Journal article
Digital placemaking and networked corporeality: Embodied mobile media practices in domestic space during Covid-19
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Vol.27(3), pp.625-636
2021
Abstract
In contemporary life, the mobile phone is integral to digital and material placemaking practices. In this article, drawing on ethnographic analysis conducted in Perth and Melbourne (Australia) in the first months of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, we explore how this relation has been recalibrated as an effect of ‘stay-at-home’ restrictions. We first provide a brief overview of our methodological and interpretative approach – drawing from postphenomenology as a useful framework for understanding the mobile–body–place relation and digital placemaking at home. Second, we consider how mobile media are ‘situated’ in the domestic environment. Third, through an analysis of participant narratives, we explore the concept of net locality (Gordon and de Souza e Silva (2011) through the lens of embodiment theory and suggest that the Covid-19 context has altered our experience of ‘networked corporeality’. Finally, we discuss the ambiguity of digital intimacy in the decoupling of mobile media and the body as a result of a rapid increase in both screen time and time spent at home. Throughout the article, we argue that mobile media use in the home is thoroughly enmeshed in the shifting boundaries of privacy, placemaking and domestic space. We question how the placemaking functionality of mobile media, the intimate body–technology relation specific to mobile media practices and ‘being-at-home’ were subsequently modified by physical distancing and isolation.
Details
- Title
- Digital placemaking and networked corporeality: Embodied mobile media practices in domestic space during Covid-19
- Authors/Creators
- J. Hardley (Author/Creator) - Murdoch UniversityI. Richardson (Author/Creator) - Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University
- Publication Details
- Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Vol.27(3), pp.625-636
- Publisher
- International Council for Adult Education
- Identifiers
- 991005542897207891
- Copyright
- © 2021 by SAGE Publications
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Information Technology
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- Citation topics
- 6 Social Sciences
- 6.185 Communication
- 6.185.1004 Digital Media Impact
- Web Of Science research areas
- Communication
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general