The IMISCOE Standing Committee on Families, Welfare, Care and the Life Course (FamWeLC) invites migration researchers and practitioners at all career stages to a webinar entitled Kissing the screen? Transnational grandparenting, personal networks & ICTs.
Date and time: September 24, 2025. 14:30-15:30 Central European Time
Venue: via Zoom. Please register via Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link and any future reminders or updates:
In this webinar we will discuss a recent article ‘I Kiss the Screen, But It Is Not the Same’ — Grandparenting in Geographically Dispersed Families’ (2025). Global Networks, Volume 25, Issue 2, which you can read and download under the link above (see abstract below)
Taking the perspective of grandparents living in the origin country (Poland), we examine a range of ties within their social networks, not only transnational ones but also family ties in-country with both close-by and geographically dispersed relatives. Thus, we are looking at transnational ties as part of interlocking personal networks spanning distances, including internal migration. By comparing grandparents’ interactions with those who are near and far, we advance understanding of how distance impacts feelings of closeness and bonding between generations. Although technology helps maintain contact, especially transnationally, it does not offer a full multisensory experience—a limitation which becomes evident when compared with in-person childcare and family socialising.
Presenters:
Louise Ryan is Senior Professor of Sociology and Director of the Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre, London Metropolitan University. Louise has a particular interest in migration, including intra-EU mobility and more recently refugee resettlement, and has published many highly cited articles on migrant social networks.
Weronika Kloc-Nowak is a researcher in migration, sociology of family and social demography at the University of Warsaw and Deputy Director of its Centre of Migration Research.
Discussant:
Mihaela Nedelcu is Titular Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Sociology & Laboratoire d'études des processus sociaux, Faculty of Humanities, University of Neuchâtel. She has contributed profoundly to the analysis of transnational dynamics mediated by ICTs, highlighting models and dynamics of copresence at a distance, and the various configurations of transnational family networks.
This webinar event is being hosted by the Thematic Working Group Migration and life-course transitions, part of the IMISCOE Standing Committee on Families, Welfare, Care and the Life Course (FamWeLC)
If you have any questions about this event, please do not hesitate to contact Weronika Kloc-Nowak at