2021, this article identifies the social roles of social media in managing ties between queer international students and their overseas parents (shielding, leakage, and routing). It also complicates the extant implications of pandemic immobility in a specific context of queer transitions.
Territories of migrancy and meaning: The emotional politics of borderscapes in the lives of deported Mexican men in Tijuana
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 6, Page 697-713, November 2023.
This article discusses how Mexican deportees find meaning and negotiate their agency in the borderscape and borderland of Tijuana, Mexico. Established through vice tourism, Tijuana has figured prominently as a site for expressions of migrancy. Within the expressions of migrancy, deported migrants find themselves in constant states of in-betweenness in systems of mediation. Through in-depth interviews with deported Mexican men living in temporary male-centric shelters, I identify and examine the issues of mobility ‘through the body’ of deported migrants, highlighting the politics of emotions, of being, and of seeing. Through analysis of the phenomenology of migration through Tijuana, I highlight the overreaching situated positions of permanent temporality mediating the lives of deported Mexican men. This perspective, therefore, sheds a necessary light on an often overlooked and marginalized condition of the migrant population.
This article discusses how Mexican deportees find meaning and negotiate their agency in the borderscape and borderland of Tijuana, Mexico. Established through vice tourism, Tijuana has figured prominently as a site for expressions of migrancy. Within the expressions of migrancy, deported migrants find themselves in constant states of in-betweenness in systems of mediation. Through in-depth interviews with deported Mexican men living in temporary male-centric shelters, I identify and examine the issues of mobility ‘through the body’ of deported migrants, highlighting the politics of emotions, of being, and of seeing. Through analysis of the phenomenology of migration through Tijuana, I highlight the overreaching situated positions of permanent temporality mediating the lives of deported Mexican men. This perspective, therefore, sheds a necessary light on an often overlooked and marginalized condition of the migrant population.