No sleep, no dreams: imaginings and expectations in online student mobility to Japan during the Covid-19 crisis

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic radically accelerated the digitalization dynamics that were already in motion in many areas of society, from teleworking to e-commerce, online leisure and e-learning. This resulted in a contradictory redefinition of place as a heterotopic site in which different times and spaces were simultaneously juxtaposed. In the case of higher education, universities had to suddenly digitalize their classes in a broader attempt to ensure the continuity of their curricula. Study abroad programs thereby found themselves in the paradoxical situation of being forced to change to an online format, despite having been fully designed for physical mobility. Through a qualitative approach, the article focuses on a group of undergraduate students of Japanese Studies in Spain, who eventually dropped out of their online mobility placement, which they had started in the belief they would be able to finish it in person in Japan. Drawing on ethnographic interview data, it reveals how they managed to regain their autonomy of action over the narrative of their experience – in a self-liberating process in which empowerment and agency were fundamental – and thus rise above an immobility regime whose chronotopic nature had placed them out of line with their previous imaginings and expectations.