Migration: global/local relationships in the networked city
Talking about local / global relationships in the networked urban environment we need to talk about ‘migration‘ as well, that is especially in an multi-cultural melting pot like London interesting to investigate. People come from all over the world and move to cities leaving home, culture, family and friends behind. In the past such a move meant a big step as far a communication was limited to mail correspondance and the bare usage of the telephon. At the same time migrants brought the richness of their cultures and lifestyles into the city, makeing new relations between themselves within their community. [read: Laura Vaughn]
Over the time, modern communication technologies came up with a variety of highly sophisticated tools to strength the bonds between left behind family and friends and the ‘new life’ – mobile phones with increasing lower rates, email, online social networks on location based systems, skype and video conferencing make physical distance disappear and offer 24/7 access wherever you are. The digital global gets connected to the physical local.
In times of segregation, the question naturally arises how technology can support the idea to build up and strength bonds to the local environment in order to support diversity and help migrants to integrate, to identify with the new life and to stimulate the exchange of multi-cultural knowledge between communities.
Mediated Urban 