The digital force in forced migration: Imagined affordances and gendered practices

Mobile communication and refugees: An analytical review of academic literature

“…This article adopts a socio‐technical perspective to highlight the mutually constitutive processes emerging between technologies and society. This perspective takes into account the properties of technologies, the social processes that integrate technological developments and uses, as well as everyday practices and interactions that shape technology and society (Witteborn, 2018, p. 24). Particularly relevant for a socio‐technical understanding of the interaction between human and technology is the notion of “affordances,” defined by Gibson (1982) as the possibilities of agentic action in relation to a particular object (Gibson, 1982).…”

“…In their study on the role of smartphones in refugees' journeys, Gillespie, Osseiran, and Cheesman (2018) highlight the importance of focusing on refugees' digital practices across time and space in order to assess the dynamic and fluid nature of technological affordances, as well as the agency that refugees can exercise in diverse contexts of exile. Although media and migration scholars have shown an increased interest in applying the notion of affordances to understand the possibilities of action offered by mobile phones on refugees across different settings (Dahya & Dryden‐Peterson, 2017; Gillespie et al, 2018; Kaufmann, 2018; Twigt, 2018; Udwan, Leurs, & Alencar, 2020; Witteborn, 2018), the relatively low dissemination of articles on this specific concept does not allow for its use as a criterion to collect scientific contributions. In this review article, the concept of affordances is adopted as an analytic tool to examine the ways in which existing studies address the possibilities and vulnerabilities of mobile communications, the social conditions, and the agency of refugees in engaging with mobile technologies in the different temporal and spatial dimensions of their migration trajectories.…”

“…Given these limitations and the diversity of refugees' migration experiences, 1 the paper at hand focuses on providing an analytical overview of studies that highlight refugees' relationships to mobile phones. To critically examine existing literature, I build on a socio‐technical perspective, whereby technologies are regarded as “shaped by and shaping the practices humans use in interaction with, around and through them” (Hutchby, 2001, p. 144, as cited in Witteborn, 2018). Taking this as a point of departure for this review article, it is possible to make sense of the relationship between technology and its users as interdependent processes, combined in such a way as to enhance or emphasize the opportunities and constraints of each other and another.…”

Social support networks, instant messaging, and gender equity in refugee education

“…We build on amplification theory and consider feminist sociotechnical theory to addresses the mutually shaping relationships between society and technology as they affect gender equity. Witteborn (2018), for example, describes how an Afghani asylum seeker in Germany, Saamiya, volunteered at an Internet Café through a refugee-serving NGO to learn about computer hardware and software. Saamiya's experience was a source of both pride and pleasure.…”

Practicing critical media literacy education with/for young migrants: Lessons learned from a participatory action research project

“…Here affectively experienced media practices can be approached as therapeutic, in line with how scholars have demonstrated how filmmaking, digital storytelling and selfexpression may allow for a release of grief and pain (Miller Scarnato, 2019). Indeed, for refugees suffering from trauma or other challenging emotions, catharsis might be an important therapeutic outcome of engaging with media practices (Witteborn, 2018). As a form of informal socio-psychological support, this may offer new means to heal and improve mental health, discuss and share painful memories, present challenges and to develop future orientations.…”