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- Convenors:
-
Agnieszka Balcerzak
(LMU Munich)
Magdalena Lemańczyk (Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Kornelia Konczal
Outi Fingerroos (University of Jyväskylä)
Tiina-Riitta Lappi (University of Jyväskylä)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- MOBILITIES
- Location:
- Room K-202
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 14 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Throughout the mid-20th and 21st century Europe has been a crossroads of mobility perpetuating the on-going circulation of bodies, objects, and ideas. With regard to the (recent) global movements the panel aims to rethink the trajectories of actual and imagined (re)migration and mobility in Europe.
Long Abstract:
Since the term cultural flow (Appadurai) has been coined in the 1990s, interdisciplinary research has turned its interest to exchange processes taking place between cultural systems across time and space, controlled by specific mechanisms of selection, mediation, and reception. In liquid modernity (Bauman), in which constructing a durable and consistent identity becomes increasingly impossible, cultural flow means the circulation of bodies and objects, identities and ideas, conflicts and affects, but first and foremost their relentless (re)thinking, (re)interpretation, and (re)signification. Exploring these processes means to identify en- and exclaves of cultural hegemony (Hall), reflect on the relationship between influence and power, and investigate the interconnections and formations of in- and outgoing agents.
Europe as a (post)conflict space experiences a considerable intensification of (re)migration and mobility movements shaped by several groups of people: from labour and leisure expats, over students and bi-/transcultural families, to expels, refugees and migrants due to political, religious, sexual or gender-based violence. The panel considers this wide spectrum of agents, spaces and motivations as entangled and embedded in the political, the affective, and with strong resonances for power.
We welcome contributions that present fresh empirical material, reflections on methodological, theoretical, and analytical approaches related to mobility, area, heritage, gender, and/or affect studies such as: environmental and epistemic experiences of migrants; affects, practices and strategies of (re)migration and mobility; cultural flow in modern diaspora, trans-national, and -local families; musealization of (re)migration and (in)tangible heritage; intersectional perspectives on (re)migration, ethnicity, class, and gender.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 14 June, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
“Flying Community” can be seen as an example of the fuzzing national boundaries in Europe for a community formation caused by cultural flow. The community formed in a conflict circumstance breaks several patterns typical for structure and denominational variety of religious organization.
Paper long abstract:
“Flying Community” is a group that unites Orthodox and Catholic Christians from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Italy of different ages and ethnic origin, with its epicenter in Ukraine. It has been formed in the circumstances of the evolving political conflict, in 2012-2015, and the group breaks several patterns typical for structure, denominational variety, and stable geographical affiliation of religious organization in both Catholicism and Orthodoxy. “Flying Community” driven by lay members that are active socially and politically and engaged in reappraisal of the Soviet past in the post-Soviet spaces.
Jose Casanova suggests that globalization of Western secularism leads to a paradox: instead of being eliminated from the public sphere, religion manifests itself in a variety of forms in different parts of the world, and Ukraine is one of recent examples of what he calls de-privatization of religion. The ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine followed the anti-governmental protests of 2013-2014 in Ukraine, and fueled religious tension in the country and the Orthodoxy worldwide.
The group can be seen as an example of the fuzzing national boundaries in Europe for a community formation caused by cultural flow. In my paper, I will review the main points of unusual patterns for an Orthodox lay organization and “Flying Community” response to a situation in turmoil in post-Soviet space, and their contribution to the idea of liquid modernity.
Paper short abstract:
Based on fieldwork among work migrants in Denmark, the paper explores how Eastern European labourers in their venture to achieve stability and steadiness at family level deploy the fluidity and temporariness at market level as well as cross-border opportunities supported at political level
Paper long abstract:
With the post-Cold War era new opportunities for transnational living arose across Europe, while state policies allowed for increased work migration.
The paper builds on ethnographic inquiries among Ukrainian and Polish migrants in Denmark, working mainly within agriculture and construction. Seen from the perspective of the work migrants, the paper – on the basis of a Hegelian conceptual framework – discusses the dialectic between temporariness and endurance within three alternate but mutually connected modes of inter-human relationship: the ‘interminable’ bonds connected to the family, the contractually based relations at the market, and the ties of recognition institutionalized in the state.
The paper argues that these three forms of relationship are all required, and thus all key to comprehending basic stipulations of transnational living. However, seen in practice terms, they play out highly differently when the migrants organize means and ends in a temporariness-endurance nexus:
An overall aim almost univocally is to create stable settlement and enduring FAMILY ties (on highly difficult terms marked by periods of separation). In this endeavour, the MARKET becomes an instrument that can be productively utilized in a flexible way because of its terminable contract relations (which, notably, also can lead to periods of severe precarity). Finally, the politically established rights to switch work venues within different states provides important opportunities, but still the work migrants, despite their transnational and dynamic practice, ultimately rely on stable STATE recognition; the inquiries reveals that this recognition is challenged due to re-emergence of more protectionist and nationalist policies.
Paper short abstract:
The aim is to problematize strategies among mobile returning researchers between European academe. We discuss the researchers learning process in work-life when transitioning within Europe and between different continents and back. The data consists of 60 interviews with Swedish researchers.
Paper long abstract:
The aim with our paper is to problematize strategies among mobile returning researchers between European academe. We discuss how the researchers problematize the learning process in work-life when transitioning within Europe and between different continents and back. The data-set consists of 60 interviews with Swedish researchers. What types of knowledge and skills are recognized and valued in daily work in the different European environments, e.g. upon return from a post-doc or conferences? How is this process affected by disciplinary traditions, academic position, gender, age, class- and ethnic background? We will apply thematic narrative analysis, and theoretical concepts of thought collective, thought style, symbolic capital and knowledge. The use of comparison as method is an analytical tool. Comparison is a way to make sense of reality, e.g. by contrasting places, “cultures” or practices. It may present different degrees of something, or create a dichotomy, and imply a hierarchy of values in the process of re/configurations of migration. At the same time, the informants reflects on mobility as a practice to understand and challenge rankings and academic power relations, where mobility and a lack of thereof, can be interpreted both as a survival strategy as well as a negotiation of power, resistance, and research politics.
Paper short abstract:
The author will present selected results of sociological research conducted among Polish-German families in Poland. The presentation takes into account elements concerning the attitudes and opinions of the respondents towards German cultural heritage in Poland.
Paper long abstract:
The author will present selected results of sociological research conducted among Polish-German families in Poland for the project on National identity of children from mixed Polish-German marriages and partnerships (Project financed by the Polish-German Science Foundation. Project number: 2018-24.). Presentation takes into account elements concerning the attitudes and opinions of the respondents towards German cultural heritage in Poland, in the context of the tightening of attitude of the Polish authorities towards the German minority in Poland. The main emphasis is placed on the implementation of the linguistic rights of the German minority (as part of German heritage in Poland) in postmigrant areas in Poland and cases of direct discrimination against this group for nationality reasons.