The ‘digital glimpse’ as imagining home

This paper proposes the concept of the ‘digital glimpse’, which develops the existing framing of imaginative travel. Here it articulates the experiences of mobile workers digitally connecting into family life and everyday rituals when physically absent with work. The recent embedding of digital communication technologies into personal relationships and family life is reconfiguring how absence is experienced and practiced by workers on the move, and through this, new digital paradigms for life on-the-move are emerging. This paper explores how such social relationships are maintained at-a-distance through digital technology – using evidence from qualitative interviews with mobile workers and their families. Digital technology now enables expressive forms of ‘virtual travel’, including video calling, picture sharing, and instant messaging. This has implications for the ways in which families can manage the social and relational pressures of being apart. Experiences of imaginative travel created through novel media can enrich the experience and give a greater sense of connection for both those who are at home and those who are away. While technology is limited in its ability to replicate a sense of co-presence, ‘digital glimpses’ are an emergent set of sociotechnical practices that can reduce the negative impact of absence on family relationships.     

Standby Mothering: Temporalities,Affects, and the Politics of Mobile Intergenerational Care

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I showcase how left-behind mothers in the Philippines use digital communication technologies in delivering care to their overseas adult children in Melbourne, Australia. As part of a broader research project on transnational family life, the findings were drawn upon in-depth interviews, visual methods, a simple participant observation, and field notes taking and analysis. The study deployed a mediated mobilities lens, paying close attention to the different forces that shape the provision of intergenerational care through mobile device use. Building upon a critical analysis of the digitalization of intergenerational relationships in a transnational context, I coin the term ‘standby mothering.’ This conception encapsulates the femininized, ubiquitous, networked, and ambivalent intergenerational care practices that are experienced and negotiated by distant mothers. On the one hand, mobile device use enables left-behind mothers to deliver emotional and practical caregiving. On the other hand, everyday temporal conditions and technological barriers impede the provision of intergenerational care. Communicative constraints are constantly managed through various tactics, ensuring the sustenance of transnational relationships. By interrogating the contradictory outcomes of transnational caregiving, I underscore the politics of mediated mobilities in a digital society. Here, the mobilization of gendered, networked, and differential care practices is influenced by uneven structural and even socio-technological dimensions. Ultimately, this paper elucidates a critical stance on re-examining the provision of informal, gendered, and networked care practices.     

启蒙、自我、理性:思入现代性问题的通路

现代性问题是现代社会的理论缩影和主导话语,诸多不同领域的思想家都从各自的视角给予普遍关注,结论莫衷一是。因此有必要对现代性问题的前提进行反思。现代性的方法论之思表明必须超越狭隘的"视角主义"走向"视域共现";与之相关的是,现代性的多重论域之思表明现代性问题研究的"领域共现";作为哲学言说主题的现代性之思,旨在开显思入现代性问题的通路:启蒙——现代性的品格;自我——现代性的灵魂;理性——现代性的生命。可以说,启蒙、自我与理性共同勾勒和描绘出了现代性问题的全新图景。     

SPECIAL ISSUE： DIALOGUE,INTERACTION AND NEW.DEVELOPMENTS IN PHILOSOPHY IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA - SPECIALIST FORUM ON CHINESE,WESTERN AND MARXIST PHILOSOPHIES：Contemporariness： a common field for dialogue between Chinese,Western and Marxist philosophies

如果说当代中国哲学的新开展意味着中国哲学的当代性展开,那么首要的问题就是理解何渭当代性。当代性不是一个历史学的概念,而是一个历史哲学的观念。当代性既不同于现代性,也不同于后现代性,而是在当下生活中的同时发生、同时在场。既然当代中国哲学是中国哲学的当代性展开,这就意味着当代中国哲学乃是在当下生活情境中发生、而且是与当代西方哲学和当代马克思主义哲学同时在场的。这就是三者之间的对话之所以可能的共同场域。     

Present-but-online: How mobile devices may harm purposeful co-presence in organizations (and what can be done about it)

The introduction of mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets), to the workplace has had many positive effects. While research also indicates that mobile devices may lead to the misallocation and depletion of attention, the negative effects, particularly on interactions in organizations, remain less well understood. We draw on micro-sociology to analyze the use of mobile devices in situations of purposeful co-presence, such as meetings and settings that require a joint effort to solve one or more problems. In these situations, the use of mobile devices is likely to de-energize actors and lead to behaviors that are contrary to the aims of establishing situations of purposeful co-presence. We identify ways in which organizations can avoid the negative consequences of mobile devices (while keeping the positive consequences), ranging from building norms regarding the use of such devices to restructuring work processes (e.g., making activities less interdependent and making less use of purposeful co-presence).     

The work-sociology of academic aeromobility at remote institutions

ABSTRACT

Theoretically framed by the concepts of networks, co-presence and proximity, we explore the interplay of corporeal and virtual academic mobilities in the context of ‘remote institutions’ to advance the work-sociology of aeromobility at a time of climate crisis. Empirical insights are drawn from 31 in-depth interviews conducted with academic staff at the University of Otago (New Zealand), to explore the complex personal and professional decisions that underpin academic mobility practices, and shed light on why levels of academic aeromobility have not diminished with the growing capacity for virtual substitution. Our findings inform discussion of the concepts of ‘necessary’ travel and virtual travel as a substitute for non-participation. We conclude with reflections on the scope for social (practice) and institutional (policy) reform, and avenues of future research.