EXAMINING HOW ALGERIAN WOMEN LIVING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM NEGOTIATE ONLINE SOCIAL ACTIVITIES BY USING VIRTUAL THIRD SPACES

 

Fatima Zahra Zahaf        

Ms., The University of Northampton, zahraazhar21@gmail.com

 

Abstract

Recently, many scholars researching migration center their research around concepts of third spaces, imagined communities, migration theories, and identity. In my research, I am going to examine how the Algerian women who are living in the United Kingdom negotiate social activities using online third spaces. This study will investigate the online activities and experiences of this group of Algerian women and their perception and comprehension of social activities in different online contexts. It will investigate also their attitudes towards using online interactions and the impact of these on their lives, more specifically, whether their identities are related to the use of different languages (Arabic, English, and French, including local languages spoken by some Algerian Ethnic groups). The second part of this research will be discussing topics related to the way of life in the United Kingdom, diaspora, adaptation to new lifestyle and self-belonging. The above-mentioned concepts are going to be applied to this research. Methodologically, I am going to use an online discussion board to collect data which is going to be two stages. The first stage is about the online activities of migrant women and the second stage is about the life of a migrant in a third space. Following the observation of the online discussions, I will identify specific areas to follow up in individual interviews. The replies from the participants will be translated to serve my research and to answer the research questions and they are free to use Arabic, English or French. The number of the research participants is limited to 10 Algerian women. The focus of this research is to interpret, explain and understand the virtual identities being performed by these Algerian women in the online discussion board. To analyse the data I will use the interpretive approach and I will be using the qualitative thematic analysis to analyse the data. To facilitate the task of preparing and organizing the data I am using the NVivo software.

Keyword: Third Space, Language, Migration, Identity, Imagined community, Identity performances, Diaspora, adaptation, self-belonging