Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4475-2725

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Geology and Geography

Committee Chair

Maria Alejandra Perez

Committee Member

Karen Culcasi

Committee Member

Cynthia Gorman

Committee Member

Catherine Gouge

Committee Member

Bradley Wilson

Abstract

Abstract

This dissertation draws from feminist geographic research to critically examine the landscapes of care traversed by family caregivers of children with feeding tubes and complex medical and long-term care needs. Drawing from theories and methodologies from feminist disability and digital geographies, in combination with feminist science technology studies (STS), I explore the impact of neoliberal policy changes on daily caregiving tasks and how families, in response to these policy changes, (re)create digital spaces and relationships to satisfy their unmet needs. This research examines the growing and shifting roles of digital spaces in the everyday lives of marginalized and/or vulnerable communities to determine how digital spaces are (re)created by family caregivers and reflect how community relationships and digital activities impact family caregivers’ ability to give care within precarious situations. A comprehensive examination of the Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation’s (FTAF) online resources accessed by family caregivers serves as a case study for this project. I argue that digital spaces, like FTAF, are essential places in family caregivers’ everyday geographies and are constituted by co-constructed relationships shaped and maintained by the digitally mediated activities of community actors (human and non-human) across multiple spaces and times. By incorporating Science and Technology Studies' theoretical and methodological insights, rare in the digital geography literature, this project attends to the diversity, structure, and internal dynamics within and among digital relationships in maintaining and transforming these digital communities, particularly deep web places like FAFT’s Facebook group and the fluidity of user subjectivity across multiple digital places.

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