Network analysis of metaphors in immigrants' accounts of techno-science: A theoretical-methodological proposal.

Abstract

Immigration is currently a source of much, sometimes divisive, social debate. However, what the immigrants themselves have to say about their own situation often goes unreported. One of the least-studied aspects of immigration is the immigrant's relationship with new information and communication technologies (ICTs). Here I suggest, as a project for investigation, the analysis of the metaphors that immigrants (from sub-Saharan Africa to Spain) use to represent ICTs and the practices that surround them. These immigrants are of special interest because they come from places where contact with ICTs is minimal, and also because the jobs they find on arrival in Spain tend not to involve the use of ICTs. I propose the adoption of a perspective in which context and social relationships take precedence over individualistic factors, such as attitudes or attributions. I argue that social network analysis, and more specifically, discursive network analysis, is the investigative strategy most appropriate to such a project.