Pursuing subjective well-being: The use of social media among female migrant workers in China

Wang, Linxin 2022. Pursuing subjective well-being: The use of social media among female migrant workers in China. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Since China’s reform and opening-up policy, many rural women have poured into urban areas for work. These female migrant workers are daughters or mothers who endure the pain of being parted from their families, along with the loneliness and difficulties associated with living in different urban areas. Over recent years, social media usage has become an inseparable part of people’s lives. This study investigates the ways in which this has changed the work and life of such female migrant workers and focuses on the relationship between the use of social media and their subjective well-being. The study explores this relationship in terms of theories of cultural and social ‘capital’, and relevant theories of feminism. Methodologically, the study uses digital ethnography in the form of integrated online observations and face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The data collected is then subjected to thematic analysis in order to explore female migrant workers using WeChat in work, family, and leisure, and to explore social media’s role in their subjective well-being. This work finds that using WeChat helps female migrant workers build a virtual ‘home’, create virtual connections with their friends, and explore learning and job opportunities. It minimises the anxiety associated with separation from family members, facilitates some connection and therefore provides emotional and social support, whilst also helping these women to attain a sense of autonomy and a ‘voice’. This helps promote a sense of well-being. Although WeChat usage sometimes exerts negative influences, such as anxiety, interference, and stress for some female migrant workers, overall this technology is felt by the subjects of this study to improve their sense of subjective well-being. These findings contribute to our understanding of the place and role of the sense of subjective well-being in migrant worker contexts. It also provides evidence that these female migrant workers engage in such activities as study/learning, entrepreneurship, creating a virtual ‘home’, providing and receiving emotional support, and projects of self-improvement of self-awareness through using WeChat

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 January 2024
Date of Acceptance:	8 January 2024
Last Modified:	08 Jan 2024 16:11
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/165353

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