Polymedia and Social Capital:Digitally Mediated Families, Hometowns, and Roots of Internal Migrants in China

Since the 1980s, China’s modernisation has caused a significant influx of internal migrants into urban areas, particularly in the Pearl River Delta Area (PRD Area). This research firstly utilises the migrants’ experiences to describe this process, which has unfolded alongside the state’s reforms. These changes have disrupted traditional familial and original networks, leaving many migrants feeling rootless. Despite this, Chinese migrants are culturally encouraged to sustain emotional, moral, and material reciprocal attachment to their families and hometowns. Drawing on polymedia and social capital theories and considering the Chinese family and Guanxi (Relation) culture, this research secondly investigates how Chinese internal migrants use communication technologies to maintain family connectedness through three stages. It highlights the role of the Chinese polymedia environment in mediating the traditional Chinese family system. Thirdly, it examines the digitally mediated relational practices between migrants and their non-familial hometown contacts, grounded in Guanxi (Relation) rules, revealing a paradox where migrants feel a strong attachment to their hometowns while seeking detachment, leading them to digitally construct individualised and idealised Gen (Roots). This research finally evaluates how Chinese internal migrants digitally access and convert bonding, bridging, and linking social capital into economic and cultural capital within their families and hometowns. It explores the divides in these processes and emphasises that these digital practices benefit both migrants and their hometowns, particularly by facilitating the flow of economic capital for societal goods. Meanwhile, this research reveals the political, cultural, economic, and technological forces shaping these phenomena. Based on these findings, this research introduces a new term “localised familial technology” emerging from the Chinese polymedia environment. It also redefines polymedia as a communication technology ecosystem that integrates platforms, personal networks, data, and algorithms. Additionally, this research proposes another new concept “techno-regionalism capital”, grounded in the understanding of Guanxi (Relation) as societal social capital.