Ambivalent gender power in interstitial space: The case of transnational South Korean mothers

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article describes the maintenance of transnationally split families and the creation of new relationships in the new social space occupied by Korean mothers. During two years of ethnographic field-work in four cities in New York State in the US, I examined how family members communicated with each other in order to maintain long-distance relationships through physical co-presence and virtual communication via information and communication technologies (ICTs). Transnational actors used these selectively based on socioeconomic and cultural practices. In the case of the South Korean mothers, mutual (financial) surveillance and communication filtering were selected differently, depending on socioeconomic factors. Gendered power relations surrounding ICTs and transnationalism cannot be seen as unidirectional, but represent a rather complex and ambivalent picture. This study investigates women’s strategies for managing family affairs, mutual surveillance by spouses, communication filtering and accumulation of social capital in the interstices of a transnational social space.