Fragmented digital connectivity and security at sea

TL;DR

This study examines how fragmented digital connectivity at sea affects seafarers' routines, security perceptions, and social relations, highlighting their adaptive strategies during long voyages.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into seafarers' navigation of unreliable digital connections and their impact on security and social ties, based on ethnographic research.

Findings

Seafarers creatively maintain family and social ties despite connectivity issues.

Fragmented connections create uncertainties affecting perceived security.

Ships' increasing connectivity reshapes seafarers' routines and social interactions.

Abstract

This paper explores how uneven and often unreliable digital connections shape the patterns and routines of everyday life, work and rest for seafarers, during long periods at sea. Such fragmented connections, which surface when the ship moves in and out of connectivity or when onboard data allowances run out, create a series of uncertainties that might unsettle individual and collective notions of security. Ethnographic in nature, the study engaged 43 seafarers on board two container ships in European waters, during two two-week voyages between February and April 2018. This provided an empirically grounded exploration of how digitally facilitated connections, relations and networks, enabled through increasingly connected ships, shape and reshape seafarer lives. Findings from this study demonstrate the creative ways in which seafarers navigate and negotiate digitally facilitated connections to maintain relational ties with family and friends. The paper concludes by setting out future research directions and practical implications that speak to connectivity and security at sea.