Being Available and Reachable : New Media and Cameroonian Transnational Sociality.

Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Acknowledgement; Summary; List of Acronyms; Location of Field Sites; List of figures; Introduction to Being Available and Reachable; Chapter I -- Ethnographic Background; Introduction; Colonial History: Coastal Plantations and Migration; Meaning of Migration and Staying Back; Plantation Workers, Practices of Remittances and Conflicts; Ties after Migration: Rural-urban Linkages and Solidarities; Brief History of Contemporary Migration Out of Cameroon; Telephone and Internet History in Cameroon; Chapter II. Theoretical and Conceptual Framework.

IntroductionAnthropological Approach to New Media and Relationships; Connectedness, Closeness and Instant Sociality; New Media and Transnationalism; New Media and Social Liveness; Conclusion; Chapter III. Methodology; Introduction; Fieldwork in Freiburg; Access, Credibility and Ethical Considerations; Fieldwork in Buea; Access, Credibility and Ethical Considerations; Research Participants, Methods and Types of Data; Reflections on the Tandem Model; Position as Researcher; Multi-sited Ethnography: Integrating Results from Different Sites; Conclusion.

Chapter IV. Sensory Experiences and Selected Practices of Cross-BorderSocialityIntroduction; Expectations and the Compulsions to Get in Touch; The 'Feel' of the Media and Choice: Internet, Mobile Phones and Calls; Selected Practices of Transnational Sociality; Beeping: Wordless Sociality; Call Requests and Promises: 'Call me Back' and 'I'll Call you Back'; Bush and Pays Calls: Answer and Talk; New Media Literacy and Sociality; Conclusion; Chapter V. New Media Technology and Sociality; Introduction; Sociality, Cost and Access to Technology; Spaces of Sociality; The Cyber Cafes.

The Call CentresPlaceless Spaces; Call Boxes; Call Cards in Freiburg; Conclusion; Chapter VI. Visual Imagery, Virtuality and Trans-border Imaginations; Introduction; Migrant-focused Visual Imagery; Bush Photos, Success, Denials and Concealments; Urban Visibility of Returned and Visiting Migrants; Summing up Visual Imagery; On Virtuality: Deceit and Suspicion?; Not Being There, 'Truth' and Rationality in Deceit; Deceit and the Person; The Nation-state, Imaginations of Distance and Sociality; Conclusion; Chapter VII. Social Closeness, Distance and Discontent; Introduction.

Social Distance, Friendship and Family TiesFriendship: Bushfallers , Relationships and Break-ups; Family Examples: A Family within the Family; Sharing Contacts: The Glee and Pain of Numbers; Experiences of Power Asymmetries; Opportunism in Mediated Ties; Chapter VIII. New Media and Material Expression of Transnational SocialTies; Introduction; Morality and Obligation: 'Settling' Non-migrants; The 'Right' to Request; Obligation to Support, Guilt and 'Duress'; Morally-correct Requests; Consciousness of Economic Position; On Pride, Dignity and Remittances; Unspoken but Covert Expectations.

The book investigates what have become of Cameroonian transnational family and friendship ties in the age of the mobile phone and the internet that make people readily available and reachable. Most theoretical literature states that these tools of sociality cement transnational social relationships through instantaneous interaction. To capture the different experiences and impressions on the significance of these media in easing communication for migrants and non-migrants, Tazanu draws on ethnographic accounts based on his fieldwork in Freiburg (Germany) and Buea (Cameroon). He argues that it.

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