New publication: Framing embodied mobility through video calls: Migrant youth’s digital media practices during ‘home’ visits to Ghana

First, mobility to the country of origin is a deeply embodied experience. Second, migrant youth use digital media to sustain transnational relationships and navigate their visits ‘home’. This article draws on audiovisual recordings of one young woman’s trip to Ghana within a broader ethnographic project on transnational youth mobility to conceptualise video calls during country-of-origin visits as a way of digitally ‘framing’ embodied mobility within transnational relationships with people elsewhere. Such framing selectively represents embodied mobility experiences, fulfi ls various functions within transnational relationships, and performs social position to offl ine audiences. Empirically, the paper shows that migrant youth’s transnational networks are multi-generational and globally dispersed. Methodologically, it emphasises how audiovisual methods can direct our attention to phenomena that are easily overlooked in other forms of ethnographic observation and generate new possibilities for conceptualising them. 

Article details: Ogden, L.J. Framing embodied mobility through video calls: Migrant youth’s digital media practices during ‘home’ visits to Ghana. GIS – Gesto, Imagem e Som – Revista de Antropologia. DOI: 10.11606/issn.2525-3123.gis.2024.216567. https://revistas.usp.br/gis/article/view/216567/216674.