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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:17pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(20,20,20)">Thank you, Tamar and Wendy, for the
exciting contributions, and Lydia for kick-starting the conversation. And a big
"thank you" to David for initiating our digital encounter. </span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:17pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(20,20,20)">I am particularly struck by the
concept of spatiality. Tamar argues that spatiality is an inherent part of an
EC and a speech codes approach, based on Philipsen's (1997) conceptualization
of speech codes as historically situated and socially constructed. But she also
argues that spatiality has been favored at the cost of temporality. Wendy addresses
spatiality with the turn to process, another important move. In the following,
I try to incorporate both concepts into my remarks on place, mobility, code,
and new technologies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:17pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(20,20,20)"> </span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:17pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(20,20,20)">Due to my focus on migration studies,
one question I have been contemplating is related to Wendy’s point about
process and Lydia’s comment on mobility and speech codes. My question is how
speech codes and communicative practices become mobile. What happens when communicative
practices and codes move physically and digitally? How is all of that related
to a sense of the "local" and place and how is place reproduced
elsewhere through communicative practice and codes?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:17pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(20,20,20)"> </span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:17pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(20,20,20)">These questions relate directly to
Tamar's point of turning to new technologies and Wendy’s point on process.
Turning to encoding and process and the materiality of our highly mediatized
world means theorizing social conduct in relation to space and time. Mobile
interfaces change social relations and with it the idea of space and time (see
de Souza e Silva & Frith 2012). When I am standing in the subway in Hong
Kong, people are absorbed in their virtual spaces, are here and there, and
certainly somewhere. When I am in a mountain village in China, taking out my
mobile phone, clicking on the Skype symbol, this moment becomes an
interactional move, where the phone is not only tool but a sign of spatial
connectivity across time zones, a conversation starter, a point of spatial and
social convergence, and an interactional scene. </span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:17pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(20,20,20)"> </span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:17pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(20,20,20)">These observations are helpful in
asking conceptual questions. One of such questions is about how codes
developing in the intersections between sociality and new technologies change
our understanding of spatial relations, place, and “culture”. New technologies
can “dis”place situated communicative codes (e.g., on platforms like Instagram,
Youtube, Weibo, Facebook, etc.) and they can create new ones. “Codes” related
to the digital are not only growing out of historical interpersonal/intergroup
interactions but are also codes linked to neoliberal values being globalized.
How do we account for the “culture” of the market, which encodes for us to be
spatially connected in certain ways? And where is the “cultural” here? How do
“market” codes merge with codes from culturally situated groups, moral, and
political codes (e.g., "self-expression" which connects young people
worldwide on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, WeChat, and Weibo)? What is
the nature of place in these scenarios? And how do the codes develop and change
over time?</span><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(26,26,26)"> </span></p>
</div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Saskia Witteborn<br>Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication<br>Program Director MA in Global Communication<br>The Chinese University of Hong Kong<br>Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong<br>Phone: +852-3943-7668<br>Fax: +852-2603-5007<br><br><br></div></div></div></div></div>
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