The “She Economy” in the New Media Era: Spatial Practice, Women's Mobility Reconstruction and Its Impact on Urban Employment and Industrial Development

Abstract

This paper employs mobility as its core analytical lens to investigate how the "She Economy" in China's digital era reshapes consumer discipline, reconfigures female representation, professions, and spatial mobility, and drives urban economic and industrial transformation. However, new media platforms have emerged as a critical tension field. On the one hand, algorithms, affective marketing, and notions of empowerment reproduce disciplinary logics, reinforcing aesthetic norms and constraining cognitive and affective mobility. On the other hand, platforms enable women to become online content creators, achieve economic independence through digital affective labor, and mobilize physically by leveraging digital imaginaries to overcome information gaps. Such gendered mobility practices extend beyond individual agency, significantly contributing to new economic models, the expansion of digital and cultural industries, and the "She Economy"-oriented urban renewal of China's emerging first-tier cities. Using Hangzhou as a case study, this paper analyzes the growth of the new media industry and the reconfiguration of its urban image, revealing the interconnections between women's employment, mobility, and urban transformation. This demonstrates that while new media reinforce disciplinary power, they also open novel spaces for female agency, production, and urban participation in the digital era.