The digital Dasein of Chinese Rural Migrants

Bibliographic Data

ID4016744
AuthorsXinyuan Wang (0000-0001-9506-9323, University College London, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume10
Issue3
Pages807-830
Publication date2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociologia & Antropologia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2236-7527 • E-ISSN: 2238-3875
PublisherFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/2238-38752020v1032
OpenAlexW3136874876
SCIELO_PIDS2238-38752020000300807
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited33

This paper sets out to acknowledge the radical possibilities in the way in which human existence is perceived and constructed in the digital age. A 15-month ethnography, focused on the use of social media among Chinese factory workers, is employed to create a conversation with philosophical thoughts on human existence and anthropological thoughts on objectification. Social media is more than a form of communication, or a technology, that facilitates the connection between different locations. By exploring the three layers of existential experience of Chinese rural migrants in the context of ubiquitous social media use, this paper suggests that we might start to consider the degree to which digital media is itself a place in which people actually live and feel at home. The acknowledgement of such place-making via the digital allows us to re-think the relationship between the materiality and digital possibilities for human existence and further explore the fundamental process of objectification through the lens of digital anthropology

Acknowledgement · Aesthetics · Art · Conversation · Digital media · Epistemology · Ethnography · Existentialism · Materiality (auditing · Media studies · Objectification · Political science · Social media · Sociology · Anthropology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Communication · Computer Science · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Philosophy

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