Lara Hoffmann, Þorlákur Axel Jónsson, Markus Meckl
Abstract Information and communication technologies enable migrants to maintain bonds with multiple communities. Little is known about the association between migrants’ connections to their country of origin and different integration practices in online and offline communities in the receiving society. We draw on a survey conducted amongst migrants in Iceland (N = 2,139) and conduct three regression analyses to identify determinants of migrants’ use of media and social media from their country of origin. Contrary to other studies, we do not find evidence of reactive transnationalism (i.e., migrants seeking out connections to their places of origin due to dissatisfaction with life in the receiving society) as a response to negative attitudes towards the receiving society. We identify distinct patterns of online and offline integration: Migrants with frequent contact with their countries of origin are less integrated locally in terms of offline activities. However, they are more integrated in digital communities of the receiving society, and use receiving-country media more frequently, thus following a strategy of digital biculturalism.
{"title":"Migration and community in an age of digital connectivity: A survey of media use and integration amongst migrants in Iceland","authors":"Lara Hoffmann, Þorlákur Axel Jónsson, Markus Meckl","doi":"10.2478/nor-2022-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2022-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Information and communication technologies enable migrants to maintain bonds with multiple communities. Little is known about the association between migrants’ connections to their country of origin and different integration practices in online and offline communities in the receiving society. We draw on a survey conducted amongst migrants in Iceland (N = 2,139) and conduct three regression analyses to identify determinants of migrants’ use of media and social media from their country of origin. Contrary to other studies, we do not find evidence of reactive transnationalism (i.e., migrants seeking out connections to their places of origin due to dissatisfaction with life in the receiving society) as a response to negative attitudes towards the receiving society. We identify distinct patterns of online and offline integration: Migrants with frequent contact with their countries of origin are less integrated locally in terms of offline activities. However, they are more integrated in digital communities of the receiving society, and use receiving-country media more frequently, thus following a strategy of digital biculturalism.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"43 1","pages":"19 - 37"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48328329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Young children's practices with tablet computers has been a topic in parenting discourses for several years, drawing on earlier debates over technologies and media in children's lives. In this article, I analyse data from a video observation–based media ethnography of seven Danish children (aged 4–6) and engage with the research tradition attributed to parental mediation. The analysis suggests two major paths in the struggles that stand out from the discourses and in situ practices of parents and children in the empirical data. These paths encompass struggles in relation to supporting and directing children's play activities and setting boundaries in their use of tablets and content. The nuances and implications of both paths are analysed and discussed in terms of strategies that emerge to support children's agency and rapport with parents, as well as what this means for future research.
{"title":"Contesting digital leisure time: Parental struggles in relation to young children's play with tablets at home","authors":"T. E. Lundtofte","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0043","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Young children's practices with tablet computers has been a topic in parenting discourses for several years, drawing on earlier debates over technologies and media in children's lives. In this article, I analyse data from a video observation–based media ethnography of seven Danish children (aged 4–6) and engage with the research tradition attributed to parental mediation. The analysis suggests two major paths in the struggles that stand out from the discourses and in situ practices of parents and children in the empirical data. These paths encompass struggles in relation to supporting and directing children's play activities and setting boundaries in their use of tablets and content. The nuances and implications of both paths are analysed and discussed in terms of strategies that emerge to support children's agency and rapport with parents, as well as what this means for future research.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"94 - 106"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42369139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In Denmark, medical consultations and the institutional practice of going to the doctor have been expanded upon over the past decade, with e-mail consultations (e-consultations) now supplementing conventional consultations. As a form of communication with different constraints than face-to-face and telephonic communication, e-consultations are likely to both afford some benefits and present struggles. In this article, I examine the use and perception of primary care e-consultations from the perspective of the patient. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 20 patients and guided by the following research question: How do patients struggle with and master digital participation during e-consultations? The study demonstrates that e-consultations are more than a digital access point to the healthcare system: patients often struggle to maintain contact with their general practitioner, and e-consultations can help them navigate the healthcare system. Indeed, those who master this form of communication are appreciative of it and perceive it as screen care.
{"title":"Struggling with and mastering e-mail consultations: A study of access, interaction, and participation in a digital health care system","authors":"Anette Grønning","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0038","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In Denmark, medical consultations and the institutional practice of going to the doctor have been expanded upon over the past decade, with e-mail consultations (e-consultations) now supplementing conventional consultations. As a form of communication with different constraints than face-to-face and telephonic communication, e-consultations are likely to both afford some benefits and present struggles. In this article, I examine the use and perception of primary care e-consultations from the perspective of the patient. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 20 patients and guided by the following research question: How do patients struggle with and master digital participation during e-consultations? The study demonstrates that e-consultations are more than a digital access point to the healthcare system: patients often struggle to maintain contact with their general practitioner, and e-consultations can help them navigate the healthcare system. Indeed, those who master this form of communication are appreciative of it and perceive it as screen care.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"7 - 21"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43892429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In this article, the Swedish findings from a European comparative study on 0–3-year-old children and their digital lives are presented and discussed in relation to domestication theory, including the concept of moral economy. More specifically, attention is paid to toddler's appropriation of digital technology and the parents’ moral struggles: the negotiations between the parents concerning the introduction of digital media practices in early childhood, the selection of content, and the monitoring of children. Parents of very young children have ambivalent feelings towards digital media technologies and struggle to make the right decision for their children. The study demonstrates that the domestication of digital technology in early childhood is far more multifaceted and troublesome for parents to handle than previous research has found.
{"title":"Toddlers’ digital media practices and everyday parental struggles: Interactions and meaning-making as digital media are domesticated","authors":"H. Sandberg, Ulrika Sjöberg, Ebba Sundin","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0041","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this article, the Swedish findings from a European comparative study on 0–3-year-old children and their digital lives are presented and discussed in relation to domestication theory, including the concept of moral economy. More specifically, attention is paid to toddler's appropriation of digital technology and the parents’ moral struggles: the negotiations between the parents concerning the introduction of digital media practices in early childhood, the selection of content, and the monitoring of children. Parents of very young children have ambivalent feelings towards digital media technologies and struggle to make the right decision for their children. The study demonstrates that the domestication of digital technology in early childhood is far more multifaceted and troublesome for parents to handle than previous research has found.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":" ","pages":"59 - 78"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49597741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Healthcare practitioners struggle to adapt to the changes that new digital media entail for social interactions, but what does the struggle look like, and how is it embedded in these professionals’ everyday experiences? I investigate these questions in this study of how digitalisation conditions social interactions in the context of the Danish medical setting by drawing on ethnographic work. Moreover, via a video-recorded case study, this article shows how two practitioners organise social actions by exploiting features of a digital communication system in a situation where they manage a practical problem. I propose the concept of hybrid presence related to the scientific fields of dialogism and distributed cognition as an explanation of how the participants are capable of immersing themselves with both the digital technology and the social interaction. Hybrid presence thus proves useful in the discussion of how practitioners may struggle with technology.
{"title":"Hybrid presence: Integrating interprofessional interactions with digital consultations","authors":"L. Simonsen","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0039","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Healthcare practitioners struggle to adapt to the changes that new digital media entail for social interactions, but what does the struggle look like, and how is it embedded in these professionals’ everyday experiences? I investigate these questions in this study of how digitalisation conditions social interactions in the context of the Danish medical setting by drawing on ethnographic work. Moreover, via a video-recorded case study, this article shows how two practitioners organise social actions by exploiting features of a digital communication system in a situation where they manage a practical problem. I propose the concept of hybrid presence related to the scientific fields of dialogism and distributed cognition as an explanation of how the participants are capable of immersing themselves with both the digital technology and the social interaction. Hybrid presence thus proves useful in the discussion of how practitioners may struggle with technology.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"22 - 44"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44128041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In their efforts to find others who share their experiential reality and existential struggle, many involuntarily childless women turn to Instagram to engage and participate in the practice of trying-to-conceive (TTC) communication. Through the conceptual lens of digital existence, where the digital and online are regarded as constitutive of existential transition, we draw on ten interviews and an online ethnography to explore some of the struggles that involuntarily childless women experience with and through technology. We find that TTC communication can be constitutive of coming to terms with the status of involuntary childlessness. In particular, this study illustrates that TTC communication, for involuntarily childless women, is both a site of struggle and a safe space as they transition to nonmotherhood in an existential terrain where they share an intimate journey.
{"title":"Existential vulnerability and transition: Struggling with involuntary childlessness on Instagram","authors":"Kristina Stenström, Teresa C. Pargman","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0048","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In their efforts to find others who share their experiential reality and existential struggle, many involuntarily childless women turn to Instagram to engage and participate in the practice of trying-to-conceive (TTC) communication. Through the conceptual lens of digital existence, where the digital and online are regarded as constitutive of existential transition, we draw on ten interviews and an online ethnography to explore some of the struggles that involuntarily childless women experience with and through technology. We find that TTC communication can be constitutive of coming to terms with the status of involuntary childlessness. In particular, this study illustrates that TTC communication, for involuntarily childless women, is both a site of struggle and a safe space as they transition to nonmotherhood in an existential terrain where they share an intimate journey.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":" ","pages":"168 - 184"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46214779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Enterprise social media (ESM) have largely gone ignored in discussions of the datafication practices of social media platforms. This article presents an initial step towards filling this research gap. My research question in this article regards how employees of companies using the ESM Workplace from Facebook feel that the implementation of this particular platform relates to their potential struggles for digital privacy and work–life segmentation. Methodologically, I explore this through a qualitative interview study of 21 Danish knowledge workers in different organisations using the ESM. The central analytical proposal of the article is that the interviewees express a “digital resignation” towards the implementation of the ESM. In contrast to previous discussions, this resignation cannot only be thought of as “corporately cultivated” by third parties, but must also be considered as “organisationally cultivated” by the organisations people work for. The study suggests that datafication-oriented media studies should consider organisational contexts.
{"title":"An organisational cultivation of digital resignation?: Enterprise social media, privacy, and autonomy","authors":"Christoffer Bagger","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0049","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Enterprise social media (ESM) have largely gone ignored in discussions of the datafication practices of social media platforms. This article presents an initial step towards filling this research gap. My research question in this article regards how employees of companies using the ESM Workplace from Facebook feel that the implementation of this particular platform relates to their potential struggles for digital privacy and work–life segmentation. Methodologically, I explore this through a qualitative interview study of 21 Danish knowledge workers in different organisations using the ESM. The central analytical proposal of the article is that the interviewees express a “digital resignation” towards the implementation of the ESM. In contrast to previous discussions, this resignation cannot only be thought of as “corporately cultivated” by third parties, but must also be considered as “organisationally cultivated” by the organisations people work for. The study suggests that datafication-oriented media studies should consider organisational contexts.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"185 - 198"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48976249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Proactive self-tracking is a proliferating digital media practice that involves gathering data about the body and the self outside a clinical healthcare setting. Various studies have noted that self-tracking technologies affect people's everyday modes of thought and action and stick to their lifeworlds because these technologies seek to promote “improved” modes of behaviour. We investigate how the specific devices and interfaces involved in self-tracking attract and prescribe rhythmicity into everyday lives and elaborate on how human bodies and technical systems of self-tracking interact rhythmically. We draw from new materialist ontology, combining it with Henri Lefebvre's method of rhythmanalysis and his notion of dressage. We employ a collaborative autoethnographical approach and engage with both of our personal fieldwork experiences in living with self-tracking devices. We argue that rhythmicity and dressage are fruitful analytical tools to use in understanding human–technology attachments as well as a variety of everyday struggles inherent in self-tracking practices.
{"title":"Move, eat, sleep, repeat: Living by rhythm with proactive self-tracking technologies","authors":"Minna Vigren,Harley Bergroth","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0046","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Proactive self-tracking is a proliferating digital media practice that involves gathering data about the body and the self outside a clinical healthcare setting. Various studies have noted that self-tracking technologies affect people's everyday modes of thought and action and stick to their lifeworlds because these technologies seek to promote “improved” modes of behaviour. We investigate how the specific devices and interfaces involved in self-tracking attract and prescribe rhythmicity into everyday lives and elaborate on how human bodies and technical systems of self-tracking interact rhythmically. We draw from new materialist ontology, combining it with Henri Lefebvre's method of rhythmanalysis and his notion of dressage. We employ a collaborative autoethnographical approach and engage with both of our personal fieldwork experiences in living with self-tracking devices. We argue that rhythmicity and dressage are fruitful analytical tools to use in understanding human–technology attachments as well as a variety of everyday struggles inherent in self-tracking practices.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"6 1","pages":"137-151"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138532496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Gaming is a frequent source of conflict for families. Research on parents and gaming has identified a lack of gaming-related expertise, a general devaluation or fear of play, and authoritative and restrictive parenting styles as key sources of conflict. What happens when these deficits are addressed? What does mediation look like when parents are expert gamers, enjoy play, and encourage play for their children? Based on qualitative interviews with 29 parents who identify as gamers, we explore how gamer parents domesticate games. To explore the work of stabilising gaming as a wholesome and valued pastime, we combine domestication theory with overflows to address the struggles involved. The analysis investigates how gamer parents mediate play, with an emphasis on how games are interpreted, the family's player practices, and the role of gaming-related expertise in accordance with the three dimensions (symbolic, practice, cognitive) of domestication theory.
{"title":"The struggle and enrichment of play: Domestications and overflows in the everyday life of gamer parents","authors":"Kristine Ask, Ingvild Kvale Sørenssen, Stine Thordarson Moltubakk","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0044","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Gaming is a frequent source of conflict for families. Research on parents and gaming has identified a lack of gaming-related expertise, a general devaluation or fear of play, and authoritative and restrictive parenting styles as key sources of conflict. What happens when these deficits are addressed? What does mediation look like when parents are expert gamers, enjoy play, and encourage play for their children? Based on qualitative interviews with 29 parents who identify as gamers, we explore how gamer parents domesticate games. To explore the work of stabilising gaming as a wholesome and valued pastime, we combine domestication theory with overflows to address the struggles involved. The analysis investigates how gamer parents mediate play, with an emphasis on how games are interpreted, the family's player practices, and the role of gaming-related expertise in accordance with the three dimensions (symbolic, practice, cognitive) of domestication theory.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"107 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44776894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The implicit ambiguity of surveillance as both care and control has been a key theoretical issue in social science research on surveillance practices and technologies. This article addresses this ambiguity empirically by examining how parents using – or not using – location-tracking apps to monitor their children negotiate this tension. Drawing on 17 semistructured interviews conducted with parents in different regions of Denmark, we examine the struggles of these parents to fit this technology into their world and to reconcile their uses with ideals of trust, privacy, and good parenting. By highlighting how users and non-users perceive and negotiate the controlling affordances of tracking apps, we emphasise the potential for negotiation, contestation, and resistance raised by this technology, and the contingent nature of its appropriation and effects. Thereby, it brings nuances to techno-pessimistic accounts of child tracking and calls for further empirical studies examining how these technologies are experienced in practice.
{"title":"The ambiguities of surveillance as care and control: Struggles in the domestication of location-tracking applications by Danish parents","authors":"S. Widmer, Anders Albrechtslund","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0042","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The implicit ambiguity of surveillance as both care and control has been a key theoretical issue in social science research on surveillance practices and technologies. This article addresses this ambiguity empirically by examining how parents using – or not using – location-tracking apps to monitor their children negotiate this tension. Drawing on 17 semistructured interviews conducted with parents in different regions of Denmark, we examine the struggles of these parents to fit this technology into their world and to reconcile their uses with ideals of trust, privacy, and good parenting. By highlighting how users and non-users perceive and negotiate the controlling affordances of tracking apps, we emphasise the potential for negotiation, contestation, and resistance raised by this technology, and the contingent nature of its appropriation and effects. Thereby, it brings nuances to techno-pessimistic accounts of child tracking and calls for further empirical studies examining how these technologies are experienced in practice.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"79 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43511701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}