The project seeks to explore the intricate dynamics of the intimacy-mobility-state nexus, an area that has received insufficient academic and public attention, particularly in the context of East Asia. A central premise of this project is to reintroduce the state into the analysis, examining the interplay between individual desires, emotions, mobilities, and the state's regulatory and shaping power.
The project aims to uncover how intimacy and mobility are deeply intertwined with state mechanisms, encompassing its legal, institutional, social, and cultural frameworks. How do gender and migration intersect with state regulation to shape desired and undesired reproduction? How do digital intimacy and informal networks challenge and transcend rigid mobility regimes and social norms? How do international and transnational families contest state authority through alternative intimate and family practices?
A collaborative team of researchers based in Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK, and Taiwan seeks to address these questions through interconnected research projects, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the intimacy-mobility-state nexus in these two critical socio-political contexts.
Through these lenses, the project aims to illuminate how intimacy and mobility intersect, reinforce, or challenge one another in relation to state structures and policies. Both of them have experienced long-standing internal and transnational mobilities for purposes such as labour, family reunion, and education.
Intimacy-Mobility-State Nexus Project. Our key research questions include: How do gender and migration intersect with state regulation to shape desired and undesired reproduction?
