Song2026
| Song2026 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Song2026 |
| Author(s) | Le Song |
| Title | Doing being a streamer: Examining the social and spatial practices of live streaming in urban space |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Live streaming, Interaction order, Ethnomethodology, Mediated interaction, Video analysis |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2026 |
| Language | English |
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| Month | |
| Journal | The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics |
| Volume | 10 |
| Number | 2 |
| Pages | 1348 |
| URL | Link |
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Abstract
This article examines the practices of a Chinese tour guide in Paris who turned to live streaming on the Kuaishou platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. As global travel restrictions decimated the tourism industry, live streaming emerged as a vital tool for his economic survival and professional adaptation. Employing a mixed-method approach that combines video analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and in-depth interviews, this study investigates how the streamer navigates performing place, managing audiences, and negotiating urban public space. The analysis is grounded in an ethnomethodological framework, drawing on Erving Goffman’s (1983) theory of the interaction order. Findings reveal that live streaming transforms the solitary act of walking through the city into a co-present, mediated “With,” where the streamer and their remote audience form a temporary social unit. This performance, however, is fraught with tensions, including the precariousness of platform labor, the challenges of managing audience interactions, and the cons tant negotiation of social norms in physical and digital space. The study contributes to the literature on digital labor, platform urbanism, and mobile media by providing a micro-sociological account of how digital platforms reconfigure work, sociality, and the experience of the city.
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