Digital emotivescapes: Everyday media practices of Sahrawi refugee diasporic women in Spain and Mauritania

Abstract

This article evaluates the concept of ‘emotivescapes’ as a way of addressing digitally emotional processes of belonging among conflict-generated diasporas. It examines the empirical potential of the concept based on the Sahrawi refugee diaspora in Spain and Mauritania and the connection of its members with their ‘home-camps’ in Algeria. To this end, the article explores everyday digital media practices that reveal the circulation of emotions among the Sahrawi community outside of the refugee camps at the intersection of intimate, community, and national spheres. The research focuses on the experiences of 32 women, considers Sahrawi gender roles, and argues for enriching emotional debates in the diaspora space. The findings demonstrate how female media practices in protracted situations of displacement are negotiated through emotional attachments in not only direct social interactions but also memories and imaginations that are reformulated from the intimate to the national levels.