/ Colloques - journées d’étude

Colloque international « When virtual and physical spaces meet : the mobility, activism, care and entrepreneurship of migrants, developed online and offline »

12 juillet 2021, à Sciences Po Lyon, 14 avenue Berthelot (amphi Aubrac) et en ligne (lien de connexion sur inscription)

Présentation / Presentation

This conference aims at delving into the impact of smartphones on migrants’ mobility, activism, care and entrepreneurship with a specific focus on the challenges brought by their switch between online and offline. Going beyond scholarship of transnationalism and digital communications, which centers on connectivity which takes place online, presenters from France, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Germany, Israel, Italy will focus on the contrast between migrants’ online and offline activities by elucidating how how mobility, activism, care and entrepreneurship are achieved or challenged by the penetration of smartphones and how socio-political surroundings underlined by ethnicity, gender and class cannot be separated from our exploration of digital communication.

Organized by :

  • Dr Beatrice Zani, University of Tûbingen, ERCCT/Triangle
  • Dr Isabelle Cheng, University of Portsmouth

This project was made possible thanks to the generous support from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (CCKF) and it is the result of a collaboration between Sciences Po Lyon/ TRIANGLE UMR 5206, the International Advanced Laboratory (IAL) ENS Lyon - CASS « Post-Western Sociology in Europe and in China » and the University of Portsmouth and the European Association of Taiwan Studies (EATS).

Programme / Program

JULY 12

8.30-9.00 : Registration and coffee

9:00-9:30 : Welcome remarks

9:30-10:15 : Keynote speech (1)

10:15-10.30 : Coffee Break

11:15-12:30 : Theme I : Care for the Elderly, Family, and Intimacy Online and Offline

Chair :
Jérémy Jammes, Sciences Po Lyon, IAO

Discussants :
Delphine Mercier, CNRS-LEST
Yves Mirman, The Catholic University of Lyon
Anna Shpakovskaya, Goethe University

  • Kristel Acedera and Brenda Yeoh, Asian Research Institute, National University of Singapore : Mobile phones and the mediated spaces of care among transnational Filipino families
  • Deby Babis, Ariel University and Truman Institute at the Hebrew University :
    Mourning an employer’s death : how Filipino migrant workers live-in caregivers in Israel cope with their grief online and offline
  • Zhang Min, The School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University Building A WeChat Group : Smartphone use and elders’ community among China’s migrant grandparents

12:30-14.00 : Lunch

14:00-14:45 : Keynote speech (2)

  • Maurizio Ambrosini, Department of Social and Political sciences, the University of Milan : The moral economy of migrations. Links, obligations, and tensions across the borders

14:45-16:30 : Theme II : Chinese Migrants, Digital Entrepreneurship, and Aspirations

Chair :
Laurence Roulleau-Berger, CNRS-ENS Lyon TRIANGLE/IAL

Discussants :
Maurizio Ambrosini, University of Milan
Flora Bajard, CNRS-LEST
Isabelle Cheng, University of Portsmouth

  • Beatrice Zani, Tuebingen University-ERCCT ; Isabelle Cheng, School of Area Studies, University of Portsmouth : How far can chicken feet travel ? The transgression of contested sovereign borders and Chinese women’s e-commerce between Taiwan and China
  • Li Yong, ENS Lyon-TRIANGLE : The e-commerce of infant milks among Chinese migrant women in France : food safety risks, social ties and selective empathy
  • Pablo Ampuero Ruiz, Max Planck- Institute of Ethnology : Empowerment, self-reification, and economic aspirations through digital media among migrant workers in Southern China

16:30-16:45 : Coffee Break

16:45-18:00 : Book and publication Launch : Presentation of recent publications, research proposals and upcoming conference calls

19-21:30 : Conference Dinner

JULY 13

9:00-9:30 : Networking (Coffee/tea served)

9:30-12:15 : Theme IV : Migration, Emotions, and Digital Worlds

Chair :
Yves Mirman, The Catholic University of Lyon

Discussants :
Jérémy Jammes, Sciences Po Lyon, IAO
Stéphane Constantini, EHESS-Centre George Simmel
Beatrice Zani, University of Tuebingen

  • Huy Tran, University of Duisburg-Essen : Male Vietnamese migrants in Japan and the negotiation of sexualities within virtual social fields
  • Tang Ling, the Hong Kong Baptist University : The ubiquitous ‘honey’ : Buyer-seller guanxi in the digital business in China
  • Xinyu Promio Wang, Ibaraki Christian University : Double liminality : Chinese transgender women in Japan and their daily online-offline realities

Lunch : 12:30-14:00

14:00-16.30 : Theme V : Social Media as a Political Space

Chair :
Li Yong, ENS Lyon-TRIANGLE

Discussants :
Eliza Benites-Gambirazio, CNRS- LATTS
Claudia Astarita, Sciences Po Lyon-IAO
Dafydd Fell, SOAS

  • Isabelle Cheng, University of Portsmouth : ‘They will shoot you to a pulp ! Othering and racialization in emotive cyberspace of ‘democratic’ Taiwan
  • Jens Damm, University of Tuebingen, ERCCT : The Impact of Smartphone Use/ Social Media on Overseas Taiwanese and Chinese ‘Friendship Associations’
  • Julia Marinaccio, University of Bergen : Electoral behaviours of Overseas Taiwanese in Austria : Combining digital ethnography and traditional field research

16:30-16:45 : Coffee break

16:45-17:30 : Roundtable : Concluding remarks and looking ahead for publication

Inscription / Registration

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