Eds Karatzogianni A., Nguyen D., and Serafinelli E. (2016): Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere. Conflict, Migration, Crisis and Culture in the Digital Networks. Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Bringing together contributions from the fields of sociology, media and cultural studies, arts, politics, science and technology studies, political communication theory and popular culture studies, this volume engages with the following questions: How is the public sphere transformed by everyday digital networked media? What kind of ethics is involved in the construction of the digital public sphere? How can we think about migrants’ communitisation in a hyper-mediatised world? What kind of identities and communities are formed in diaspora networks, and what are the conflicts therein? With theoretical debates and detailed empirical studies, this volume showcases how the public sphere is transformed by digital media, and in turn how this digital public sphere shapes and is shaped by debates surrounding crisis, conflict, migration and culture. Case studies from Bulgaria, Nigeria, China, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, UK, Mexico and India are discussed in detail.

In Chapter 17 titled ‘Italian Migrants and Photo Sharing in the UK’ (p. 341-363), I examined the photosharing practices of Italian migrants in the UK by theorizing about the evolution of the use of visualities within migration contexts. Analysing my findings I showed how, on social media platforms, migrants emphasise the diasporic condition, sharing images that exhibit an alteration between different visions (UK) and nostalgic scenarios (Italian food and events). In this sense, ‘the visual communication becomes a visual correspondence characterized by an intense exchange of similar scenes, which aims to enhance an ephemeral closeness’. With the aim of advancing a new pathway for migration studies, in the conclusion of this chapter I discussed how visual communication is a crucial element in maintaining long-distance relationships.

The Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funded research project ‘Transnational digital networks. Migration, and Gender’ (MIG@NET), was implemented over a three year period (2010-2013) in eight countries of the European Union (Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia and the UK) and was coordinated by the Centre of Gender Studies, Department of Social Policy, Panteion University in Athens, Greece.

The research was structured along thematic, rather than country-focused axes. Thematic WPs were coordinated by the partners that had expertise in the specific areas, who were also responsible for the overall thematic research design. Specific case studies were implemented by teams of researchers from three different partner institutions

MIG@NET tried to explore how migrant individuals and communities participate in the production and transformation of transnational digital networks and the effect of transnational digital networks on migrant mobility and integration. Transnational digital networks were studied as instances of socio-economic, gender, racial, and class hierarchies, where the participation of migrant communities entails the possibility of challenging these hierarchies. The participation of migrant communities was investigated in detail through particular case studies in seven thematic areas: Border Crossings, Communication and Information Flows, Education and Knowledge, Religious Practices, Sexualities, Social Movements, Intercultural Conflict and Dialogue. The project addressed these issues through a tripartite conceptual and methodological approach:

(a) a critical approach to the separation between the digital and the real

ODigital networks were treated as sets of social practices (not just pieces of technology) that map onto real, rather than virtual geographies. From this perspective, research and analysis placed on the same plane the experiences, histories and everyday practices of migrants moving between geographical areas and between digital spaces. The engagement of migrants with digital mediums were seen as a means of producing, re-producing, or challenging cultural forms and identities. The ‘connected migrants’ digital activities are expansive: through the global interconnections offered by the web, migrants re-draw the relationships they have with their environments at home, at their host country or in-between, and may participate in multiple worldwide networks that are integrated into their everyday local reality. In this sense, MIG@NET did not just address the ‘use’ or the ‘effects’ of digital technologies: instead, it looked at how migrants attempt to construct cultures and identities in a transforming communicative environment, how they can locate themselves in this environment and at the same time try to mould it in their own preferred image.

(b) a transnational approach to migration

MIG@NET undertook the task of researching and analysing the ways in which migrants participate in the production and proliferation of transnational digital networks. Against a dominant trend that perceives the phenomenon of migration according to host and sending societies and devises methodological tools and policy responses based on ethnocentric approaches, the project was based on a transnational perspective that focused mostly on the links and networks that cross, and transcend, national and gender borders connecting migrant individuals and groups across the globe. From this perspective, migrant movements were not conceptualised simply as linear processes leading migrant individuals and groups from one place to another, but as multi-directional processes, determined by transnational patterns of travelling and communication, as well as exchanges of information, ideas, histories, memories, and goods across national territorial and cultural borders. Moreover, transnationalism for MIG@NET was not just a theoretical approach, but also and more a methodological choice.

(c) an intersectional approach to gender

Mainstreaming a gender approach across these perspectives was one of the central premises of MIG@NET, since both transnational migration and digital networks are constructed on the basis of gendered relations. Gendered approaches to migration and new media studies have highlighted how intersecting power relations, based on racialised, ethnicised, gendered and sexualised discrimination, affect the different social positions occupied by (migrant) men and women, as well as the different practices they engage in. Therefore, researching the intersecting dynamics of migration and digital future, which is at the heart of the MIG@NET project, cannot but address these transnational processes through an approach to gender that engages with the multiple intersections between gender, nation, race, class and sexual orientation.

MIG@NET has conducted innovative research combining different disciplines, methodological tools and research areas. The main innovative element of MIG@NET was the ongoing collaboration between social scientists and IT experts and artists. The central theme of MIG@NET and its main premise, which is the correlation between material and digital spaces beyond artificial dichotomies as it is manifested through migrant actions and networks, had called from the beginning for such an interdisciplinary and inclusive approach. Moreover, following the spatial potentialities of digital networks that are not hindered by national or other geographical borders, MIG@NET has adopted a transnational approach both at the theoretical and methodological and practical levels.

Therefore, the research was structured along thematic, rather than country-focused axes. Thematic Work Packages were coordinated by the partners that had expertise in the specific areas, who were also responsible for the overall thematic research design. Specific case studies were implemented by teams of researchers from three different partner institutions.

• Border Crossings: Germany, Greece, Italy
• Communication and Information Flows: France, Greece, Slovenia
• Education and Knowledge: Italy, Greece, Netherlands
• Religious Practices: Netherlands, Greece, UK
• Sexualities: Slovenia, Greece, France
• Social Movements: Cyprus, Greece, Germany
• Intercultural Conflict and Dialogue: UK, Greece, Cyprus

One of the innovations of MIG@NET was that several thematic teams decided during the initial stages of the research design to work in common on the production of the thematic synthesis report rather than to produce distinct national case study reports, which would be later synthesized by the thematic coordinators. This decision was taken in order to address the transnational character of the research themes in question (namely border crossings, sexualities and social movements) and provided researchers with more flexibility to work on a common theoretical and methodological framework.

The innovative methods employed in the course of the project included:

1. Creating Facebook profiles for research purposes to follow and analyse digital interactions between users in the context of the religious practices and intercultural conflict and dialogue work packages. This method proved to be particularly useful with regard to the analysis of racist digital networks, which were difficult to approach for interviews and focus groups, but also gave a broader understanding of every-day interactions and gender relations amongst Muslim migrant women in the most popular digital mediums of social networking.
2. Recording and analysing of video sequences (on Skype) in the homes of services users in the context of the research on information and communication flows. Through this method researchers were able to identify every-day patterns of digital interconnectedness between migrants and relatives or friends in the place of origin. Through this method researchers were able to transcribe the ‘multi-modality’ of the video communications: rather than focusing solely on oral or written speech, they were also able to analyse gestures, eye contact, facial expression, objects, ritual sequences.
3. Developing web cartographies were used in both the information and communication flows and in the sexualities thematic work packages. Through web-crawling, researchers were able to analyse the interconnections between hyperlinks and map digital spaces in an innovative way. The resulting web-cartographies provided useful information about social and discursive links and relations emerging online and the ways in which digital networks are structured.
4. Combining IT teaching with research. Instead of conducting research based solely on interviews, focus groups and participant observation, some of the research in the WP on education and knowledge was conducted through IT courses organized on a weekly basis by MIG@NET researchers after an agreement with the relevant school authorities and parents associations. This method enabled researchers to explore aspects of migrant and native children’s digital interactions and increased the researchers’ awareness of the possibilities of using new media to enhance intercultural exchanges and cooperation in education through the usage of new media.

Horizon 2020 funded project.
Grant number: 653390

I worked as Research Associate (2016-2017) under the supervision of the Work Package leader Dr Paul Reilly (Information School, University of Sheffield). Our Work Package examined how communities used social media to improve their resilience to both human-made and natural disasters – such as the recent Nepal earthquake or the sinking of ships that left thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants stranded at sea. It also explored how social media can be used to crowdsource information during a crisis situation – and how this information can help reduce response and recovery times and raise awareness about the risk of future disasters.

We identified examples of good practice for information dissemination to the public during crises. These were used to develop a communication strategy for emergency services and incident managers that will raise public awareness about the risks associated with these events.

2020

Petersen L, Fallou L, Reilly PJ & Serafinelli E (2018)
Public expectations of critical infrastructure operators in times of crisis.
Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, 5(1-2), 62-77.

2018

L Petersen, L Fallou, G Havârneanu, P Reilly, E Serafinelli, R Bossu (2018)
November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks and social media use: preliminary findings from authorities, critical infrastructure operators and journalists
ISCRAM 2018 Conference Proceedings, 629-638.

P Reilly, E Serafinelli, R Stevenson, L Petersen, L Fallou (2018)
Enhancing critical infrastructure resilience through information-sharing: Recommendations for European critical infrastructure operators
International Conference on Information, Springer, Cham, p. 120-125.

2017

Petersen L, Fallou L, Reilly P & Serafinelli E (2017)
European expectations of disaster information provided by critical infrastructure operators
International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, 9(4), 23-48.

Petersen L, Fallou L, Reilly P & Serafinelli E (2017)
European Expectations of Disaster Information provided by Critical Infrastructure Operators: Lessons from Portugal, France, Norway and Sweden. 
Int. J. Inf. Syst. Crisis Response Manag., 9, 23-48.

Petersen L, Fallou L, Reilly P & Serafinelli E (2017)
Should CI operators use social media to communicate with the public during crisis situations?: Lessons learned from a pilot study in Oslo Harbour
4th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Disaster Management (ICT-DM), p. 1-6.

L Petersen, L Fallou, P Reilly, E Serafinelli (2017)
Public expectations of disaster information provided by critical infrastructure operators: Lessons learned from Barreiro, Portugal
International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management in Mediterranean Countries, Springer, Cham, p.193-203.

L Petersen, L Fallou, P Reilly, E Serafinelli (2017)
European expectations of disaster information provided by critical infrastructure operators: Lessons from Portugal, France, Norway and Sweden
International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (IJISCRAM), IGI Global, 9(4), 23-48.

L Petersen, L Fallou, P Reilly, E Serafinelli (2017)
Critical infrastructure operators, risk communication and community resilience
Proceedings of the12th Int. Conf. on Structural Safety and Reliability, Vienna, Austria, 6, p. 2407-2415.