Overview

Despite the popularity of Skype with video many of us are still figuring out how to ‘do’ it. Interviews reveal that we can now run the programme but we are less certain about how to ‘perform’ in front of the webcam. Seeing ourselves in the box on the side can feel strange. We are not quite sure which bits of our bodies to display on the screen, how much to move around the room, or move the device around the room. Is it acceptable to use Skype with video at a funeral, in crowded spaces or while in bed? This book addresses how people are emotionally and affectually connecting with others audio-synchronously on the screen in a variety of different spatial contexts. Topics include Skype with video being used by grandparents to connect with grandchildren, friends and family using it for special occasions, and partners using it for romance and sex. Theories addressing bodies, gender, queerness, phenomenology and orientation inform the research. It concludes that while Skype does not offer some kind of utopian future, it does open up possibilities for existing power relations to be filtered through new lines of sight/site which are shaping what bodies can do and where.

Full Product Details

Author:   Robyn Longhurst (University of Waikato, New Zealand)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.300kg
ISBN:  

9781138601109

ISBN 10:   1138601101
Pages:   162
Publication Date:   02 May 2018
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of illustrations Preface Acknowledgements 1 Why Skype, why now? Feeling my way Milestones for Skype Where to from here? 2 Queer phenomenology: from writing tables to digital screens Getting orientated Spinning outwards Bodies Screens Space 3 Interviewing: face-to-face and on Skype The participants Feeling the interviews Shifting senses Internet sources or ‘vulgar geographies’ 4 Selves, others, objects and space The self in the box The difference gender makes ‘Theatres of composition’ 5 Families, friends and loved ones Across the generations Special occasions ‘Sinking’ into the spaces of Skype 6 Skype for work: ‘A bit weird’ Job interviews Meetings and collegial communications ‘Disorientations’ 7 Skype sex: ‘Queer effects’? Katie’s story Real sex and contrived sex Generational difference? 8 Reorientating bodies and spaces Lines of sight/site Back to writing tables and digital screens Bibliography Index

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Author Information

Robyn Longhurst is Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic and Professor of Geography at University of Waikato. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography and Chair of the International Geographical Union Commission on Gender and Geography. Robyn has published on issues relating to digital media, pregnancy, mothering, sexuality, ‘visceral geographies’, masculinities, and body size and shape.

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