scholarly journals “I Have Been Born, Raised and Lived My Whole Life Here” – Perpetually on the Move While Remaining Still

Author(s):  
Oliver Clifford Pedersen ◽  
Tania Zittoun

AbstractThis article explores the story of Einar, a Faroese man who always lived within a 500-meters radius on the island of Suðuroy, who never felt “stuck” or “immobile” in the literal sense of the word. Studies have shown that staying is a process, as much as mobility; yet while mobility studies mainly show that imagination is an incentive to move, we argue that imagination may also actively support staying. Combining sociocultural psychology with mobility studies, we propose to explore the entanglement of symbolic mobility (a form of imagination) and various forms of geographical (im)mobility. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and hours of conversation, we present the case study of Einar’s life on his island. We follow the sociogenetic development of the island, and the expansion and contraction of the imaginative horizon over time. On this background, we then retrace the life of Einar and show how, within this transforming context, his imagination developed thanks to resources he could use from the mobility of technologies, ideas, and other people. Interestingly, at different bifurcation points, his symbolic mobility almost led him to move away but, at another point, helped him to refuse geographical mobility. Hence, he was always symbolically mobile while staying. We finally propose directions for generalising from this case study, and implications for cultural psychology and for mobility and migration studies.

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 616-639
Author(s):  
Duduzile S. Ndlovu

Abstract:Migration debates tend to focus on the numbers of people moving, whether they are economic migrants or asylum seekers, deserving or not of protection. This categorization usually rests on national identity, necessitating simplified one-dimensional representations. Ndlovu uses a case study of Zimbabwean migrants memorializing Gukurahundi in Johannesburg to highlight the ways in which migration narratives can be more complex and how they may shift over time. She presents Gukurahundi and the formation of the MDC in Zimbabwe, along with xenophobic violence in South Africa, as examples of the ways that the meanings of national and ethnic identities are contested by the migrants and influenced by political events across time and space.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 654-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Zittoun

This paper proposes a sociocultural psychology approach to mobility. It distinguishes geographical mobility, drawing on mobility studies, from symbolic mobility, that can be achieved through imagination. After the presentation of a theoretical framework, it examines the possible interplay between geographical and symbolic mobility through three case studies: that of people moving to a retirement home, that of a young woman’s trajectory through the Second World War in the UK, and that of families in repeated geographical mobility. The paper thus shows that imagination may expand or guide geographic mobility, but also, in some case, create some stability when geographic mobility becomes excessive. More importantly, it shows that over time, people engage in trajectories of imagination: their various geographical and symbolic mobilities can eventually transform their very mode of imagining.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. eaav8083 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Thomsen ◽  
Rasmus Andreasen

The application of87Sr/86Sr in prehistoric mobility studies requires accurate strontium reference maps. These are often based from present-day surface waters. However, the use of agricultural lime in low to noncalcareous soils can substantially change the87Sr/86Sr compositions of surface waters. Water unaffected by agriculture in western Denmark has an average87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7124 as compared to an average of 0.7097 in water from nearby farmland. The87Sr/86Sr ratio obtained from samples over 1.5 km along a stream, which originates in a forest and flows through lime-treated farmland, decreased from 0.7131 to 0.7099. Thus,87Sr/86Sr-based mobility and provenance studies in regions with low to noncalcareous soils should be reassessed. For example, reinterpreting the iconic Bronze Age women at Egtved and Skrydstrup using values unaffected by agricultural lime indicates that it is most plausible that these individuals originated close to their burial sites and not far abroad as previously suggested.


Author(s):  
Megan Ryburn

This chapter expands on the conceptual framing of the book, bringing together literature from political philosophy, on citizenship in Latin America, and from migration studies. It traces the origins of citizenship, examines critiques of the classic liberal interpretation, and explores iterations of citizenship in Latin American contexts. It then turns to similarly outline how interpretations of the processes lived by migrants have changed over time, also providing a brief account of migration in and from Bolivia and to Chile. This serves to enable the final discussion, which draws together perspectives on citizenship and migration with work on uncertainty to develop the twin concepts of transnational spaces of citizenship and uncertain citizenship.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-181
Author(s):  
Alexander A Caviedes

This article explores the link between migrants and crime as portrayed in the European press. Examining conservative newspapers from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2016, the study situates the press coverage in each individual country within a comparative perspective that contrasts the frequency of the crime narrative to that of other prominent narratives, as well as to that in the other countries. The article also charts the prevalence of this narrative over time, followed by a discussion of which particular aspects of crime are most commonly referenced in each country. The findings suggest that while there has been no steady increase in the coverage of crime and migration, the press securitizes migration by focusing on crime through a shared emphasis on human trafficking and the non-European background of the perpetrators. However, other frames advanced in these newspapers, such as fraud or organized crime, comprise nationally distinctive characteristics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Dowling ◽  
Somikazi Deyi ◽  
Anele Gobodwana

While there have been a number of studies on the decontextualisation and secularisation of traditional ritual music in America, Taiwan and other parts of the globe, very little has been written on the processes and transformations that South Africa’s indigenous ceremonial songs go through over time. This study was prompted by the authors’ interest in, and engagement with the Xhosa initiation song Somagwaza, which has been re-imagined as a popular song, but has also purportedly found its way into other religious spaces. In this article, we attempted to investigate the extent to which the song Somagwaza is still associated with the Xhosa initiation ritual and to analyse evidence of it being decontextualised and secularised in contemporary South Africa. Our methodology included an examination of the various academic treatments of the song, an analysis of the lyrics of a popular song, bearing the same name, holding small focus group discussions, and distributing questionnaires to speakers of isiXhosa on the topic of the song. The data gathered were analysed using the constant comparative method of analysing qualitative research.


2002 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D Anderson ◽  
John C Zasada ◽  
Glen W Erickson ◽  
Zigmond A Zasada

A white pine (Pinus strobus L.) stand at the western margin of the species range, approximately 125 years of age at present, was thinned in 1953 from 33.5 m2 ha-1 to target residual basal areas of 18.4, 23.0, 27.5, and 32.1 m2 ha-1 . Repeated measurement over the following 43-years indicated that the greatest total volume production and the greatest number of large diameter trees occurred in the unit of highest residual density. Over time, the distribution of stems was predominantly random although mortality between 1979 and 1996 resulted in a tendency for clumping in the 23.0 and 27.5 m2 ha-1 treatments. DNA analysis indicated that thinning intensity had little effect on the genetic diversity of residual white pine. This study suggests that mature white pine stands in northern Minnesota may be managed at relatively high densities without loss of productivity. However, regardless of overstory density, there was little or no white pine regeneration occurring in this stand. Key words: thinning, growth, genetic diversity, molecular markers, spatial pattern, regeneration


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110249
Author(s):  
Peer Smets ◽  
Younes Younes ◽  
Marinka Dohmen ◽  
Kees Boersma ◽  
Lenie Brouwer

During the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe, temporary refugee shelters arose in the Netherlands to shelter the large influx of asylum seekers. The largest shelter was located in the eastern part of the country. This shelter, where tents housed nearly 3,000 asylum seekers, was managed with a firm top-down approach. However, many residents of the shelter—mainly Syrians and Eritreans—developed horizontal relations with the local receiving society, using social media to establish contact and exchange services and goods. This case study shows how various types of crisis communication played a role and how the different worlds came together. Connectivity is discussed in relation to inclusion, based on resilient (non-)humanitarian approaches that link society with social media. Moreover, we argue that the refugee crisis can be better understood by looking through the lens of connectivity, practices, and migration infrastructure instead of focusing only on state policies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1354067X2110173
Author(s):  
Danilo Silva Guimarães

This article aims to discuss the relationship between personal cultural experience and knowledge construction in psychology, from the perspective of the Semiotic-Cultural Constructivism. The thoughts here presented are, at the same time, from within psychology and about psychology. The researcher is culturally situated and science is a field of production of cultural works that aims to create perspectives of knowledge about the world. Researchers can and must create some detachment from their field of study to be able to understand the course of their own knowledge constructions. This detachment is achieved through a historical–philosophical view on the theoretical–methodological propositions of their field of research. As a case study, we selected for analysis the field’s pioneer productions, from the years 1982 to 2004. The material showed that the rationality that characterizes scientific research is directed, in this field, to creating semiotic resources for further developing reflexivity in psychology, as a recursive and open-ended process. The theoretical–methodological work of the researcher concerns its own personal cultural experience and the tradition of the already constructed knowledge, selected to a dialogue about the ethical implications of human action. Therefore, advances in psychological knowledge construction cannot be addressed from an external, allegedly neutral point of view, focused on the efficacy of the instruments resulting from the said “scientific progress.”


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Awadh Jasim ◽  
Laura Hanks ◽  
Katharina Borsi

AbstractToday, the concept of built heritage authenticity is a projection screen for conflicting demands and thus a ‘contested field’. Short-sighted readings started to drag the concept behind different ill-considered treatises, in which some heritage aspects loosely outweighed other aspects. Archaeological perspectives that tend to freeze heritage structures in time, such as those that are privileged upon other contemporary socio-cultural issues, while political takes also overshadowed other epistemological prospects, and vice versa. Repercussions have made inclusion of what is regarded as ‘inevitable changes’ within the built context problematic as to the re-interpretation and thus assessment of its authenticity. Despite their possible momentary threat to the latter, these changes may add to the cultural value of the context over time, granting new potential that may instead boost its authenticity. This paper investigates the potential continuity of Erbil Citadel’s Babylonian Gate as an inevitable change within the site’s built context by studying the Gate’s controversial political impacts on the context’s authenticity. This study affirms that authenticity is a transcendental value of an open-ended progressive nature, which cannot be reduced to a specific period or properties within the historical chronology of built heritage. Hence, authenticity should be approached as a meaningful existential issue, while revelation of its essence and thus its dimension entails precise scrutiny of both the tangibles and intangibles of the context. However, to be part of its authenticity, any change in the context should be adaptable and possibly incorporated as a new value within its cultural strata, thus enabling progressive support for site authenticity.


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