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Affective geographies and tribal epistemologies: studying abroad during COVID-19

  • Rodney H. Jones EMAIL logo , Sylvia Jaworska and Zhu Hua
Published/Copyright: January 2, 2024
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Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between epistemologies, tribalism and affect in the experiences of Chinese international students studying in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on data from student diaries, interviews, and focus groups, it explores how boundaries between in-groups and out-groups were erected and dismantled through processes of socio-temporal scaling, whereby social actors configured affective geographies by linking local spatial relationships to higher level (national and international) scales. The analysis reveals how negative emotions like fear of infection led to practices of spatial distancing and the drawing of cultural boundaries between groups, while feelings of worry about family members in China shaped communication patterns and information flows across geographic spaces. At times, however, positive emotions like affection and sympathy helped participants transcend boundaries, leading them to readjust their emotional mappings of the world and reevaluate their beliefs about COVID. The study highlights the central role affect and emotional labor play both in the formulation of epistemologies around health and in the drawing of boundaries between groups.


Corresponding author: Rodney H. Jones, University of Reading, Reading, UK, E-mail:

Funding source: British Academy

Award Identifier / Grant number: COV19/201470

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all of Chinese students who participated in this project, especially our five participant-researchers.

  1. Research funding: The article is supported by funding from the British Academy (Grant number COV19/201470).

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Received: 2023-11-08
Accepted: 2023-11-20
Published Online: 2024-01-02
Published in Print: 2025-01-29

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Special Issue: Tribal Epistemologies and the discursive construction of COVID-19 knowledge; Guest Editor: Rodney H. Jones
  3. Disciplinary tribes and the discourse of mainstream media expert opinion articles: evidencing COVID-19 knowledge claims for a public audience
  4. Ways of seeing and discourse strategies of naming the novel coronavirus in the US and Hong Kong
  5. Who is our friend and who is our enemy? The enregisterment of tribalising digital discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic
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  7. Affective geographies and tribal epistemologies: studying abroad during COVID-19
  8. Editorial
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  10. Special Issue: Against Epistemological Theft and Appropriation; Guest Editors: Othman Z. Barnawi and Hamza R’boul
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  13. Attempts at including, mediating and creating ‘new’ knowledges: problematising appropriation in intercultural communication education and research
  14. Epistemological theft and appropriation in qualitative inquiry in applied linguistics: lessons from Halaqa
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