The Nordic Migration Researchers Conferences have established themselves as a major contact point not only between Nordic researchers in the field of international migration and ethnic relations, but also between these and international scholarship generally. To the reasons for their success belongs the steadily increasing participation from researchers from non-Nordic countries, interested in our work and wishing to collaborate. It is therefore that we proudly invite participation in the 14 Nordic Migration Researchers Conference in Bergen Norway, hosted by IMER/UiB (the International Migration and Ethnic Relations Research Unit at the University of Bergen). More..

IMER/UiB-konferanse om relasjonen mellom insikter fra forskning og hva disse kan bety for ’brukere’. Utgangspunktet er resultatet fra IMER/UiB’s prosjekt om mangfoldssamfunnet, og hvordan disse relaterer til de problem som beslutningstakere og administratorer håndterer. Prosjektet om mangfoldssamfunnet ble finansiert av Norges Forskningsråd, og ble en sentral del av hele IMER/UIB’s virksomhet.
Denne konferansen søker å belyse hvilke verdier resultatene fra mangfoldsprosjektet kan ha for ulike brukerkategorier. Dette vil belyses og diskuteres på mange nivåer, fra de mer generelle perspektiv på relasjonen mellom forskning og samfunnsproblemer til diskusjoner av hvordan forskningsresultat kan belyse ulike måter å forstå spesifikke politiske eller sosiale problem. Et viktig aspekt blir å vise hvilke konsekvenser dette kan få for hvordan ’brukere’ kan relatere til den virkeligheten de håndterer.
Mangfoldsprosjektet bestod av mange ulike deler, og ga rom for å sysle med innvandring og kjønn, religion, transnasjonalisme, nye former for samfunnsborgerskap, dannelsen av nye sosiale rom delvis utenfor de nasjonalstatlige rammene. Alt for å forsøke å forstå hvilke forandringer som pågår i det norske og europeiske nasjonalstatssamfunnet.
Gjennom sin satsing på å belyse og integrere forskningsresultaters betydning på ulike nivåer, fra det allmenne til det spesifikke, søker denne konferansen å være en møteplass for forskere med ulike spesialiteter og brukere i mange ulike deler av det norske samfunnet.
Konferansen er lagt opp til å skape rom for en aktiv dialog.

Mer informasjon…..

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 –

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 –

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

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.

See webpage for more information

The University of Bergen, through its Department of Sociology and IMER/UiB, is organizing a joint conference and PhD course around the theme of  First Generation Nationals September 27-30, 2010. This event, focussed on “First Generation Nationals,” will attempt to elucidate several issues of major importance with respect to understanding the diversity of our societies, and many of these are also of significant political importance. A fuller presentation of the conference theme is presented here.

The conference will draw together researchers and scholars from across the Nordic countries and beyond. For PhD students within the humanities and social sciences, the course component of the conference will be constituted by workshop sessions dedicated to different themes. Participating PhD students that after submitting a post-conference paper get their work accepted, will be awarded 9 credits.

The conference programme with confirmed speakers, schedule and conference sessions is found here.

Convenors for the conference and the PhD workshops are:

Mette Andersson, Dept. of Sociology, University of Bergen (contact person regarding the academic programme)

Yngve Lithman, Dept. of Sociology, University of Bergen

For queries of a more practical and administrative nature, please contact the administrative co-ordinator of IMER at imer@uib.no .