ABSTRACT

Geographers have long considered mobile phones to be ubiquitous instruments and agents of globalisation, migration, commodification, and technologies for fieldwork. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research with families and communities in Greater Manchester, amidst nearly a decade of austerity cuts in the UK, this paper makes the case for revitalising, repoliticising and rematerialising the mobile phone in this socio-economic context. Drawing on concepts of vital materialism and vibrant matter, I illustrate the relationalities, resonances and recalcitrance of the mobile phone as a necessary utility, part of the fabric of everyday life in austerity, as well as a vital object and life in itself. Using a vignette approach, findings highlight experiences, mediations and material politics of companionship, indebtedness, gendered labour, financial independence, social isolation, vulnerability and durability, intimacy, sensuality and more. In the conclusions, I reflect on the everyday politics of the mobile phone during and in spite of austerity, including in a period of ongoing welfare digitalisation.

摘要

长期以来，地理学家一直认为手机是全球化、移民、商品化和田野调查技术的无处不在的工具和代理人。在英国近十年的紧缩政策削减期间，本文借鉴大曼彻斯特家庭和社区两年的民族志研究，提出了在这种社会经济背景下振兴、重新政治化和重新实现手机的理由。借助生命唯物主义和充满活力的物质的概念，我说明了手机作为一种必要的实用工具，是紧缩日常生活结构的一部分，以及重要的对象和生命本身的关系、共鸣和顽固。使用小插曲的方法，研究结果突出了友谊、债务、性别劳动的经历、调解和物质政治，财务独立、社会孤立、脆弱和持久、亲密、性感等等。在结论中，我反思了手机在和尽管采取了紧缩措施，包括在持续的福利数字化时期。