Multi-contextual lives: Transnational identifications under mediatised conditions

Abstract

Influenced by the call for ‘non-media-centric media studies’, and based on interviews with transnational professionals and forced migrants, this article scrutinises transnational identifications under mediatised conditions. With the point of departure in space/mobility and everyday life practices – the common denominators in the perspectives of transnationalism and mediatisation – the analysis shows that mediated deterritorialisation is conditional due to migrants’ sociocultural resources and earlier life experiences. Hence, experiences of war and conflict may reduce the potential of mediated mobilities. The article demonstrates how media are an integrated part of migrants’ multiple identifications with the city they reside in and their country of origin. Besides establishing multiple identifications, the article shows how these identities are linked to particular contexts, practices and socialities in the migrants’ everyday lives. The conclusion is that mediatisation and transnationalism are complex matters yet a transdisciplinary, contextual and ‘non-media-centric’ approach seems to be a promising way to grasp these complexities.