I study the social and cultural implications of new media technologies and issues of power, difference, and subjectivity, particularly in China. My work examines how uses and understandings of technology both reproduce inequitable power relations and open up spaces for individual and collective agency and thus, social change. I am the author of Technomobility in China: Young Migrant Women and Mobile Phones (NYU Press, 2013), which is an ethnographic exploration of the use of mobile phones by young rural-to-urban migrant women working in the low-level service sector in Beijing. I am currently working on a manuscript based on my recent research in China, where I examined the use of social media by different groups of people - white collar workers, college students, migrant workers, and rural entrepreneurs - and how such usage is articulated to issues of voice and empowerment, trust and risk, and lifestyle and aspirations.
As unprecedented waves of young, rural women journey to cities in China, not only to work, but also to “see the world”and gain some autonomy, they regularly face significant institutional obstacles as well as deep-seated anti-rural prejudices. Based on immersive fieldwork, Cara Wallis provides an intimate portrait of the social, cultural, and economic implications of mobile communication for a group of young women engaged in unskilled service work in Beijing, where they live and work for indefinite periods of time. While simultaneously situating her work within the fields of feminist studies, technology studies, and communication theory, Wallis explores the way in which the cell phone has been integrated into the transforming social structures and practices of contemporary China, and the ways in which mobile technology enables rural young women—a population that has been traditionally marginalized and deemed as “backward” and “other”—to participate in and create culture, allowing them to perform a modern, rural-urban identity. In this theoretically rich and empirically grounded analysis,Wallis provides original insight into the co-construction of technology and subjectivity as well as the multiple forces that shape contemporary China.
發表於2024-11-25
Technomobility in China 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
This is an extremely rich and insightful ethnographic work on contemporary Chinese society through the unique lens of female migran workers' uses of mobile communication technologies. The author furthered our understanding of the intertwined relationships...
評分This is an extremely rich and insightful ethnographic work on contemporary Chinese society through the unique lens of female migran workers' uses of mobile communication technologies. The author furthered our understanding of the intertwined relationships...
評分This is an extremely rich and insightful ethnographic work on contemporary Chinese society through the unique lens of female migran workers' uses of mobile communication technologies. The author furthered our understanding of the intertwined relationships...
評分This is an extremely rich and insightful ethnographic work on contemporary Chinese society through the unique lens of female migran workers' uses of mobile communication technologies. The author furthered our understanding of the intertwined relationships...
評分This is an extremely rich and insightful ethnographic work on contemporary Chinese society through the unique lens of female migran workers' uses of mobile communication technologies. The author furthered our understanding of the intertwined relationships...
圖書標籤: 社會學 女性 互聯網 人類學 中國研究 文化研究 打工妹 城鄉
Immobile mobility.
評分勞動女性被手機賦予移動性,關於新的社會結構關於智能手機帶來的潛在變化 非常具有啓發性
評分勞動女性被手機賦予移動性,關於新的社會結構關於智能手機帶來的潛在變化 非常具有啓發性
評分至少手機讓我們做到瞭平等地低下高貴的頭顱
評分非常棒的ethnography,避免瞭決定論的問題,講到瞭很多nuance,發掘瞭底層的聲音。不過,也許是因為作者對手機的定義相對比較instrumental的關係,她似乎對手機裏的內容並不感興趣,傾嚮於把手機定義成一個technological tool for nongmingong self use and gratification - 雖然作者的理論框架比使用與滿足更加地復雜),所以失去瞭一個非常大的picture,這也許與作者做研究的時代比較相關,畢竟那時候以手機作為終端的傳播技術沒有那麼地developed。但是站在現在來看,在”信息化“進程搭上瞭私有化的順風車之後,人們生活的各個方麵開始跟手機有關,從工作、學習、傢庭生活、娛樂等等,研究手機使用,有更多的議題可以engage。
Technomobility in China 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載