“Come On, Put Viber, We Can Drink Coffee Together”: Performing (Im)mobile Intimacy in Turbulent Times Among Aging Migrants

Abstract This paper critically examines how elderly people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse(CALD) backgrounds in Victoria, Australia use visual-based platforms in navigating the lockdown in Melbourne, Australia. Based on conducting remote interviews among 15 participants in 2020, the findi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCommunication, culture & critique Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 244 - 260
Main Author Cabalquinto, Earvin Charles B
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford University Press 01.06.2022
Subjects
Mobility
Aging
Immobility
Intimacy
Migration
Digital Media
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Summary:Abstract This paper critically examines how elderly people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse(CALD) backgrounds in Victoria, Australia use visual-based platforms in navigating the lockdown in Melbourne, Australia. Based on conducting remote interviews among 15 participants in 2020, the findings show digital practices as integral to forge and maintain cultural identities and social connectedness. Using the mobilities perspective to interrogate digital behaviours, I coin the term ‘(im)mobile intimacy’ to articulate a sense of closeness enabled, felt and negotiated through modes of movements and stasis in and with online platforms. I contend that differential mediated mobilities and immobilities are informed by social, contextual, and technological factors, revealing the textures of affective and relational dimensions of enacting mobile intimacy. In sum, by locating both movements and stasis in digital environments, this paper sheds light on the (re)production of exclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ISSN:1753-9129
1753-9137
DOI:10.1093/ccc/tcac011