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- Convenors:
-
Beth Rubin
(Teachers College, Columbia University)
Ellen Skilton (Arcadia University)
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- Chair:
-
Thea Abu El-Haj
(Rutgers University)
- Discussant:
-
Hana Cervinkova
(Maynooth University)
- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- U6-27
- Start time:
- 21 July, 2016 at
Time zone: Europe/Rome
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
This panel explores the complexity of how contemporary citizenship narratives are constructed, alternately, from positions of power and resistance, leveraging memories and silences to create imaginative geographies that reinscribe and challenge dominant constructions of belonging and citizenship.
Long Abstract:
This panel explores the complexity of contemporary bids for citizenship and how different citizenship narratives are constructed, alternately, from positions of power and resistance, leveraging memories and/or silences to create imaginative geographies that reinscribe or challenge dominant constructions of belonging and citizenship. Drawing on ethnographic work in many parts of the world, these papers look at the complexity of immigration and belonging, the creative pathways through which communities define themselves in relation to others, and the ways that global systems shape what is possible in local contexts.
Drawing on the strengths of anthropology to seek emic explanations for human practices, the papers interrogate commonplace assumptions about contemporary society. Questions raised include: Is integration always connected to a common good? Are efforts at revitalization more valuable than preservation? Can emotions play a central role in the politics of citizenship? What is the role of nationalism in post-conflict contexts? In each case, presenters wrestle with key questions of belonging in contemporary society.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted within the project “(In)visible Islam in the City” (Lausanne), this contribution seeks to examine how public events staged by Muslim organizations of the Lemanic region challenge or reinforce the boundaries of religious, ethnic and/or national belongings.
Paper long abstract:
In a context marked by international conflicts and a culturalization of public debates on "integration", Muslims in Europe face a paradoxical situation. While evolving in very different cultural, economic and social settings, they are increasingly asked to speak with one voice as "Muslims" and to demonstrate their commitment to "European values" (i. e. secularism, democracy, gender equality). As a response to this injunction, Muslim organizations develop different strategies such as the building of unions struggling for recognition or the organizing of public events ("doors open days", "interreligious meetings") in order to reach non-Muslim audiences (political authorities, journalists, local population, etc.) as well as different Muslim groups.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted within the project "(In)visible Islam in the City", this contribution seeks to examine how public events staged by Muslim organizations of the Lemanic region challenge or reinforce the boundaries of religious, ethnic and/or national belongings. We will focus thereby not only on the discourses of the representatives but also on other aspects of these encounters such as food, musical performances, informal discussions or body language. During these events indeed, Muslim organizations try to address the differentiated expectations of their participants and audiences. This leads to the displaying, negotiating and sometimes folklorization of multiple belongings. What kinds of interactions are produced and what discrepancies can arise? To what extent do these events challenge a normative view on citizenship?
Paper short abstract:
Since the 1990s the concept of ‘integration’, has been used (and abused) in Denmark to discuss aspect of immigrant's everyday life. However, the concept not only promotes a specific social imaginary of Danish society, but it also mobilizes reified (and problematic) notions of culture, race and belonging
Paper long abstract:
One of the major challenges doing and writing ethnography 'at home', where you to a large extent share the language, values and conceptual framework of you informants, is to create a distance between emic and ethic concepts and between the public and/or political discourses and the academic analysis. The challenge may be even more severe when working in the politicized field of immigration.
This paper discuss some of the problems related to the concept of 'integration', that since it was introduced in the 1990s has been used (and abused) in Denmark to discuss socio-economic, cultural and religious challenges related to everyday life of ethnic minorities. The concept of 'integration' is not (and never was) innocent but simultaneously promotes a specific social imaginary of Danish society and a 'problematization' of immigrants and their relationship to the indigenous majority, based on reified notions of culture, race and belonging.
Therefore, inspired by Lila Abu-Lughod's seminal article 'writing against culture' (1990), the paper ends up suggesting some strategies of how to 'write against integration'. The aim is to reinstall a distance between emic and etic discourses, so that academic analysis can regain its critical potential.
Paper short abstract:
Second generation whose parents were guest workers in Germany were denied the citizenship rights. Accordingly, their identity and sense of belonging became more related to their parents’ homeland. This paper argues that better policies and citizenship rights ensure greater integration of migrants.
Paper long abstract:
Lives of second generation migrants are conditioned by national migration policies, and the settlement rights and experiences of their parents. State policies towards migrants and their legal status likewise influence their sense of nationhood, identity and belonging. This paper examines second generation migrants of Serbian background living in Hamburg, whose parents were guest workers (gastarbeiter) in the late 1960-s' and early 1970-s'. Though their parents were supposed to reside in Germany for a limited time, they eventually settled there and had families. The data for this paper derives from fieldwork in Hamburg, Germany where I conducted semi-structured interviews as a part of my PhD thesis research.
Fieldwork findings suggest that the denial of full legal status to second generation Serbian migrants has led them to identify with their parents' homeland more than with Germany. They were born, educated, made their careers, and started their own families in Germany. Nonetheless, continuing perceptions of their foreign (auslander) status mean that identification with Serbia and its culture remains strong.
It is argued that while they do not perceive themselves as isolated from the host society, they stay within ethnic social circles through friendships, marriages, cultural events and tradition. Strong identification with their roots is maintained through the language so as through unconscious usage of phrase "going back home" or referring to the language as to "ours". This paper argues that inclusive policies toward migrants and granting them citizenship would give second generation migrants a greater sense of belonging in Germany.
Paper short abstract:
Independence is a major political concern in Catalonia. Massive demonstrations and an absolute majority (53%) at the Parliament show it. However, claims for independence cannot be made exclusively on historical basis anymore in a society where 70% of the population has a recent migrant background.
Paper long abstract:
During the last 5 years, independence support in Catalonia has been visible at street-level (massive demonstrations reaching more than 2 million supporters) and at the Parliament (where 53% of the seats belong to pro-independence parties). At the same time, the vast majority of Catalan population has a recent migratory background: 70% of Catalans are product from the immigration of the 20th Century. The combination of the claims for independence for a stateless nation and its demographic composition provides a privileged scenario to observe the tensions and transformations in the narratives of national belonging and diversity in a contemporary European society.
Independence supporters in Catalonia cannot be appealed exclusively on the basis of historical legacy anymore, and pro-independence activist know it. Their narrative shifted from exclusively identitary to more pragmatic reasons, from culture to language, from past to future. Yet, the greater challenge they are facing is to reach a greater scope of supporters, beyond the boundaries of the cultural nation crafted up to now.
Based on long-term ethnographic observation, participant political observation and life stories of everyday citizens in urban Catalonia, this paper shows some of the complexities of belonging in its diverse realms of expression.
Paper short abstract:
Many South Sudanese are after their “return” to South Sudan confronted with politics of belonging which often contradicts their past experiences. The paper reflects how the “returnees” position themselves and how they claim to be recognized as Sudanese and South Sudanese at the same time.
Paper long abstract:
After the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Sudanese Government and the Sudanese Liberation Movement SPLM(A) in 2005 the "return" of the Southern Sudanese living in Northern Sudan was on the political agenda. The paper argues that the mass movement of Southern Sudanese from Khartoum and other places in North Sudan must be understood as part of an international refugee regime in which belonging is constructed along the "national order of things" (Malkki 1992). Furthermore, taking the case of returnees belonging to the Bari group, an ethnic group originally from the area around Juba,the paper argues that the politics of return forces people to identify with specific forms of belonging and relate this belonging to specific places. This complex landscape of belonging got even more complicated after some of the "returnees" moved back to their former homes in Khartoum. The paper reflects how the "returnees" position themselves and how they keep relationships not only to many places but also claim to be recognized as Sudanese and South Sudanese at the same time.
Paper short abstract:
My presentation explores the way that official identity narratives have influenced (dis)unionist political imaginaries of street artists from the Republic of Moldova. The graffiti messages of Chișinău reveal the clash between formal political imaginaries and informal collective identities.
Paper long abstract:
The post-Soviet history of the Republic of Moldova is tantamount to the history of Chișinău. With almost 800, 600 inhabitants, that is 22 percent of the total population of the Republic of Moldova, the city of Chișinău stands-out not only as the major urban contributor to the Republic of Moldova's economy (almost 60 percent of the GDP), but also as the site of the most intense symbolic clashes and protest marches. Starting with the "Twitter Revolution", (April 7-9, 2009) one could easily notice that the "identity battle" has reached a new level: from a collective and public level, coordinated by the state, to an individual level, expressed by the graffiti messages which basically pose the same question "Who are we?". Trying to answer this question, I have employed a theoretical approach that draws on popular culture and banal nationalism whilst focused my research on the 'Othering process' projected by the graffiti messages in Chișinău. I have strived to find out how the identity borders drawn through public discourses over the last twenty years in the Republic of Moldova have influenced the (dis)unionist imaginaries of unknown public artists. In doing so, I have examined the three main identity narratives articulated in the Republic of Moldova starting with 1991. Then, I have captured the way that political discourses related to formal collective identities have shaped the informal (dis)unionist imaginaries displayed by the street art in Chișinău. The methodological approach of this field research is characteristic to visual anthropology.