- Title
- Connecting with home, keeping in touch: physical and virtual mobility across stretched families in sub-Saharan Africa
- Creator
- Porter, Gina
- Creator
- Hampshire, Kate
- Creator
- Abane, Albert
- Creator
- Munthali, Alister
- Creator
- Robson, Elsbeth
- Creator
- Tanle, Augustine
- Creator
- Owusu, Samuel
- Creator
- de Lannoy , Ariane
- Creator
- Bango , Andisiwe
- Date Issued
- 2018
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/11260/5240
- Identifier
- vital:44414
- Identifier
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/connecting-with-home-keeping-in-touch-physical-and-virtual-mobility-across-stretched-families-in-subsaharan-africa/937D8F364AEC4397912B1F0BD9A26285
- Description
- There is a long history of migration among low-income families in sub-SaharanAfrica, in which (usually young, often male) members leave home to seek theirfortune in what are perceived to be more favourable locations. While the physicaland virtual mobility practices of such stretched families are often complex andcontingent, maintaining contact with distantly located close kin is frequently ofcrucial importance for the maintenance of emotional (and possibly material)well-being, both for those who have left home and for those who remain. Thisarticle explores the ways in which these connections are being reshaped by increas-ing access to mobile phones in three sub-Saharan countries–Ghana, Malawi andSouth Africa–drawing on interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research fromtwenty-four sites, ranging from poor urban neighbourhoods to remote ruralhamlets. Stories collected from both ends of stretched families present a worldin which the connectivities now offered by the mobile phone bring a differentkind of closeness and knowing, as instant sociality introduces a potential substi-tute for letters, cassettes and face-to-face visits, while the rapid resource mobiliza-tion opportunities identified by those still at home impose increasing pressures onmigrant kin
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- Format
- 1 online resource (21 pages)
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Munthali, A., Robson, E., Tanle, A., . . . Bango, A. (2018). Connecting with home, keeping in touch: Physical and virtual mobility across stretched families in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa, 88(2), 404-424. doi:10.1017/S0001972017000973
- Relation
- volume 88 number 2 404-424 May 2018
- Rights
- © International African Institute 2018
- Rights
- This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permitsunrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is prop-erly cited.
- Rights
- Open Access
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