Description
Book SynopsisTaking a life course and generational perspective, this collection examines topics such as work-life balance, transnational families, digital storytelling and mobile parenting. It offers tools that allow for an informed and critical understanding of ICTs and family dynamics.
Trade Review“Connecting Families.... offers a vital and timely contribution to the multivalent links of ICTs with families. That its backbone is life course gives an additional bonus of insight and perspective.” Susan A. McDaniel, Canada Research Chair in Global Population & Life Course, President of the ISA Family Research Committee, University of Lethbridge, Canada
“Well-written, thorough and up to date, this is an essential book for both graduate and post-graduate students and all professionals who wish to improve their knowledge on ICT and family relationships today.” Fausto Amaro, University of Lisbon
Table of ContentsForeword: The family has become a network ~ Barry Wellman Connecting families? An introduction ~ Barbara Barbosa Neves and Cláudia Casimiro Part I: Theoretical and methodological approaches Theoretical perspectives on technology and society: implications for understanding the relationship between ICTs and family life ~ Natasha Mauthner and Karolina Kazimierczak Recursive approaches to technology adoption, families, and the life course: actor-network theory and strong-structuration theory ~ Geoffrey Mead and Barbara Barbosa Neves Weaving family connections on- and offline: the turn to networked individualism ~ Anabel Quan-Haase, Hua Wang, Barry Wellman, and Renwen Zhang Oversharing in the time of selfies: an aesthetics of disappearance? ~ Amanda du Preez The application of digital methods in a life course approach to family studies ~ Alexia Maddox Cross-disciplinary research methods to study technology use, family, and life course dynamics: lessons from an action research project on social isolation and loneliness in later life ~ Barbara Barbosa Neves, Ron Baecker, Diana Carvalho, and Alexandra Sanders From object to instrument: technologies as tools for family relations and family research ~ Cláudia Casimiro and Magda Nico Part II: Empirical approaches Use of communication technology to maintain intergenerational contact: toward an understanding of `digital solidarity’ ~ Siyun Peng, Merril Silverstein, J. Jill Suitor, Megan Gilligan, Woosang Hwang, Sangbo Nam, and Brianna Routh Careful families and care as `kinwork’: an intergenerational study of families and digital media use in Melbourne, Australia ~ Jolynna Sinanan and Larissa Hjorth Floating narratives: transnational families and digital storytelling ~ Catalina Arango Patiño Rescue chains and care talk among immigrants and their left-behind parents ~ Sondra Cuban `Wherever you go, wherever you are, I am with you … connected with my mobile’: the use of mobile text messages for the maintenance of family and romantic relations ~ Bernadette Kneidinger-Müller Permeability of work-family borders: effects of information and communication technologies on work-family conflict at the childcare stage in Japan ~ Yuka Sakamoto Afterword: Digital connections and family practices ~ Elizabeth B. Silva
