Tuesday, 26 June 2007

Newsletter Nr. 6 / 2007

We wish you a pleasant summer!

Content:

• Updated call(Imer /Unifob Global) The 14 Nordic Migration Researchers Conference
• Nytt Nummer av Norsk Tidsskrift for Migrasjonsforskning
• Boknyhet: “Grenser For Kultur?”
• 1st call for sessions: NCSR 2008 – Urban Diversity and Religious Traditions
  13-15 August 2008, Åbo Akademi University
• Updated call: 4th ETMU DAYS: Nordic Migrations: Past & Present
• Call for papers: “An Unsettled Future?” Forced Migration and Refugee Studies in the 21st Century, International Conference
• Publications

(Imer/Unifob Global) Updated call:

The 14 Nordic Migration Researchers Conference

‘“Borders and Boundaries”

Time:	November 14-16, 2007
Place:	Bergen, Norway

Updated call for abstracts and papers

Paper submission now open!
A 5000 NOK reward will be awarded the best paper submitted.

NB! Please note that for technical reasons, you have to submit an abstract in order to submit a paper.

The 14th Nordic Migration Researcher Conference will be hosted by IMER/UiB at the University of Bergen. The theme for the Nordic Migration Researcher Conference points to issues of sovereignty, demarcation, distinction, exclusion and discrimination, but also to issues of transience, communication across distinction, and acceptance. Aspects of ‘the global turn’ and the Europeanization of Europe, not least as manifest in migration and migrant populations, have brought border and boundary issues to the forefront not only in social science and humanities scholarship, but also placed them with exceptional prominence on the political agenda.

The conference will be organized in plenaries, subplenaries, and workshops.
For each of the three days, the plenaries will focus around a specific topic. The following topics have been defined:

Transnationalism and the relevance of borders

Specifically, the relevance of state/European borders in our attempts to understand migratory movements and migrant population ‘integration’. What reshapings of the sovereignty regimes do we see, and why? Do we see a development towards a sociology of mobility? Or do we see a re-nationalization within Europe? Borders, boundaries and identity construction are crucial issues here.

Speakers:
*Jonathon Moses, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
*John Urry, Lancaster University, UK

Mobility and gender

Increasingly, there has been a stronger and much needed focus on gender within studies in international migration and ethnic relations. This plenary will deal with, and tie together, some ways in which gender constructions are tied to imaginaries of community, and gendered distinctions in agency and the quality of life.

Speakers:
*Uli Linke, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
*Laura Augustin, University of Liverpool, UK
*Anja Bredal, Institute for Social Research, Norway

Globalizing idioms and human rights

Increasingly, globalizing and essentializing idioms, especially religious and ethnic ones, have been seen as major impediments to reasoned resolutions to conflicts and controversies. These idioms have been largely contrasted with human rights perspectives. The plenary will explore these issues, with particular attention also to the essentializing dimensions in the human rights discourses.

Speakers:
*Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania, USA
*Howard Adelmann, Griffith University, Australia
*Bruce Kapferer, University of Bergen, Norway

The Organizers welcome proposals for sub-plenaries and workshops. The sub-plenaries will generally be short lectures, intended to be of interest to a set of workshops. Proposals to arrange workshops are welcome. In addition, the organisers will arrange workshops so that all participants who want to give workshop contributions will have an opportunity to do so.

Submission of workshop proposals and subplenaries : 15 June
Submission of abstracts: 15 September
Submission of paper: Open: 1 June – Close: 1 October

Abstracts will only be accepted through online submission.

Workshop proposals can be directed to coordinator.imer@uib.no

For questions about the academic program contact Knut Hidle or Yngve Lithman

For general queries, comments or proposals please contact Kjersti Skjervheim

For more information please visit the conference web page

Nytt Nummer av Norsk Tidsskrift for Migrasjonsforskning:

NTM nr. 1/2007:

Innvandrerne utgjør snart en tiendedel av den norske befolkningen, men det er ikke nok, for i tillegg skal de bli en del av samfunnet.

Integrering er et gjennomgående tema i siste nummer av Norsk tidsskrift for migrasjonsforskning. Les om hvordan myndighetene etter 11.september 2001 har gått bort fra idealet om multikultur og tatt ny sats for å integrere migranter inn i majoritetssamfunnet. Artiklene i det foreliggende nummeret vurderer effekten av bestrebelser på å oppnå integrering, innen arbeidsliv, barnehager og voksenopplæring.

En artikkel viser også innvandreres tilstedeværelse slik de selv opplever den, og hvordan identitet og ilhørighet skapes i samspill mellom tilpasning og savn. Identiteter er også tema for dette nummerets artikkel “utenfra”, som gir et innblikk i zimbabwisk politisk teater.

Les også Frøy Gudbrandsens anmeldelse av Jonathon Moses´ bok International Migration – Globalization´s Last Frontier (Zed Books 2006).

Se bestillingsopplysninger (Tapir akademisk forlag)

Se oversikt over tidligere numre

Titler og abstracts fra nr. 1/2007:

• Randi Gressgård: Anerkjennelse: Hvilke forskjeller er relevante?
  (English title: Recognition: Which differences are relevant?)
  
  “Recognition” is a key concept in the debate on multiculturalism, which revolves around the tension between equal dignity on the one hand, and cultural distinctness on the other. However, after September 11th, 2001, the political climate changed, and multiculturalism – with its emphasis on recognition of cultural distinctness – became an object of criticism among politicians and researchers who plead for a stronger emphasis on equal dignity. The article analyses the underlying assumptions on which the debate hinges, in order to critically reflect upon the ideological basis for which the concept of recognition is formed. The delineation reveals that the concept of recognition is inextricably linked to a particular notion of human beings as “all equal” and “all different”, and that it is this ambivalence between universality and distinctness regarding human nature that is its condition of possibility. This raises the question as to which differences are relevant at any time and in any context. Hence, the question of relevance lies at the core of the debate, and the different positions serve – in one way or another – to reaffirm the common symbolic universe within which this question is framed. The framework seems, more specifically, to be conditioned by the values and standards constitutive the modern nation state. So, the decisive question is whether the concept of recognition can be reformed without reintroducing a bourgeois ideal as the standard of judgement.
• Vibeke Glørstad: Utfordringer av identitet i zimbabwisk teater
  (English title: Challenging identity in Zimbabwean theatre)The author analyses representations of identity in two plays. The plays are satires in the ”community theatre genre” in Zimbabwe. The background of analysis is the understanding of expressions of popular culture as a form of “mass media”. As such they are utterances which take part in hegemonic battles. The context is the political situation in Zimbabwe in 1999, when the opposition was gaining a foothold and there was a certain silent optimism concerning future development of democracy and strengthening of human rights. The plays I analyse criticise the regime. The focus here is how resistance in the plays is expressed in the representations of identity positions. The author’s theoretical position and concepts derive from discourse theory and post-colonial studies, where politics of representations is seen as part of political struggle. A post-colonial reading strategy focuses on hybrid representations which avoid narratives told through polarisations and essential conceptions of identity. The plays are analysed in relation to how identity is represented in the narratives of gender, race and ethnicity. Do the plays offer multiple or stereotypical representations of identity? Especially “The Members” provides new identity positions and refers to a “citizen” identity. Both plays anticipate the political and socio-economic crisis which has been developing in Zimbabwe since 2000. The plays’ strategies of resistance also form the basis for the present political opposition towards the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) government.
• Kirsten Danielsen: Migranterfaringer – tilhørighet og lengsel
  (English title: Migrants´ experiences — belonging and longing)This article examines how belonging (tilhørighet) is constructed and experienced and what impact memories and recollection of origin have when migrants settle in a foreign place. The analysis is based on data collected in connection with two projects: “Migrant biographies” and “The new Norwegians – in their own voices”. The results of this project were ten life history interviews mostly with male work migrants, but also with women who came as spouses, and 45 autobiographies mainly written by refugees. Even if the life histories and autobiographies differ in some respects it is possible to analyze them using the same concepts. The author´s intentions with these projects was the same: to achieve an inside understanding of actions and values and to grasp factors and processes which maintain old or create new social and cultural identities and practices during the construction process of a sense of belonging to a new place.
• Sigrun Sand: Klar for skolestart? Et kritisk blikk på barnehagen som skoleforberedende tiltak for minoritetsspråklige barn
  (English title: Ready for school? A critical look at the kindergarten as school-preparing environment)Both Norwegian and international research show that minority language children as a group do not cope as well with the academic demands of schools as do their majority language peers. In order to be able to give all groups of pupils the same chances at succeeding in school, kindergartens in Norway and in other countries have been given new resources for teaching programmes so that minority language children may learn the majority language before they start their formal schooling. In this paper the author takes a critical look at the content of the teaching in kindergartens of minority language children and the thinking behind it and focuses in particular on the role of the kindergarten as an arena for language learning.
• Liv Anne Støren: Hva fremmer og hva hemmer inntektslikhet mellom innvandrere og majoritet med høyere utdanning?
  (English title: Which are the promoting and which are the hindering factors for increased earnings assimilation among immigrants and non-immigrants with higher education?)Earnings disparities between non-western immigrants and non-immigrants are found in several studies both internationally and in Norway. Variation in education, residence time in the country of immigration, and discrimination are some of the explaining factors. This study focuses on persons with higher education and equivalent qualifications approximately four years after graduation. The central research question is to which degree early career factors can explain earnings disparities between non-immigrants and non-western immigrants. The main finding is that non-immigrants and non-western immigrants graduated in Norway with equivalent labour market career achieve the same wages and the analyses do not underpin wage discrimination based on ethnic origin. Non-western immigrants graduated abroad achieve lower earnings than the other groups examined, which may be due to lack of relevant social network or statistical discrimination. However, a set of factors concerning the labour market career, especially the problems that the non-western immigrants experience in the transition process from education to work, are leading to earnings disparities.
• Kommentar:
  Perly Folstad Norberg & Sigvart Tøsse: Integration policy concerning language training for immigrants in Norway 1970-2006
  (Norsk tittel: Integreringspolitikk i språkopplæringen til innvandrere i Norge 1970-2006)Forfatterne gir i denne kommentartikkelen en oversikt over språkopplæring rettet mot vokne innvandrere som ledd i norsk integreringspolitikk fra 1970 til 2006. Kommentaren bygger på studier av offentlige dokumenter og innvandringsforskning. Over tid har språkopplæringstilbudet blitt utvidet, og deltakelse på kursene har gått fra å være frivillig til å bli obligatorisk. Imidlertid er resultatene av obligatorisk språkopplæring svake. Forfatterne konkluderer med at språkopplæring overfor innvandrere trenger en ny kunnskapsplattform og bedre kommunikasjon mellom innvadrere, myndighetene og språkpedagogikkfeltet.

Gå her for mer informasjon

Boknyhet:

“Grenser For Kultur?”

I mediedebattene om innvandring og integrering brukes ordet kultur mye. Enkelte mener å vite at det ligger til ikke-vestlige kulturer å undertrykke kvinner og barn, andre at fremmedfrykt og rasisme er del av norsk kultur. Fra å være et begrep brukt av en begrenset krets samfunnsforskere, er “kultur” nå et ord i fri sirkulasjon, ofte benyttet for å beskrive grunnleggende og uoverkommelige forskjeller mellom folk.

I Grenser for kultur? ser norske minoritetsforskere nærmere på den betydningen kulturbegrepet og forestillingen om kulturelle forskjeller har i debatten om integrering, og på grenseflaten mellom de offentlige og akademiske feltene hvor begrepet står sentralt. Hva er det ved samfunnsutviklingen i vestlige land som gjør at “kultur” er blitt så viktig? Hvordan kan det ha seg at “kulturelt mangfold” ofte ses som positivt, mens “kulturell forskjell” forstås negativt? Hva er likheten mellom æresbegreper i det nordlige Pakistan og i MC-klubber i Danmark? Hvilken rolle spiller kultur i avisenes omtale av nigerianske prostituerte i Oslo? I hvilken grad er kultur fortsatt brukbart som begrep i vitenskapelig sammenheng?

Gjennom slike diskusjoner forsøker boken å trenge gjennom de forenklede forestillingene og fastlåste posisjonene som preger både den offentlige og den akademiske debatten om Norge som et flerkulturelt samfunn. Den retter et kritisk søkelys mot noen gjengse måter å snakke om kultur på, og foreslår noen mulige utveier.

Innhold
Øivind Fuglerud & Thomas Hylland Eriksen (red.)

I. Problemstillinger
Annick Prieur: Ulykkespunkter i kulturtrafikken
Mette Andersson: Migrasjon som utfordring
Randi Gressgård: ´Det beste fra to kulturer´: Frihet og fellesskap
Thomas Hylland Eriksen: Mangfold versus forskjellighet

II. Tilnærminger
Viggo Vestel: Hybridisering, likhet og begjær
Kirsten Danielsen: Enstemt og flerstemt: Livshistorier
Geir Moshuus: Konge og taper: Historien om Vat
Ada Engebrigtsen & Øivind Fuglerud: Ekteskap, slektskap og vennskap: Nettverksanalyse
Tor Halfdan Aase: Ærens grammatikk

III. Opinionsdannelse
Bera U. Moseng: Kultur som forklaring av norske holdninger til innvandring og innvandrere – trender i norsk opinion fra 1970-2006
Ragnhild Sollund: Politikultur og ukultur?
Anne Hege Simonsen: Ubehaget i journalistikken

Thomas Hylland Eriksen: Etterord

For mer informasjon og bestilling av boken gå her

1st call for sessions:

NCSR 2008 – Urban Diversity and Religious Traditions

Time:	13-15 August 2008
Place:	Åbo Akademi University, Abo/Turku, Finland

Welcome to the 19th Nordic Conference in Sociology of Religion

The theme of the conference is religion in a contemporary urban setting. How are religious traditions and practices influenced by the contemporary city, and what is the role of religion in the late modern “cityscape”? The pluralistic situation in a modern city is characterized by ethnic minorities, but also by various other subcultures. The role of media and consumption is most evident in urban settings. And in the centre of town, we find a cathedral. What are the strategies of the mainstream churches amidst the new urbanism? In short, how does religion fit into the contemporary city and what happens with religion in this environment?

The plenary speakers of the conference are Professor Linda Woodhead
(University of Lancaster, UK), Professor R. Stephen Warner (University
of Chicago, USA), Doctor Inger Furseth (Centre for Church Research,
Norway) and Doctor Pasi Mäenpää (University of Helsinki, Finland).

The language of the conference is English.

The conference will be held at Arken, the Faculty of Arts building of Åbo Akademi University.

Timetable

Call for sessions, deadline December 15th, 2007
Call for papers and registration are now closed.

Organisers

Department of Comparative Religion, Åbo Akademi University
Department of Sociology, Åbo Akademi University
Department of Comparative Religion, University of Turku
Department of Sociology, University of Turku
Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History

View call for sessions

Go to the conference homepage

Updated call:

4th ETMU DAYS: Nordic Migrations: Past & Present

Time:	26-27 October 2007
Place:	Åbo Akademi University, Abo/Turku, Finland

Deadline for abstracts and registration, September 15, 2007

The theme of the fourth annual ETMU Days is Nordic Migrations from historical and contemporary perspectives. The theme can be approached from following directions: ethnicity, international mobility, multiculturalism, integration, indigenous and national minorities, minority rights, citizenship, national-ism, racism, refugees, education, upbringing and comparable topics.

The keynote speakers at the conference are Professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen (University of Oslo), Professor Charles Westin (University of Stockholm), Dr Diana Mulinari (University of Lund), Dr Ali Najib (University of Uppsala), Dr Garbi Schmidt (Danish National Institute of Social Research), Professor Max Engman (Åbo Akademi University) and Professor Martin Scheinin (Åbo Akademi University).

The preferred language of the conference is English. Presentations are also possible in Finnish and Swedish.

Several workshops dealing with the above mentioned themes will be held at the conference. Researchers, research groups and students of the field may suggest abstracts for these workshops. The length of the paper abstract is ca. 200 words and the proposals can be sent to either directly to the session organizers or to the conference organisers. The abstract should also include the name of the participant, contact information, organisation and the name of the workshop, if known. The organizers reserve themselves the right to move papers between sessions. Suggestions should also specify the language of the paper to be used and are to be submitted by 15th September 2007.

Workshops

• Citizenship and civic culture

• Cultural policy and cultural diversity

• Family, gender and generations: How migration reconfigures intimate relations?

• Housing, cities and ethnic minorities

• Living, working and studying in lingua francae in the Nordic countries: the case of migrants

• Migrant labour in rural areas

• Migration and Ethnicity in Nordic History

• Moving beyond nations – anthropological perspectives on migration and transnationalism

• Position of immigrants in the labour market

• Postcolonial Feminist Perspectives on the Nordic Countries

• Refugees, transnationalism and diaspora

• Religion, migration and diaspora

For further information: http://www.etmu.fi.Paper proposals: etmu2007@etmu.fi Contact person: Gabi Limbach, gabi.limbach@abo.fi

Call for papers:

“An Unsettled Future?” Forced Migration and Refugee Studies in the 21st Century, International Conference

Time:	7-8 Desember 2007
Place:	University of Oxford

Deadline : September 14, 2007

This year the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) at the University of Oxford celebrates 25 years of pioneering research in the field of refugee and forced migration studies. The past quarter of a century, like many before it, has seen human displacement on an enormous scale, touching all continents and the lives of millions of people. States, international organisations, and NGOs have often struggled to deal with the social, political and economic consequences of forced movement. Alongside these developments, the study of refugee movements and forced migration more generally has grown. Increasing numbers of academics from different disciplines have turned their attention to understanding displacement in its many forms and varieties, often with impressive results.

In December 2007, as the culmination of its 25th Anniversary, the RSC will hold a two-day international conference dedicated to bringing scholars together to take stock of the state of research on refugee and forced migration movements. The conference will consider, in particular, how refugee and forced migration studies have progressed in the years since the RSC’s inception and what contemporary challenges and future directions should inform the ongoing development of these areas of study.

Details about specific conferences themes and guidelines for paper proposals can be found at http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/PDFs/unsettled.pdf. All submissions should be sent to Paul Ryder, Research Information Officer: paul.ryder@qeh.ox.ac.uk, by 14th September 2007. Proposed participants will be notified by October 14 whether or not their proposed paper/panel has been accepted. The conference organisers are Professor Roger Zetter and Dr Matthew J. Gibney. For more information: www.rsc.ox.ac.uk.

Publications:

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. (2007) The ethics of identity. Princeton University Press. For more information..

Aune, Lillian.(2007) Likhet i ulikhet : en studie av hvordan en flerkulturell ungdomsgruppe i Uppsala, Sverige, skaper ett felles verdigrunnlag for samhandling. Hovedoppgave i sosialantropologi, Universitetet i Oslo. Last ned hele oppgaven her.

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland og Øyvind Fuglerud(red)(2007) Grenser for Kultur?Perspektiver fra norsk minoritetsforskning. Pax Forlag, Oslo. For more information..

Faist, Thomas and Andreas Ette(eds.) (2007) The Europeanization of national policies and politics of immigration : between authonomy and the European Union. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. For more information..

Grewal, Pavinder(2007) Bonds and bridges : social capital in Tamil Diaspora. M. Phil. in Multicultural and International Education, Oslo University College.

Ruth Lister, Fiona Williams, Anneli Anttonen…[et al.](2007)Gendering citizenship in Western Europe : new challenges for citizenship research in a cross-national context. Bristol : Policy Press. For more information..

Neill, William J.V. and Hanns-Uve Schwedler(eds.)(2007) Migration and cultural inclusion in the European city. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan. For more information..

Rinus Penninx, Karen Kraal, Maria Berger (eds)(2007) The Dynamics of International Migration and Settlement in Europe: A State of the Art. IMISCOE Joint studies, Amsterdam University Press.

A fundamental issue in society today, migration has been undergoing a new dynamic that calls for innovative policy approaches. This new dynamic is not yet fully understood, let alone are there adequate policy answers to deal with ‘the managing’ of these new migration processes and their consequences for receiving and sending societies. The wide-ranging overview of migration research conducted through the IMISCOE network analyses the influx of various types of immigrants in a post-World War II Western Europe, mostly to large cities, as well as the reactions of the native populations and governments to the changes and pressures brought about by immigration. Preview or order this book at www.aup.nl/imiscoe

Polyakova, Irina (2007)“Unge jenter tilbys jobb i utlandet” : en kvalitativ studie av transnasjonal prostitusjon til Norge fra Øst-Europa. Masteroppgave i sosiologi, Universitetet i Oslo. Last ned hele oppgaven her