4.1 Article

Refugees enacting (digital) citizenship through placemaking and care practices near and far

Journal

CITIZENSHIP STUDIES
Volume 26, Issue 6, Pages 781-798

Publisher

ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/13621025.2022.2103971

Keywords

Citizenship; care; digital migration studies; refugees; digital infrastructures; placemaking

Funding

  1. Austrian Science Fund [FWF V681]
  2. Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Vienna

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This article examines how refugees exercise (digital) citizenship by engaging in placemaking and care practices. Through ethnographic research in Vienna, the study argues that digital infrastructure plays a crucial role in shaping refugees' political subjectivities and their ability to enact citizenship from below. By utilizing transnational care and placemaking practices, which heavily rely on information and communication technologies, refugees navigate care and border regimes, establish a sense of belonging and citizenship, ultimately exercising citizenship from below. This article bridges discussions from the fields of care and migration studies, particularly within the context of digital migration studies, generating an interdisciplinary dialogue on the concept of citizenship.
This article explores how refugees enact (digital) citizenship through placemaking and care practices, when geographically close or at a distance. It is based on ethnographic research in Vienna, and it uses participant observation, narrative interviews, and digital diaries as key research methods. In this article, I argue that digital infrastructure is crucial for refugees' care and placemaking practices that in turn shape political subjectivities and hold the creative potential to enact citizenship from below. Through these transnational care and placemaking practices, which are closely connected to new information and communication technologies, refugees navigate care and border regimes and build belonging and citizenry, ultimately enacting citizenship from below. This article thereby brings together discussions from the field of care and migration studies, and in particular from digital migration studies, generating a dialogue around citizenship across these fields.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.1
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available