Paper short abstract:

My paper explores the consequences of globalisation processes for the narrative construction of local identities. Transnational networks of Irish migrants in Munich and German migrants in Dublin are analysed in two case studies while looking at life narratives being inscribed in urban memories.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the consequences of globalisation processes for the identity construction of migrants in urban contexts. Material from two case studies analysing life stories of Irish migrants in Munich and German migrants in Dublin will be discussed. Throughout my PhD project, the gathering of data has been carried out while utilising a biographical interview method (Wengraf 2001), which is complemented by multi-local fieldwork (Wulff 2002). The thesis intends to reveal patterns and mechanisms of recent transnational migration flows.

By means of the life history approach (e.g. Plummer 2001; Tierney 2000), I intend to provide an insight into the everyday life of migrants in both cities. In doing so, the project gives voice to their complex life narratives by which their identities are constructed. The fieldwork focuses, in particular, on places in which cultural and religious practices are performed. Various theoretical dimensions intersect in my project in order to develop a perspective that enables us to study local identity negotiations in multi-cultural cities. Whilst great emphasis is put on recent theories on the narrative construction of identity (e.g. Cerulo 1997), minor theoretical implications are given by theories on urban space (Lefebvre 1991), social networks (Wilson and Peterson 2002), and social memory (Climo and Cattell 2002). The local narratives of dwellers are inscribed in urban memories. Presuming that places are inhabited by representable, textual structures, I wish to examine textual fragments of the multiple, cosmopolitan memories that shape lives in multi-cultural cities.

Paper Download (469 KB)