Title: Knowing How to Get Around: Place, Migration, and Communication
Abstract: Abstract In this article, we follow a lead in Roger Silverstone's work by engaging critically with the writings of human geographers who have drawn on phenomenology in their attempts to understand environmental perception and senses of place. A distinctive feature of the approach that these geographers developed was its focus on the ordinary doings and feelings involved in place-making. We highlight a series of concepts that are found in their writings and we apply those key concepts in a discussion of some qualitative empirical research on trans-European migration. Our project has been concerned with the practices and experiences of contemporary migrants, including their routine uses of communication technologies in everyday living. With reference to data from lengthy conversational interviews, we pay particular attention to matters of dwelling or habitation, and to these migrants' knowing how to get around—as well as their being out of place—in physical and media environments. Notes 1. This article is based on an invited plenary presentation to the 2009 Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association Conference at the University of Bradford. 2. We are grateful to all of the interviewees for their participation in this project, and also to the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sunderland for its financial support. A further discussion of the methodology and findings will appear in Moores and Metykova (in press) Moores, S. and Metykova, M. "I didn't realize how attached I am": On the environmental experiences of trans-European migrants. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 13 [Google Scholar]. 3. Collections of work in this area include those edited by King and Wood (2001 King, R. and Wood, N., eds. 2001. Media and migration: Constructions of mobility and difference, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Karim (2003 Karim, K., ed. 2003. The media of diaspora, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), and Bailey, Georgiou, and Harindranath (2007 Bailey, O., Georgiou, M. and Harindranath, R., eds. 2007. Transnational lives and the media: Re-imagining diaspora, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). For another example of research that focuses on the period immediately following migration, see O'Neill (2007 O'Neill, M. 2007. "Re-imagining diaspora through ethno-mimesis: Humiliation, human dignity and belonging". In Transnational lives and the media: Re-imagining diaspora, Edited by: Bailey, O., Georgiou, M. and Harindranath, R. 72–94. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [Google Scholar]) on asylum seekers and refugee groups. 4. It is interesting to compare this identification made by Petra and her flatmates—as recently arrived migrants—with the responses of some established "London Turks" when watching live "television from Turkey" (see Aksoy & Robins, 2003 Aksoy, A. and Robins, K. 2003. "Banal transnationalism: The difference that television makes". In The media of diaspora, Edited by: Karim, K. 89–104. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). These viewers in London found that they could not watch Turkish news "from the inside," because the "conditions no longer exist for feeling at home" (Aksoy & Robins, 2003 Aksoy, A. and Robins, K. 2003. "Banal transnationalism: The difference that television makes". In The media of diaspora, Edited by: Karim, K. 89–104. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar], p. 103) in that environment. 5. In addition, medium theorists have long regarded media as "environmental." For a classic—if eccentric—statement of this approach, see McLuhan and Fiore (1967 McLuhan, M. and Fiore, Q. 1967. The medium is the massage: An inventory of effects, Harmondsworth: Penguin. [Google Scholar]). 6. The key points of reference there are Merleau-Ponty (1962 Merleau-Ponty, M. 1962. Phenomenology of perception, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. [Google Scholar]), Bachelard (1969 Bachelard, G. 1969. The poetics of space, Boston, MA: Beacon Press. [Google Scholar]), and Heidegger (1971 Heidegger, M. 1971. "Building dwelling thinking". In Poetry, language, thought, 145–161. New York: Harper and Row. [Google Scholar]). 7. See Crossley (2001 Crossley, N. 2001. The social body: Habit, identity and desire, London: Sage. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], pp. 122–123), who applies Merleau-Ponty's account of embodied knowledge to the example of his own use of a computer keyboard. See also Nunes (2006 Nunes, M. 2006. Cyberspaces of everyday life, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. [Google Scholar], p. 41) on bodily acts of mouse-maneuvering and double-clicking, and Tomlinson (2007 Tomlinson, J. 2007. The culture of speed: The coming of immediacy, London: Sage. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], pp. 107–110) for further reflections on keyboard use, the hands, and sense of touch. 8. For a discussion of such understandings, in which the work of Massey, Urry, and others is considered, see Moores (2008 Moores, S. 2008. "Conceptualizing place in a world of flows". In Connectivity, networks, and flows: Conceptualizing contemporary communications, Edited by: Hepp, A., Krotz, F., Moores, S. and Winter, C. 183–200. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. [Google Scholar]). Central arguments here have to do with the increased permeability of localities in the contemporary era, and with the local-global articulations that figure in formations of place today. 9. It is worth emphasizing, too, that the human geographers who initially developed this perspective during the 1970s continue to publish. For example, see Mels (2004 Mels, T., ed. 2004. Reanimating places: A geography of rhythms, Aldershot: Ashgate. [Google Scholar]) for a collection of essays on place with contributions from Relph Relph, E. 1976. Place and placelessness, London: Pion. [Google Scholar], Tuan, and Seamon. 10. See Wylie (2007 Wylie, J. 2007. Landscape, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) for a helpful commentary on non-representational theory, Ingold's "dwelling perspective," and the connections with existential-phenomenological philosophy. A detailed comparison between the writings of, say, Thrift and Seamon is beyond the scope of this article. However, we want to note our surprise that Thrift ( 1996 Thrift, N. 1996. Spatial formations, London: Sage. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar],2007 Thrift, N. 2007. Non-representational theory: Space/politics/affect, London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) does not refer to Seamon's "geography of the lifeworld," given their shared concerns with the everyday, embodiment, and affect. 11. Our argument relates to a long-standing principle, operating not only in phenomenology but also in ethnomethodology, that everyday order can best be studied when this order gets disrupted in some way. For a classic example, see the breaching experiments conducted by Garfinkel (1984 Garfinkel, H. 1984. "Studies of the routine grounds of everyday activities". In Studies in ethnomethodology, 35–75. Cambridge: Polity. [Google Scholar]). 12. Taylor (2006 Taylor, C. 2006. "Engaged agency and background in Heidegger". In The Cambridge companion to Heidegger, Edited by: Guignon, C. 202–221. New York: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], pp. 202–203) includes Merleau-Ponty Merleau-Ponty, M. 1962. Phenomenology of perception, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. [Google Scholar]and Heidegger Heidegger, M. 1971. "Building dwelling thinking". In Poetry, language, thought, 145–161. New York: Harper and Row. [Google Scholar]—alongside Wittgenstein (1953 Wittgenstein, L. 1953. Philosophical investigations, Oxford: Blackwell. [Google Scholar])—in his "small list of twentieth-century philosophers who have helped us emerge … from the grip of modern rationalism," since they developed "an understanding of the agent as engaged, as embedded in … a 'world' of involvements, ultimately … as embodied." In Merleau-Ponty's work, for example: "Perception is not mental representation … but skillful bodily orientation and negotiation in given circumstances. To perceive is … to know and find your way around … to inhabit a world" (Carman, 2008 Carman, T. 2008. Merleau-Ponty, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 19).
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-11-30
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 14
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