ESA Research Network 35 "Sociology of Migration" will be holding its
next midterm conference in Bucharest, 1-2 September 2016.
The conference is jointly organized by RN 35, the Research Institute
for Quality of Life (Romanian Academy) and the Faculty of Sociology
and Social Work (University of Bucharest).
Keynote: Prof. Bridget Anderson (Oxford University)
Please find the CfP attached. Deadline for submission of abstracts is
1 March 2016.
The main theme of the Conference will be to reflect on the question of
whether or not
European countries are currently facing a “new” age of migration and
on the methodological
and conceptual challenges posed to migration research within the
current developments.
Thematically, this conference will bring together various analytical
and methodological
approaches in refugee and migration studies.
Studies on the refugee question, on extremism and racism as well as
studies involving
longitudinal and/or comparative analyses focusing on the European
context are particularly
welcome, as are papers which analyse everyday practices and strategies
of action and
resistance of refugees and migrants and their families. We
particularly invite papers that
reflect upon, as well as examinations of the complex political
entanglements of migration
scholarship.
Our aim is to provide a platform for those who have already met at
earlier conferences to
continue our discussions, and to invite other scholars to join us in
this endeavour.
This conference will have a strong focus on dialogue. Hence, papers
that draw links to and/or
reflect upon their relation to ongoing scholarly and public debates
will be given priority.
Our midterm conference will cover the following issue areas:
1. Sociological diagnoses of the current situation – from political
discourses to migrant
agency: We welcome papers that present contemporary studies focussing
on the refugee
“crisis” including the perception of refugees and migrants,
consequences of shifting policies,
racism and social change in Europe, effects on migrants’ lives and
practices and linkages
between extremisms, success of far-right wing parties and Islamist
tendencies to migration.
We specifically invite papers that draw links between different
conceptual fields, for example
by ‘evaluating’ policies from below: How are migrant’s affected by the
intensification of the
current political and public debates?
2. Methodological challenges – from epistemological debate to
travelling methodologies:
Methodologically, the field migration studies is broad and very
diverse. We encourage
submissions of methodological papers that reflect on the implications
of different
epistemological perspectives and the concrete pros and cons of
specific methodological
approaches. Among others, we are interested in evaluations of current
challenges for
quantitative migration research. How can, e.g., administrative data be
used for academic
purposes? How do we evaluate their quality and the ways in which they
are used? What can
researchers in the European context learn from methodologies that have
been developed and
applied in other settings?
3. Theoretical legacies and blind spots – from methodological
nationalism to receiving
country bias: In the face of current developments, migration research
needs to discuss its
conceptual and analytical toolkit. How do our forms of construing,
problematizing and
researching migration relate to orders of mobility, power, and
inequality? Have we managed
to overcome methodological nationalism? Or are our accounts still
structured by dominant
political notions and problem understandings - e.g. in what de Haas
has called a receiving
country bias in migration research?
4. Sociological self-reflection: One of the pressing conundrums that
migration researchers
are faced with is: How can sociologists become or remain relevant
without becoming part of
the very system they criticise? We particularly invite papers that
combine self-reflexive and
critical accounts of past and ongoing research with suggestions for
future scholarly activity.
The deadline for submission of abstracts (max. 200 words) and brief
biographical notes is
March 1 2016. Please send your documents to [log in to unmask]
Decisions will be
communicated by March 21 2016.
Organisation:
No fees will be charged, but you will need to pay for your own travel
and accommodation.
Information on hotels and hostels close to the conference venue will
be communicated to all
participants in due course.
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