Calendar

Nov
9
Mon
MIGRATION, GLOBALIZATION AND NEW SOCIAL FORMATIONS @ Auditorium, Bergen Resource Centre, Jekteviksbakken 31, and Seminar room, Uni Rokkan Centre, Nygårdsgt. 5, 6th floor. Bergen, Norway.
Nov 9 @ 9:00 am – Nov 11 @ 4:00 pm

IMER Bergen 15 year anniversary conference and PhD course.

International migration and attendant processes of globalization, both as social phenomena and in efforts at theorization, have become especially critical for the development of social theory and analysis, notably by challenging some of the fundamental questions of the social sciences. If one wishes, as Georg Simmel did, to answer the question “How is society possible?”, one cannot take for granted that the relevant object is defined within the parameters of the nationstate, nor by those of ´ethnic groups´ or ´cultures´.

In a recent evaluation report on Norwegian sociology research, it is stated that ´[t]he key question to be explored by sociology today is not, perhaps, how society is possible, but rather how to study social processes and changes at local, national and global levels (Sociological research in Norway: An evaluation, p. 17). Across the social science disciplines, it now seems impossible to imagine place, society and culture without the mobilities of people, goods and information – thus recasting questions exploring e.g. social stratification, scale, space, media and politics.

In its 15 years of existence, IMER Bergen has directed its collaborative efforts towards examining, but also reframing the fundamental questions of the social sciences, as variously defined within particular disciplines. To celebrate this 15th anniversary, we want to put to the forth the contributions that IMER research in Bergen, but also in the wider international scholarly community, has made to the study of society in general, processes of social change and new social formations in particular.

A combination of international and local scholars will in the course of a two day seminar, discuss how IMER researchers deal with issues such as migration, globalization and transnational movements – how they examine ‘culture’, ´politics´, ´space´, ´gender´, ´media´, ´government´ and ´law´ – through the prism of International Migration and Ethnic Relations.

A commitment to provide a strong and creative scholarly environment for students and research recruits has been one of IMER Bergen´s main vocations. In this spirit, the 15th anniversary comprises a PhD course for candidates within the humanities and social sciences. In addition to the main conference, the course component of the conference will be constituted by workshop sessions with essay presentations. The candidates are expected to send an essay abstract of maximum 1 page, including a few words about the PhD project, previous to the course. Participating PhD students that after submitting a post-conference paper get their work accepted, will be awarded 10 ETCS credits.

The obligatory curriculum of 5-700 pages is a collection of central texts which deal with core questions of the Social Sciences related to the field of migration and globalization, and will emphasize the work of the invited lecturers. The essays are expected to reflect knowledge and comprehension of the course curriculum. 
READING LIST

The conference and course participants will also be invited to attend the anniversary performance lecture ´Crossing Borders´ with the performance artist Tanja Ostojic, organized in co-operation with the Art Gallery Stiftelsen 3,14.

The conference and PhD course is organized by IMER Bergen and the Department of Social Anthropology, UiB and in collaboration with Uni Rokkansenteret, the Department of Comparative Politics, the Department of Geography, the Department of Sociology, and SKOK (Center for Women´s and Gender Studies) at the University of Bergen.

Lecturers

Yngve G Lithman (University of Bergen) 
Bruce Kapferer (University of Bergen)
David Ley (University of British Columbia):
Masters of Space, or Prisoners of Space? Locating the Neoliberal Migrant 
Laura Agustín (Independent scholar) 
André Iteanu (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (C.N.R.S.), Paris):
The Free Noble and the Poor Beggar
Nina Glick Schiller (University of Manchester)
Susi Meret (University of Aalborg)
Mette Andersson (University of Bergen):
”Reflexive Transnationalization” among Socially Engaged Minority Youth
Hakan Sicakkan (University of Bergen):
The Politics of Diversity, the European Publics, and the European Public Sphere
Randi Gressgård (University of Bergen):
Equality Equals Hierarchy – the Holistic Foundation of Liberal Ideology and Integration Policy 
Elisabeth Eide (Oslo University College and University of Bergen):
Media discourses, migration and post-22.7-debates; a critical inquiry
Christine M Jacobsen (Uni Research and University of Bergen):
The (not so) New Islamic Presence in Western Europe: Secular Governance and Religious Freedom in a Globalized Era

REGISTRATION to Hanna Skartveit by 20 October 2011. 

Abstract deadline: 1 November 2011. 
Essay deadline: 10 January 2012.

Sep
27
Mon
FIRST GENERATION NATIONALS. STRUCTURAL TRAJECTORIES, MOBILISATION AND SOCIAL IMAGINARIE @ Bergen Resource Centre for International Development, Jekteviksbakken 31. Auditorium (Ground Floor) and Seminar room 3 and 6.
Sep 27 @ 9:00 am – Sep 30 @ 4:00 pm

 

IMER Bergen together with the Dept. of Sociology is organizing the PhD Course.

Nov
9
Wed
MIGRATION, GLOBALIZATION AND NEW SOCIAL FORMATIONS @ Bergen
Nov 9 @ 8:00 am – Nov 11 @ 3:00 pm

IMER Bergen 15 year anniversary conference and phd course

En overraskende forskningsferd
 Yngve Lithman har opplevd både trams, trassel og larmerier av alle slag som leder for IMER gjennom 12 år. Men mest av alt har det vært en intellektuelt overraskende reise. I dag fyller migrasjonssatsingen 15 år. 
(Intervju med Yngve G. Lithaman i anledning IMER Bergens 15 års jubileum)

De nye jødene 
Elisabeth Eide tror ikke på at historien gjentar seg selv, men ser likevel mange likhetstrekk mellom 1940-tallet og i dag. Forskjellen er at muslimene er de nye jødene. 
(Intervju med Elisabeth Eide i anledning IMER Bergens jubileumskonferanse)

Misplaced women 
On Tuesday November 8 from 13:40 I performed my “Misplaced Women?” at arrivals & departures terminal of Bergen international airport. In approximately 30 minutes time I took out the entire contents of my two suitcases, out of my handbag as well as out of my cosmetics and make-up bags.
(Read more and see the photos from the performances in Bergen previous to Tanja Ostojic’s performance lecture at Gallery 3,14)

***********************

International migration and attendant processes of globalization, both as social phenomena and in efforts at theorization, have become especially critical for the development of social theory and analysis, notably by challenging some of the fundamental questions of the social sciences. If one wishes, as Georg Simmel did, to answer the question “How is society possible?”, one cannot take for granted that the relevant object is defined within the parameters of the nationstate, nor by those of ´ethnic groups´ or ´cultures´.

In a recent evaluation report on Norwegian sociology research, it is stated that ´[t]he key question to be explored by sociology today is not, perhaps, how society is possible, but rather how to study social processes and changes at local, national and global levels (Sociological research in Norway: An evaluation, p. 17). Across the social science disciplines, it now seems impossible to imagine place, society and culture without the mobilities of people, goods and information – thus recasting questions exploring e.g. social stratification, scale, space, media and politics.

In its 15 years of existence, IMER Bergen has directed its collaborative efforts towards examining, but also reframing the fundamental questions of the social sciences, as variously defined within particular disciplines. To celebrate this 15th anniversary, we want to put to the forth the contributions that IMER research in Bergen, but also in the wider international scholarly community, has made to the study of society in general, processes of social change and new social formations in particular.

A combination of international and local scholars will in the course of a two day seminar, discuss how IMER researchers deal with issues such as migration, globalization and transnational movements – how they examine ‘culture’, ´politics´, ´space´, ´gender´, ´media´, ´government´ and ´law´ – through the prism of International Migration and Ethnic Relations.

A commitment to provide a strong and creative scholarly environment for students and research recruits has been one of IMER Bergen´s main vocations. In this spirit, the 15th anniversary comprises a PhD course for candidates within the humanities and social sciences. In addition to the main conference, the course component of the conference will be constituted by workshop sessions with essay presentations.

Conference Poster 



Programme

Wednesday 9 November 
Anniversary conference.

OPEN LECTURE:

Venue: ‘Egget’, Parkveien 1:

10.15-10.30: 
Official opening with Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Knut Helland, and Director of the Uni Rokkan Centre, Jan Erik Askildsen. 

10.30-12.00: 
• DAVID LEY (University of British Columbia):
“Masters of Space, or Prisoners of Space? Locating the Neoliberal Migrant”

• YNGVE G. LITHMAN (University of Bergen):
”De-Etatizing Social Science?: “Verstehen” and “Erklärung” in a (somewhat) Flatter Earth”

Chair: Edvard Hviding (Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen)

12.15-13.15: Lunch.

Venue: Auditorium, Bergen Resource Centre, Jekteviksbakken 31:

13.15-14.45: HAKAN G. SICAKKAN (University of Bergen):
“The Politics of Diversity, the European Publics, and the European Public Sphere”

METTE ANDERSSON (University of Bergen):
“‘Reflexive Transnationalization’ among Politically Engaged Minority Youth”

[Read interview with Mette Andersson in På Høyden 7 November]

Chair: Susanne Bygnes (Department of Sociology, University of Bergen)

14.45-15.00: Coffee break.

15.00-16.30:

RANDI GRESSGÅRD (University of Bergen):
“Equality Equals Hierarchy – the Holistic Foundation of Liberal Ideology and Integration Policy”
BRUCE KAPFERER (University of Bergen):
”The Tamil Crisis: State, War and Peace in Sri Lanka and Shifts in Global Power”

Chair: Kathinka Frøystad (Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen)

Thursday 10 November 
Anniversary Conference.

Venue: Auditorium, Bergen Resource Centre, Jekteviksbakken 31:

10.15-11.45:

CHRISTINE M. JACOBSEN (Uni Research and University of Bergen):
“The (not so) New Islamic Presence in Western Europe: Secular Governance and Religious Freedom in a Globalized Era”

• ANDRÉ ITEANU (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (C.N.R.S.), Paris):
“The Free Noble and the Poor Beggar. What does the Veil Controversy Reveal about French Ideology”

Chair: Synnøve Bendixsen (IMER Bergen and Uni Rokkan Centre)

12.00-13.00: Lunch.

13.00-14.30:
• SUSI MERET (University of Aalborg):
“Exploring the Social, Political and Cultural Challenges of Right Wing Populism in the Nordic Countries: Comparative Approaches, Developments and Perspectives”

ELISABETH EIDE (Oslo University College and University of Bergen):
“Media Discourses, Migration and Post-22.7-Debates; a Critical Inquiry”

Chair: Elisabeth Ivarsflaten (Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen)

14.30-14.45: Coffee break.

14.45-16.30: 
PANEL DISCUSSION: “The Future of IMER Research”

David Ley (University of British Columbia) 
Susi Meret (University of Aalborg) 
Hilde Lidén (Nordic Migration Research and Institute for Social Research, Oslo) 
Yngve G. Lithman (IMER Bergen and University of Bergen) 
Mette Andersson (IMER Bergen and University of Bergen) 
Hakan G. Sicakkan (IMER Bergen and University of Bergen)

Chair: Yngve G. Lithman (IMER Bergen and Department of Sociology, University of Bergen)

* * *

19:00: Performance lecture by artist TANJA OSTOJIC: “Crossing Borders“.
Venue: Galleri 3,14. Vågsallmenningen 12. 
Free entrance. Refreshments will be served. 

In addition, her project “Misplaced Women? Marking the City” is a series of performances, interventions and delegated performances which will take place in the public space of Bergen previous to the lecture. 

In collaboration with the International Contemporary Art Foundation 3,14. 


Friday 11 November 
PhD course.

PhD candidates, please see the Course Site for more information.

Venue: Seminar room, Uni Rokkan Centre, Nygårdsgt. 5, 6th floor.

10:15-16:30: Essay presentations. 


Conference fee: 
Nok 500,- for two days (includes lunch) 
Students: Nok 300,- 

REGISTRATION to Hanna Skartveit. Still possible to register!

The Conference is organised in collaboration with Uni Rokkan Centre, Dept. of Social Anthropology, Dept. of Sociology, Dept. of Geography, Dept. of Comparative Politics and SKOK, University of Bergen.

Nov
29
Fri
NEW RESEARCH TOPICS WITHIN IMER BERGEN @ UNI Rokkansenteret, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6. etg (5th Floor)
Nov 29 @ 1:15 pm – 3:00 pm


Halvar A. Kjærre
: “Politics and Mobilities”

Tarje I. Wanvik: “Migration and Social Inequalities”

Halvar A. Kjærre (Department of Social Anthropology, UiB) and Tarje I. Wanvik (Department of Geography, UiB) have recently been recruited to the IMER Bergen research unit as PhD candidates.
In this seminar they will present their PhD projects. After the presentation there will also be a presentation of IMERS new webpages.

Skjermbilde 2013-11-13 kl. 23.02.09

Feb
24
Mon
COMMUNICATING MIGRATION SEMINARS – LISE W. ISAKSEN – Mobility, Moral and Migration: “Familism” in Norwegian and Italian Contexts. @ Rokkansenteret 5th floor (6 etg)
Feb 24 @ 2:15 pm – 4:00 pm

«Mobilitet, moral og migrasjon:  familisme – begrepet i norske og italienske kontekster.»

Seminaret tar for seg hvordan middelhavslandenes familisme – begrep konstrueres og erfares i migrasjons-kontekster blant nordmenn i Italia og italienere i Norge. Dagens familisme utfordres både av «post-moderne” endringer i familie-strukturen, slik som lav fertilitet og stigende skilsmisse-rater, og av finanskrise og migrasjon.I Sør-Europa eksisterer lav fertilitet side om side med tradisjonelle omsorgs-organiseringer og parallelt med kontant-tunge velferdsprogrammer og begrenset produksjon av tjenester for de unge og de eldre. Den sentrale oppfatningen i komparative studier av relasjonen mellom familie og velferd er at velferdsstatene baserer politikken på en «tatt-for-gitt» holdning til en kjønnstradisjonell familie-institusjon, og denne kulturelle forutsetningen sementerer de tradisjonelle familie-strukturene. Men i hvilken grad er familiestrukturer og kulturelle og sosiale normer og verdier bundet sammen med idealtypiske regimer og nye migrasjonsmønstre?Nyere forskning viser til at sør-europeiske kvinner drømmer om den nordiske velferdsstaten eller en stat som organiserer familie -og arbeidsbalansen bedre. De vil ha tilgang på flere og bedre offentlige omsorgstjenester. Nordiske velferdsstater framstår som reneste paradiser for kvinner i Italia, og definitivt som et ideal, hevder samfunnsforskere. På den andre siden ser vi at mens italienere drømmer om velferd og arbeid, drømmer nordmenn om mer familieliv. En av de norske informantene i mitt prosjekt sier at hennes drøm er «å få til et italiensk familieliv kombinert med et norsk arbeidsliv». Hvordan er forbindelsen mellom familie-strukturer og familie-verdier? Hvordan er de relatert til mobilitet, moral og migrasjon?

LiseWLise Widding Isaksen er professor i sosiologi på Universitetet i Bergen. Hun jobber for tiden med prosjektene 1) «Mobilitet, moral og migrasjon: en studie av familiekulturer i Norge og Italia» , 2) «Polish Female Migrants and Their Families: A Study of Care Deficits» og 3) «Welfare Models, Demographic Patterns and Family Strategies in the Context of the Financial Crisis in Spain»

 

Siste publikasjoner:

Lise Widding Isaksen, 2010 (ed): Global Care Work. Gender and Migration in Nordic Societies. Nordic Academic Press, Lund, Sverige

Lise Widding Isaksen (2012) “Transnational Spaces of Care: Migrant Nurses in Norway.” In Social Politics, International Studies in Gender, State and Society, vol. 19, number 1, spring 2012, p.58-78, Oxford University Press, Oxford

“Children Left Behind” i samarbeid med Uma Devi og Arlie R. Hochschild i  Hochschild, Arlie R., 2013: «So How’s the Family» and other essays», University of California Press, Berkeley

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.

 

Mar
24
Mon
COMMUNICATING MIGRATION SEMINARS: CAROLINE KNOWLES – The Children of the Revolution: Reflections on Chinese London and how to Theorise these New Forms of Migration @ Rokkansenteret (5th floor, 6 etg)
Mar 24 @ 2:15 pm – 4:00 pm

The Children of the Revolution: Reflections on Chinese London and how to Theorise these New Forms of Migration

This paper explores some of the London data from a three-city investigation of migration. The other two cities are Beijing and Hong Kong, and in each city we are exploring young (23-39) graduate migrants from the other two cities in order to understand how global mobility features in young professionals’ life and career planning. Little has been written about UK migrants in Hong Kong and Beijing, and the existing literature on Chinese migrants in London is centred on long-term (often depicted as poor and illegal) migrants from Hong Kong. Such studies do not begin to capture the lives of the new young migrants, many of whom are from Mainland Chinese cities, who must navigate new border restrictions favouring the wealthy and the highly talented. The paper will explore some of the challenges to existing migration theory these young urban migrants pose.

Caroline Knowles

IMG_0305Caroline Knowles is Professor of Sociology and former director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) at Goldsmiths, University of London.  She is known for her work with artists and photographers exploring the intersections between art and sociology in urban social research. Following her interest in materials and translocality she has just completed the biography of a pair of flip-flop sandals funded by the Leverhulme Trust with Singapore artist Michael Tan. Flip-Flop: A Journey Through Globalisation’s Backroads will be published in May by Pluto Press. Following her interests in migration she is also currently researching the Beijing, London, Hong Kong circuit travelled by young migrants in these three cities in collaboration with Ho Wing Chung at the City University of Hong Kong. She is the author of many books and papers on cities, ethnicity, migration and mobilities including Hong Kong: Migrant Lives, Landscapes and Journeys (2009) University of Chicago Press with US photographer and Sociologist Douglas Harper.

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.

 

Jun
22
Sun
Bergen research summer school @ University of Bergen
Jun 22 – Jul 4 all-day

BSRS 2014 Governance to meet Global Development Challenges

Welcome to BSRS2014!

The theme for BSRS2014 is Governance to meet Global Development Challenges. The event will take place from June 23rd to July 4th  2014 at the University of Bergen. Please find information about the courses, application form and other activities at the menu to your right side.

One of the courses is and IMER/SKOK PhD course.

Read more at:

http://www.uib.no/rs/bsrs/programme/bsrs-2014-governance-to-meet-global-development-challenges

Aug
20
Wed
SKOK seminar/PhD course: Race, Migration and kinship 20.-22. August 2014 @ Ida Bloms hus
Aug 20 – Aug 22 all-day

2713780-561172-human-tracks-return-journey_3How might we think about race as a paradoxically fungible yet persistent feature of human history? This mini seminar examines race as a global phenomenon with long and diverse histories. In its migrations, conceptions of race have repeatedly been marshaled, decried, dismissed, and repurposed, reformulating conceptions of kinship and social organization along the way. From ancient empires, medieval religious conflicts, and early modern accounts of “barbarians” and “strangers” to the longue durée of colonial settlement and slavery, and from the revolutions and uprisings of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries to more recent accounts of physiognomy, eugenics, and DNA, the phenomenon of race has interacted dynamically across time and space with conceptions of caste, color, class, language, identity, law, region, and religion. Our class will begin with a conventional genealogy of race as arising from the age of Atlantic Revolutions, the slave trade, and scientific thinking in Europe and the United States before complicating our understandings of the phenomenon as one shaped over centuries of contact and interchange. Our second session will examine a longer history of race and caste in relation to Iberian colonization of the East and West Indies and our third session will investigate race and the littoral in Indian Ocean studies. Registration deadline is August 8th, 2014.

More info:

http://www.uib.no/skok/77000/phd-kurs-rase-migrasjon-og-slektskap

http://www.uib.no/en/skok/77008/graduate-course-race-migration-and-kinship

Mar
3
Tue
IMER Lunch: Susanne Bygnes – Mistillitens migrasjon: Europeisk sør-nord mobilitet i kjølvannet av krisa @ UNI Rokkan centre (6 etg)
Mar 3 @ 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

Mistillitens migrasjon: Europeisk sør-nord mobilitet i kjølvannet av krisa

Tema for innlegget er den nye Europeiske sør-nord migrasjonen. Den empiriske analysen er basert på dybdeintervjuer med noen av dem som har reist fra Spania til Norge etter kriseåret 2008. Innlegget vil belyse hvordan sør-nord migrasjonen i kjølvannet av krisa er mer enn en desperat flukt fra arbeidsledighet i hjemlandet. Den vidtrekkende mistilliten til det politiske systemet og følelsen av en dyptgripende håpløshet i hjemlandet er viktige migrasjonsfaktorer i tillegg til jobbmuligheter for dem som kommer til Norge.

SusanneBygnes

Susanne Bygnes (phd) er postdoktor ved universitetet i Bergen. Hun leder det fireårige prosjektet Labour Migration in Uncertain Times: Migration from Spain to Norway after 2008, finansiert av forskningsrådets VAM-program. Hun har publisert en rekke internasjonale artikler på tema som mangfold og likestilling, blant annet Ambivalent Multiculturalism (2012) i tidsskriftet Sociology.

Apr
12
Thu
Lunch seminar: Diaspora Mobilization – Syrian Activism in the West @ Meeting room at 2nd floor, Adm. org
Apr 12 @ 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm

In recent years, a large number of Syrian refugees have settled in Europe. In the media, most of  the debate concerning these refugees has been about how they impact their host societies. But how does this large Syrian diaspora impact politics in Syria itself?

For this IMER lunch seminar, we will be joined by Amany Selim and Espen Stokke, PhD candidates at sociology and comparative politics at UiB. They both do research projects where they explore the engagement of Syrian diaspora activists, and how these activists try to make a difference in the homeland. With their work on the Syrian case, they are hoping to contribute to the growing body of literature that attempts to bridge social movement theory and diaspora politics.

In the presentation, Selim and Stokke will give a brief overview of the field: What do we know about the activism of the Syrian diaspora? They will also present their own projects, and what they wish to add to the field.