Techno-emotional mediations of transnational intimacy: social media and care relations in long-distance Romanian families

Abstract

The transnational circulation of intimate care is increasingly mediated by digital communications. Research conceptualizing long-distance emotional intimacy in terms of ‘care chains’ has been influential in understanding international care economies. Yet, this framework has limitations for theorizing the role of media in communications of care. With a focus on the ‘left-behind’ family members of Romanian economic migrants, this paper investigates how the use of social media apps and mobile devices within the context of a major intra-EU labor migration phenomenon helps people stay in touch with their transnationally mobile loved ones. It draws on interview material elicited among the close family members of Romanian labor migrants living in Bucharest and surrounding areas. The analysis focuses on the sensory role of social media platforms and the materiality of smartphones in shaping relations of long-distance emotional care. Showing how video calling and photo sharing practices produce emotional experiences that are specific to contemporary combinations of platform-device technicity and social sensitization, the paper argues for conceptualizing transnational care as a mediated emotional experience. By theorizing the role of media in how care is not merely transferred but felt through mediation, the paper demonstrates how media practices produce a techno-emotional mediation of transnational care.

Careful attunements: the choreographing of care and affective witnessing through media practices during, and after, crisis

“…Others described how mindfulness apps and developing awareness of the use of their phones would help them manage and accept the feelings of distress that would come from looking at emergency information apps. These affective and haptic engagements with their smartphones were reminiscent of previous studies that found near-constant contact between the user and their mobile phone was useful in pacifying or soothing difficult emotions, or simply to help the user feel a sense of security (Alinejad, 2021; Lasen, 2004). Therefore, when participants described the obsessive checking of emergency apps, they were engaging in practices that contributed to their self-soothing.…”

“…We build on ‘care at a distance’ to incorporate the careful combination of media uses involved for our participants as they cared for themselves, their families, friends and other loved ones at a distance. We call these practices ‘choreographing co-present care’ and use ‘choreography’ to invoke how participants needed to combine particular movements of media and feelings to maintain relationships or to manage emotions (Alinejad, 2021; Foster, 2002). For instance, some participants described feeling more attuned to the emotional and communicative needs of their family through their posts on social media (see Figure 3) and being in more regular contact with them as they experienced and witnessed the unfolding crisis.…”

‘A wedding through a piece of glass’: Transnational Tunisian family communication as driver of ICT adoption

“…The desire to maintain cross-border communication with migrating loved ones has pushed transnational families to adopt ‘family practices’ through ICT platforms (Cabalquinto, 2018. Alinejad, 2021). The prevalence and rather cheap cost of digital communication platforms facilitated transnational families’ communication.…”

“…Şenyürekli and Detzner (2009) argue that both the migrants and their families in the homeland live in two localities, which compels them to use digital platforms to compress time and space and link the geographically distant localities. Alinejad (2021) used an ‘emotion-based framework to explore the transnational communication practices of migrant Romanian families in other European countries. The author argues that ICT become an integral part of the migrants’ emotional experience as daily mediated communication result in powerful emotional outcome for both parties.…”

“…I built on social and media studies arguing that technologies are manipulated by human agents of a particular society for specific social situations, resulting in the creation of modes of usage that are specific to their social context (Bakardjieva, 2005;Leaning, 2009). Indeed, research from family communication literature demonstrates that transnational families use ICT to invent new ways of 'doing family' across space and time (Alinejad, 2021;Morgan, 1996;Şenyürekli and Detzner, 2009). Mediated, immediate communication migrants' family members the family maintain traditional communication patterns, create new ones, and invent new cross-border family-related activities resulting in better well-being for all parties involved (Beck, 2008;Nedelcu and Wyss, 2016).…”