PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 2- Conceptual frameworkinstance, Hitchings (2010) illustrates that practices can be the routinisation of everydaylives as people are always embedded in, but not separated from, the day-to-day contextsthat structure their behaviours. Also, citing and (re)producing homeland tradition areoften important ritual and habitual practices in migrants‘ lives (e.g. Fortier 2000).Moreover, practices are also embodied as people practically engage with the worldthrough the body, so highlighting the significance of the human body and embodiedpractices in creating their everyday experiences.Based on these understandings of practice, my empirical investigation will be attentiveto an array of Taiwanese expatriates‘ lived experiences and practices to createwell-being in their day-to-day lives in a number of ways. Firstly, as the reproduction ofphysical contexts to enable a continuation of previous behaviours is often needed forpeople to develop a sense of familiarity, I will pay special attention to the materialculture that contributes to the fulfilment of Taiwanese expatriates‘ longing for home andtheir material practices of home-making. Secondly, while various practices also reflectpeople‘s positionalities and are shaped by their identities, I will also examine Taiwaneseexpatriates‘ embodied performance of identity to discern the negotiation processesinvolved in the construction of belonging and the nature of power relations in thisprocess (Yuval-Davis 2006). Thirdly, and linked to the previous point, I will alsoconsider how Taiwanese expatriates‘ identity performance is manifested in/by theircultural practices or actions, particularly around notions of 'tradition' as a strategy toovercome feelings of displacement or uneasiness. Finally, I consider these practices inthe transnational context to analyse how transnationality is related or integral to theprocess of home-making.40