Knowing How to Get Around: Place, Migration, and Communication

In this article, we follow a lead in Roger Silverstone's work by engaging critically with the writings of human geographers who have drawn on phenomenology in their attempts to understand environmental perception and senses of place. A distinctive feature of the approach that these geographers developed was its focus on the ordinary doings and feelings involved in place-making. We highlight a series of concepts that are found in their writings and we apply those key concepts in a discussion of some qualitative empirical research on trans-European migration. Our project has been concerned with the practices and experiences of contemporary migrants, including their routine uses of communication technologies in everyday living. With reference to data from lengthy conversational interviews, we pay particular attention to matters of dwelling or habitation, and to these migrants' knowing how to get around—as well as their being out of place—in physical and media environments.