Intimacy-Mobility-State Nexus Project

The project seeks to explore the intricate dynamics of the intimacy-mobility-state nexus, an area that has received insufficient academic and public attention, particularly in the context of East Asia. This research initiative is generously funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science under the framework of the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments, covering the period from 2024 to 2026.

A central premise of this project is to reintroduce the state into the analysis, examining the interplay between individual desires, emotions, mobilities, and the state's regulatory and shaping power. The project aims to uncover how intimacy and mobility are deeply intertwined with state mechanisms, encompassing its legal, institutional, social, and cultural frameworks.

Our key research questions include:

   How do gender and migration intersect with state regulation to shape desired and undesired reproduction?
   How do digital intimacy and informal networks challenge and transcend rigid mobility regimes and social norms?
   How do international and transnational families contest state authority through alternative intimate and family practices?

A collaborative team of researchers based in Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK, and Taiwan seeks to address these questions through interconnected research projects, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the intimacy-mobility-state nexus in these two critical socio-political contexts.

Focusing on contemporary Taiwanese and Chinese societies, it investigates pressing issues such as digital relationships, assisted reproductive technologies, informal migrant worker networks, mobility related to children’s education, and alternative educational practices arising from migration. Through these lenses, the project aims to illuminate how intimacy and mobility intersect, reinforce, or challenge one another in relation to state structures and policies.

Both Taiwan and China are pivotal actors in the contemporary regional and global order—China as the world’s second-largest economy and an industrial powerhouse, and Taiwan as a leader in advanced semiconductor production. Both of them have experienced long-standing internal and transnational mobilities for purposes such as labour, family reunion, and education. These mobilities have brought to light a variety of issues intimately linked to personal lives, including dating, (un)desired reproduction, and childrearing/education practices, all shaped by their unique socio-political contexts.