Calendar

Dec
17
Mon
Expoloring Diversity Seminar Seriens Workshop
Dec 17 @ 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Expoloring Diversity Seminar Seriens Workshop

“Transnational(ism)” in IMER-research – Networks, boundaries and mobilisation.

In recent years there has been a general increase in empirical research and theoretical engagement with transnationalism and transnational networks. In regard to the field of international migration and ethnic relations, transnationalism has been hotly debated and a central concern for research. Some approaches have focussed on the more manifest, organizational aspects of relations between sending and receiving countries, such as studies of remittances, migration patterns etc. Others have focussed on phenomenological dimensions; transnational social imaginaries, the stretching of lifeworlds in time and in space. Another division is between research following a more traditional Diaspora-approach, exploring the networks and transactions between “mother”- and recipient countries, and research focussing on migrants’ “double consciousness” as a more persistent dimension in the migrant situation. Both approaches include the meaning and the politics of borders and boundaries, but in different ways. Whereas the first approach tends to centre nation and ethnicity as imperative identity-dimensions in transnational mobilisation, the second approach opens other venues for research on transnational imagination and action. This second approach is perhaps more clearly envisioned in Paul Gilroys work on the Black Atlantic. Gilroy’s transnationalism is one that looks beyond ethnicity and nation as identity-construction dimensions, and focuses on the potential transnational solidarity stemming from being reduced to the other within the nation-state framework. If the first, and traditional, transnationalism approach focuses on the positive aspects of national and ethnic identities, the second approach departs from the negative aspects of the very same identities. These different approaches can again be seen to lead to different research focuses and also to different forms of political mobilisation.

This workshop brings together scholars who work in the intersection between transnationalism research and IMER-research. The purpose is to critically discuss what is meant by the terms “transnational” and “transnationalism”, and to provide some theoretical, methodological and empirical guidelines to research. How do we distinguish between “transnational” and “postnational”, how is the conceptualisation of transnational(-ism) linked to debates in globalisation theory, and how do we incorporate material, political and cultural aspects in research on transnationalism and migration?

IMER-Bergen has at present three research projects in the field of transnationalism research. Two of these focus on transnational mobilisation among young adults of ethnic minority background, the third focuses on different forms of transnational relations and mobilities, their spatial logics and the politics of space/place.

WORKSHOP program

“Transnational(ism)” in IMER-research – Networks, boundaries and mobilisation –

Tid : Mandag 17 Desember 2007, 10.00-17.00
Sted : UiB, Lauritz Meltzers hus, 9 etasje, Seminarrom.

 

10.00 Mette Andersson, UiB
” Begrep og forskningsfokus”
10.30 Thomas Olesen, University of Aarhus
“The Porous Public”
11.00 Spørsmål og diskusjon
11.30 Pause
11.45 Garbi Schmidt, Danish National Institute of Social Research
“Transnational or Universal? Muslim Identity Forming Across National Boundaries”
12.15 Spørsmål og diskusjon
12.45 Lunsj
13.45 Øivind Fuglerud, UiO
“Transnational practises and diasporic identification: Lessons from the Tamil case”
14.15 Spørsmål og diskusjon
14.45 Pause
15.00 Elisabeth Eide, UiO
“Caricatures turning transnational – and landing in national contexts”
15.30 Spørsmål og diskusjon
16.00 Generell diskusjon (slutt 17.00)

 

WORKSHOP – TRANSNATIONAL(ISM) IN IMER-RESEARCH – NETWORKS, BOURDARIES AND MOBILISATION.
Dec 17 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Exploring Diversity SEMINAR SERIES

WORKSHOP

“Transnational(ism)” in IMER-research – Networks, boundaries and mobilisation –

In recent years there has been a general increase in empirical research and theoretical engagement with transnationalism and transnational networks. In regard to the field of international migration and ethnic relations, transnationalism has been hotly debated and a central concern for research. Some approaches have focussed on the more manifest, organizational aspects of relations between sending and receiving countries, such as studies of remittances, migration patterns etc. Others have focussed on phenomenological dimensions; transnational social imaginaries, the stretching of lifeworlds in time and in space. Another division is between research following a more traditional Diaspora-approach, exploring the networks and transactions between “mother”- and recipient countries, and research focussing on migrants’ “double consciousness” as a more persistent dimension in the migrant situation. Both approaches include the meaning and the politics of borders and boundaries, but in different ways. Whereas the first approach tends to centre nation and ethnicity as imperative identity-dimensions in transnational mobilisation, the second approach opens other venues for research on transnational imagination and action. This second approach is perhaps more clearly envisioned in Paul Gilroys work on the Black Atlantic. Gilroy’s transnationalism is one that looks beyond ethnicity and nation as identity-construction dimensions, and focuses on the potential transnational solidarity stemming from being reduced to the other within the nation-state framework. If the first, and traditional, transnationalism approach focuses on the positive aspects of national and ethnic identities, the second approach departs from the negative aspects of the very same identities. These different approaches can again be seen to lead to different research focuses and also to different forms of political mobilisation.

This workshop brings together scholars who work in the intersection between transnationalism research and IMER-research. The purpose is to critically discuss what is meant by the terms “transnational” and “transnationalism”, and to provide some theoretical, methodological and empirical guidelines to research. How do we distinguish between “transnational” and “postnational”, how is the conceptualisation of transnational(-ism) linked to debates in globalisation theory, and how do we incorporate material, political and cultural aspects in research on transnationalism and migration?

IMER-Bergen has at present three research projects in the field of transnationalism research. Two of these focus on transnational mobilisation among young adults of ethnic minority background, the third focuses on different forms of transnational relations and mobilities, their spatial logics and the politics of space/place.

Exploring Diversity SEMINAR SERIES

WORKSHOP program

“Transnational(ism)” in IMER-research – Networks, boundaries and mobilisation –

Tid : Mandag 17 Desember 2007, 10.00-17.00
Sted : UiB, Lauritz Meltzers hus, 9 etasje, Seminarrom.

 

10.00 Mette Andersson, UiB
” Begrep og forskningsfokus”
10.30 Thomas Olesen, University of Aarhus
“The Porous Public”
11.00 Spørsmål og diskusjon
11.30 Pause
11.45 Garbi Schmidt, Danish National Institute of Social Research
“Transnational or Universal? Muslim Identity Forming Across National Boundaries”
12.15 Spørsmål og diskusjon
12.45 Lunsj
13.45 Øivind Fuglerud, UiO
“Transnational practises and diasporic identification: Lessons from the Tamil case”
14.15 Spørsmål og diskusjon
14.45 Pause
15.00 Elisabeth Eide, UiO
“Caricatures turning transnational – and landing in national contexts”
15.30 Spørsmål og diskusjon
16.00 Generell diskusjon (slutt 17.00)

 

The workshop is organized by Mette Andersson, Associate Professor, Dept. of Sociology , UiB and Knut Hidle, Research Director, Agderforskning

 

Sep
17
Wed
WORKSHOP – THE CRYSTALLISATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITIES IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE @ Seminar room 327, Herman Fossgt. 6 , UiB
Sep 17 @ 1:00 pm – Sep 19 @ 4:00 pm

Exploring Diversity SEMINAR SERIES

WORKSHOP

“The Crystallisation of National Identities in Contemporary Europe”

Open IMER/UiB Workshop

This workshop will deal with a trend in many European states which may be referred to with labels such as the ‘crystallisation’ of national identities or neo-nationalism.

The workshop will examine questions like: is there a particular encompassment of globalisation by the European nation-states, generating neo-nationalism or the crystallisation of national identities? Are neo-nationalism and crystallisation inherent results emanating out of emerging European state-forms influenced by globalisation? Is the historical European national diversity generating something specific European which manifests itself in these contemporary phenomena? Or are there, at the level of generation, a restructuration of political universes and modes of citizenship where neo-nationalism and/or crystallisation of national identities are concomitants? If so, which are the key structurating forces? What (new) (world) order would such neo-nationalism and/or crystallisation imply? To whom would it give more power and legitimacy?

Workshop programme :

Wednesday September 17. :
13.15 – 16.30
1. Yngve Lithman: Welcome and Introduction
2. Bruce Kapferer: Globalization and the Nation State.
3. Mette Andersson: The social imaginary of first generation Europeans.

Thursday September 18. :
09.15 – 12.15
1. Andre Gingrich: “National Identity Inc.”: Uncertainties, politics of emotions, and the fading of European visions.
2. Sigalit Ben-Zion: The problem of the crystallization of national identity in Europe in the post-multiculturalism era.
3. Yngve Lithman: Nationalism, Chrystallization: observations from Scandinavia.

13.15 -17.00
1. Christian Joppke: Changes in the conceptual of citizenship in contemporary Europe: Liberalism and the nation.
2. Elisabeth Ivarsflaten: The anti-racism norm in Western European immigration politics: Why we need to consider it and how to measure it.
3.Hakan Sicakkan: Tracing the de-crystallization of European national identities: humanitarian sovereignty sharing, alternative public spaces and invented belongings.

 

Oct
7
Thu
MIGRATION IN NORDIC SOCIETIES: RECENT PERSPECTIVES @ Faculty of Law, Seminar room 1.
Oct 7 @ 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

WORKSHOP

Migration in Nordic societies: Recent perspectives

The workshop is organised as a collaboration between IMER Bergen and the Department of Sociology, UiB. It is open for all interested researchers and students.

Program:

09.00: Welcome by Lise Widding Isaksen (Dept. of Sociology, UiB).
09.15: Helle Stenum (Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen): “Bane and Boon, Gains and pains; Dos and Don’ts. Moral economy and flexible citizens in au pair migration”.
09.45: Coffee break.
10.00:  Lise Widding Isaksen (Dept. of Sociology, UiB): “Domestic Workers and Political Agency”.
10.30:  Mariya Bikova (Dept. of Sociology, UiB): “Au pair Migration Norway – Philippines”.
11.00: Discussion. Discussant: Christine M. Jacobsen (IMER Bergen and Dept. of Social Anthropology, UiB).

12.00 – 13.00: Lunch break.

13.00: Anna Gavanas (Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm): “Migration, in/formalization and the expanding domestic service sector in Sweden”.
13.30: Vera Galindabaeva (European University, St. Petersburg): “The Effects of Rural-Urban Migration on Transformation of Child Care Arrangemenst in Buryat Rural Families in Post-Soviet Russia”.
14.00: Coffee break.
14.15: Synnøve Bendixsen (IMER Bergen and Uni Rokkan Centre): Ethiopian Irregular Migrants’ demonstration in Oslo Cathedral.
14.45 -15.30: Discussion. Discussant: Lise Widding Isaksen (Dept. of Sociology, UiB).

Friday 7 October, 09.00-15.30.
Faculty of Law, Seminar room 1, Magnus Lagabøtesplass 1.

WORKSHOP POSTER

Oct
22
Fri
RANDI GRESSGÅRD – MULTICULTURAL DIALOGUE. DILEMMAS, PARADOXES, CONFLICTS @ Det Akademiske Kvarter, Teglverket
Oct 22 @ 12:15 pm – 4:00 pm

GressgardMulticulturalAs cross-cultural migration increases democratic states face a particular challenge: how to grant equal rights and dignity to individuals while recognizing cultural distinctiveness. In response to the greater number of ethnic and religious minority groups, state policies seem to focus on managing cultural differences through planned pluralism. This book explores the dilemmas, paradoxes, and conflicts that emerge when differences are managed within this conceptual framework. After a critical investigation of the perceived logic of identity, indicative of Western nation-states and at the root of their pluralistic intentions, the author takes issue with both universalist notions of equality and cultural relativist notions of distinctiveness. However, without identity is it possible to participate in dialogue and form communities? Is there a way out of this impasse? The book argues in favor of communities based on nonidentitarian difference, developed and maintained through open and critical dialogue.

Randi Gressgård is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research (SKOK) at the University of Bergen. She is also affiliated with the research unit International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER) in Bergen. Her research interests focus on minority research, gender studies, and philosophy of science. Her publications include Fra identitet til forskjell [From Identity to Difference] (Spartacus/Scandinavian Academic Press, 2005) and Kjønnsteori[Gender Theory] (co-ed., Gyldendal Akademisk, 2008). Read more…

 

Jan
21
Fri
JACOBSEN, OTTERBECK AND BENDIXEN – RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS AND MUSLIM YOUTH IN EUROPE @ Uni Rokkansenteret, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6. etg (5th Floor)
Jan 21 @ 1:15 pm – 4:00 pm

Religious traditions and muslim youth in europe

Christine M. Jacobsen (UiB/Uni Rokkansenteret)
Jonas Otterbeck (University of Lund)
Synnøve Bendixsen (SKOK/Uni Rokkansenteret)

A major question regarding Islam in Europe concerns the religiosity of “Muslim youth” – a category currently epitomizing both the fears and hopes of multicultural Europe. At this seminar, researchers working in 3 European countries look at how Islamic traditions are engaged and reworked by young people, born and educated in European societies, and discuss the modes of religiosity that are shaped in a context of international migration, globalization, and secular modernity.

Christine M. Jacobsen launches her new book Islamic Traditions and Muslim youth in Norway in conversation with Jonas Otterbeck, the author of  Samtidsislam: unga muslimer i Malmö och Köpenhamn and Synnøve Bendixsen, the author of “It’s like doing SMS to Allah” Young Female Muslims Crafting a Religious Self in Berlin.

Seminar and book launch.
Organised in collaboration with Department of Social Anthropology, UiB.

Time: Friday 21 January, 13.15-16.00.
Venue: Uni Rokkansenteret, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6. etg (5th Floor)

SEMINAR POSTER

Apr
7
Mon
COMMUNICATION MIGRATION SEMINARS: IDA TOLGENSBAKK – Swedish migrants in Norwegian media and popular culture @ UNI Rokkansenteret 6 etg (5th floor)
Apr 7 @ 2:15 pm – 4:00 pm

Ida Tolgensbakk – Swedish migrants in Norwegian media and popular culture

In this seminar Ida Tolgensbakk will present some findings from her PhD research on young, Swedish labor migrants in Oslo. In everyday encounters in Norway, the young Swedes are identified as such primarily through linguistic characteristics, and not for instance skin color, phenotype, or dress. That is, they are audible rather than visible migrants. Tolgensbakk will discuss what kind of consequences this has on the lives of the young Swedes, as well as look into the related questions of how the young Swedes are presented in Norwegian media and popular culture.

Ida Tolgensbakkida-vdeld150

Department of cultural studies and oriental languages, UiO. Ida Tolgensbakk has a master in folklore studies from 2005 (on national identity in the Faroe Islands). She worked three years at the Norwegian Institute of Local history, mainly focusing on migrant’s life stories. She is now studying young, Swedish labor migrants moving to Oslo. Her research is based on life story interviews, fieldwork on a Facebook group, and texts from popular culture and the media.

Read more here: http://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/people/aca/idatol/

Communicating Migration Seminar Series IMER Bergen spring and autumn 2014

The IMER seminar series for 2014 will cover how migration and ethnic relations are communicated in every-day encounters, in mass and social media, in politics and in teaching at the universities.  Has the way people talk about migration and migrants in different social contexts changed over time, and in which ways has it changed? How does migration theory and research fit in with other topics and theories in the social sciences, and how do results from migration research inform public debate and policy development? Communicating migration will be discussed from various angles in our seminar series on international migration and ethnic relations during spring and autumn 2014. We welcome papers that touch upon this broad theme from different angles.  Historical analyses of change over time in regard to politics and public debate, research foci and disciplinary concerns are specifically welcomed.  The seminar series will end with a two-day conference in October/November 2014.

May
22
Thu
IMER Abroad: PROVIR Seminar – Precarious migrants and access to welfare: Between policy, law and practice @ COMPAS Oxford
May 22 – May 23 all-day

IMER Abroad: PROVIR Seminar – Precarious migrants and access to welfare: Between policy, law and practice

This workshop will discuss the legal and experienced dilemmas found in the encounter between migrants living in a legally precarious situation and the welfare state in which they reside. Participants will present ongoing empirically based research on migrants’ access to welfare in policy, law and practice in various European countries. They will also discuss the particular position of youth and children in vulnerable situations. The program is available here.

Jun
2
Mon
COMMUNICATIONG MIGRATION SEMINARS: CHRISTARD HOFFMANN – Lessons from the past: framing post-war immigration in Germany by historical analogies @ UNI Rokkansenteret 6 etg (5th floor)
Jun 2 @ 2:15 pm – 4:00 pm

Lessons from the past: framing post-war immigration in Germany by historical analogies

In many West European countries, the experience of mass immigration after 1945 was perceived as something basically new and unprecedented. In the lengthy process of coming to terms with the new situation and of developing a self-understanding as countries of immigration and of ethnic pluralism, historical arguments often played an important role. By placing present-day immigration into a historical perspective, by constructing narratives of continuity (and discontinuity) and not least by presenting persuasive historical analogies, historians (and others) introduced arguments that informed the debates of the day and allowed the experiences of immigration and multi-ethnicity to be integrated into (national) narratives of identity. The German case is particularly interesting in this respect, since a tradition of tolerance and successful integration had to be invented in spite of the fresh memories of the Nazi-past that were witness to the contrary.

personbilde_Copy_of_hoffmannChristhard Hoffmann (born 1952 in Luneburg, Germany) is a German historian and professor of modern European history at the University of Bergen. In the period 2007-2013 he was Head of the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion.

Hoffmann defended in 1986 his doctoral dissertation on German Antiquity historians’ representation of Jews and Judaism in the 19th and 20th centuries [1] at the Technische Universität Berlin, where he also worked as a researcher for many years. From 1994 to 1998 he was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and since 1998 he has worked at the University of Bergen.

Hoffmann has an extensive list of publications in the fields of German-Jewish history and cultural history, history of anti-Semitism and migration history.

Communicating Migration Seminar series

The IMER seminar series for 2014 will cover how migration and ethnic relations are communicated in every-day encounters, in mass and social media, in politics and in teaching at the universities.  Has the way people talk about migration and migrants in different social contexts changed over time, and in which ways has it changed? How does migration theory and research fit in with other topics and theories in the social sciences, and how do results from migration research inform public debate and policy development?

Communicating migration will be discussed from various angles in our seminar series on international migration and ethnic relations during spring and autumn 2014. We welcome papers that touch upon this broad theme from different angles.  Historical analyses of change over time in regard to politics and public debate, research foci and disciplinary concerns are specifically welcomed.

Jun
23
Tue
Boklansering: Eksepsjonell velferd? Irregulære migranter i det norske velferdssamfunnet @ Will soon be available
Jun 23 @ 12:00 am – 2:00 pm

Redigert av Christine Jacobsen, Synnøve Bendixsen, Karl Harald Søvig

omsl.PMTO-2Irregulære immigranter har på noen områder full tilgang til velferdsytelser, men på mange områder er tilgangen svært begrenset enten i form av rettsregler eller andre barrierer. Denne antologien undersøker forholdet mellom rettslig rammeverk, institusjonell praksis og hvordan irregulære migranter selv erfarer sin situasjon. 
I salg fra 09. juni 2015 for 399 kroner

Med en unik kombinasjon av juridisk og antropologisk blikk, går boken regelverket nærmere i sømmene, drøfter gatebyråkraters utfordringer og hverdagslivet til irregulære migranter og deres barn.

Hvilke regelverk får konsekvenser for irregulære migranters levevilkår? Hvordan blir dette regelverket forstått og etterfulgt av gatebyråkrater? Og hvordan blir hverdagslivet til irregulære migranter og deres barn påvirket av regelverket og dets fortolkning?

Denne boken er aktuell for velferdsprofesjoner som møter irregulære migranter som en del av sin yrkesutøvelse. Både leger, sykepleiere, helsesekretærer, lærere, helsesøstre, skolerådgivere, sosialarbeidere, sosionomer og barnevernspedagoger vil ha god nytte av Eksepsjonell velferd? Irregulære migranter i det norske velferdssamfunnet. Boken retter seg også mot frivillige organisasjoner som jobber med ulike aspekter ved migranters situasjon i Norge og andre som er engasjert i temaet.