Digital Diasporas and transnational Identities: Media Practices of the Spanish Diaspora in Germany

Abstract

The dissertation focuses, from a practice-based approach, on the processual, relational and situated character of the concept of “digital diaspora”. I selected the contemporary Spanish diaspora in Germany as a case study, applying a combination of two research methodologies: a) in-depth qualitative interviews and b) qualitative content analysis. Practice theory approaches (Reckwitz, 2002; Schatzki, 1996) seek to build social theory centred on "practices", rather than structures, systems, individuals, or interactions (Postill, 2010). RQ1 addresses both personal relationships and the public/political media practices of Spanish migrants in Germany: How do diaspora communities develop their personal relations and public-political participation within the network? To answer this question, I proposed the concept of “migrant’s digital associationism” to describe new digital logics of migrant communicative practices. It incorporates the public and political articulation 'within' the diaspora. The RQ2 addresses the processes of cultural identity and community development: How do contemporary Spanish migrants in Germany symbolically construct a sense of we-ness, Spanish-ness and otherness through their media practices? Here I specifically discuss discursive practices connected with different processes of belonging with the aim of illustrating how these identities are embedded in concrete realities. In this phase I also relate the concepts of belonging and memory, developing the construction of memory as a situated space of negotiation through certain social and communicative practices. The RQ3 constitutes the synthesis of the first question and the second, combining the conclusions drawn in both the public-private interaction and the identity analysis phase: Which role play the ICT and media practices in the construction of transnational communities and identities? Through the analysis of media practices and their processes of belonging, I develop the concept of Digital Diaspora from a practice-based approach as a contested and negotiated space in terms of belonging, but, at the same time, with a material and embodied basis.