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Digital Media, Identity and Quality of Life of a Local Ecuadorian Community in Andalusia (SE Spain)

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Book cover Quality of Life in Communities of Latin Countries

Part of the book series: Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being ((CQLWB))

Abstract

This article is a case study of the digital practices of Ecuadorians residing in Vera, a small city of 15,000 inhabitants in the Province of Almería in Eastern Andalusia (Spain). Participant observation of the community and in-depth interviews of Internet shops’ owners and users were used to describe access to, use and appropriation of, digital media by recent immigrants. The ethnographic fieldwork was complemented with a survey to 60 young participants in a digital literacy course. Ecuadorian immigrants use digital media to maintain ties to the homeland and also as a tool for inclusion in the host society. The role of the Internet, locutorios and mobile phones are examined. Compared to mobile phones and online communities, locutorios are behaviour settings for recent immigrants, where digital media usage and appropriation take place in the context of local interaction among individuals in an active process of acculturation and adaptation to the receiving country. Participation in communities of recent immigrants contributes to subjective well-being of newcomers and has an indirect impact on the quality of life of local people.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Available at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ict_riga_2006/doc/declaration_riga.pdf, page 4, § 23 and § 24.

  2. 2.

    The research was coordinated by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS)—one of the seven research institutes of the DG JRC of the European Commission—and was carried out by a research consortium where Codagnone was the scientific director and principal investigator and Maya-Jariego was the head of the Spanish research team. More detail on the background of the research and on the participating research institutions can be found in Codagnone and Kluzer (2011) and in Codagnone et al. (2009).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università degli studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Cristiano Codagnone

  2. Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain

    Pilar Cruz

  3. Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain

    Isidro Maya-Jariego

Authors
  1. Cristiano Codagnone
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  2. Pilar Cruz
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  3. Isidro Maya-Jariego
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Isidro Maya-Jariego .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de Palermo, Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora Universidad de Palermo, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Graciela Tonon

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Codagnone, C., Cruz, P., Maya-Jariego, I. (2017). Digital Media, Identity and Quality of Life of a Local Ecuadorian Community in Andalusia (SE Spain). In: Tonon, G. (eds) Quality of Life in Communities of Latin Countries. Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53183-0_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53183-0_13

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