scholarly journals Being There While Not Being There

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-61
Author(s):  
Laura K. McAdam-Otto ◽  
Sarah Nimführ
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
Quality Criterion ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Migration Research ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Being There ◽  
A Site

Multi-sited research has become a quality criterion for ethnographic research. This applies especially to studies on forced migration. Here, a site is often equated with a state, where researchers are usually required to be physically present. In this article, however, we ask: Must multi-sited research necessarily be multi-national? Do researchers have to be physically present at all sites? By discussing ethnographic material collected with forced migrants in Malta, we demonstrate that multi-sitedness is viewed in too narrow terms when site is equated with the nation-state. Adopting this approach also obscures refugees’ lived realities, their patterns of movement and their often truncated mobility. Instead, we carve out an understanding of multi-sited ethnography within one locality, introducing the concept of un-participated sites to include sites researchers are not able to physically visit. While the inaccessibility of sites is often inherent to ethnographic studies, it is all the more relevant for migration research.

scholarly journals Refugee Voices: Exploring the Border Zones between States and State Bureaucracies

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Chatty
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
World Order ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Border Zones ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Political Security ◽  
Policy Solutions

Settled people have been forced to move and nomads have been coerced into settling for as long as there has been history. Until the emergence of the Westphalian concept of the nation (where the state corresponded to the nation, groups of people united by language and culture), movement and mobility were largely recognized and accommodated. However, most contemporary academic disciplines as well as public institutions adopt a particular sedentist perspective on the nation-state. It is commonly recognized that people are displaced and move when political states collapse; they return when political security is restored. The liminal “state” outside the defined territory of the nation-state, where the displaced are found, is regarded as a threat to the world order.1 Predominant theory has been that people must be tied to territory, and thus the durable policy solutions advanced are frequently about resettlement. Reality does not support either current forced migration theory or humanitarian aid practices, however, and an epistemological change in thinking about forced migrants is urgently required. This means looking beyond the nationstate— the purview of most academic work in this area— and beyond traditional barriers between disciplines, to give cross-disciplinary attention to the self-expressions and experiences of forced migrants. Furthermore, the forced migrant creates a dilemma in how aesthetic expression is displayed, as their forms of expression cannot be squarely identified with one state or another. The dispossessed and displaced are changed by their experiences in the grey zones between states, and their migrations cannot be neatly catalogued as belonging to one state or culture.

scholarly journals Displacements of Memory

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-17
Author(s):  
Philip Marfleet
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

The experiences of refugees—their “voices” and memories—have routinely been excluded from the historical record. With rare exceptions, refugees are absent from mainstream history: although specific episodes of forced migration may be carefully recorded and even celebrated in national histories, most refugee movements are ignored and their participants silenced. This article examines the practice of exclusion and its implications for historical research and for the study of forced migration. It considers experiences of refugees from the early modern era until the twenty-first century, mobilizing examples from Europe, the Americas, and South Asia, and offering comparative observations. It examines relationships between forced migrants and institutions of the nation-state, and the meanings of exclusion within ideologies of national belonging. It considers remedial measures and their implications for current efforts to ensure refugee voices are heard and understood.

Refusing Shame and Inertia

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-144
Author(s):  
Natalie Dixon
Keyword(s):  
Communication Technology ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Train Station ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Migrant Community ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
A Site ◽  
Media Practices

Abstract In this paper, mobile communication is examined in the context of forced migration from an affective perspective using the case study of an informal migrant camp that was established in 2015 at Budapest’s Keleti train station. Drawing on concepts of migration, affect and media, I examine various news reports and social media commentary about the camp as well as the makeshift Wi-Fi network that was established there in relation to Hungarian populist politics. I posit the station as a site of contestation between migrants, the Hungarian government and non-governmental actors that speaks to the politicisation of communication technology. The conclusion points to how mobile communication provides a way for forced migrants to create a heterotopic space in extreme conditions as the migrant community is affectively moored by media practices that enable feelings of familiarity and security. These practices not only constitute a kind of refuge for migrants but also offer a form of refusal, however small, towards the shaming and inertia they experience.

Fictive Fathers in the Field

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-273
Author(s):  
Katrina Daly Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Impact

Through my own narrative about my relationship with my fictive father in Zanzibar and the impact of this relationship on my research, in this autoethnographic essay I explore three themes: fictiveness, fatherhood, and the field. These themes tie together different aspects of the term “patriography,” linking them to ethnography and its subgenre autoethnography. Drawing on the term “patriography” as the science or study of fathers, I use the concept of “the field” to examine the impact of narratives about fathers on not only the field as a site of ethnographic research but also on the field of African cultural studies.

On Being a Punk and a Scholar: A Reflexive Account of Researching a Punk Scene in Russia

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 135-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Gololobov
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Social World ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Youth Subcultures ◽  
The University

Ethnographic studies of youth subcultures, scenes and urban tribes often rely on insiders’ accounts, where researchers investigate a social environment of which they are presently or formerly members. This approach raises important questions about the positionality of the researcher, and the reflexivity, epistemology and ethics of an ethnographic investigation, as different roles and engagement with the field, as well as the very identity of the ‘field’ itself, no longer fit into the methodological framework of traditional ethnography. This article explores the difficulties that arise during ethnographic research on one's own social world. I was actively involved in the Russian punk scene before pursuing my academic career in England, and in the framework of a research project on post-socialist punk at the University of Warwick, I went back to study this milieu as a ‘field’ in two different sites in 2009 and in 2010. The article shows the complexity of researching one's own subculture and demonstrates that active discentring of the ‘knowing authority’ in studying one's own ‘tribe’ necessarily involves a transformation of its main research paradigms, where epistemological and ethical issues appear to be rearranged in a new way which radically affects the methodological foundations of such an investigation.

scholarly journals Tragic and Heroic Moments in the Lives of Forced Migrants: Memories of Political Asylum-Seekers in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Refuge ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest A. Pineteh ◽  
Thecla N. Mulu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Political Asylum ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
At Home

This article examines the memories of a group of Cameroonian asylum-seekers in South Africa, analyzing personal accounts of memories of fear, suffering, and pain as well as resilience and heroism during their forced migration. The article argues that the legitimacy of applications for asylum often depends on accurate and consistent memories of specific life-threatening episodes at home and during migration. Drawing on theoretical conceptions such as construction of memory, autobiographical memory, and politics of storytelling, this article teases out how personal memories of asylum-seekers provide a discursive space to access and understand the asymmetries of seeking political asylum in post-apartheid South Africa.

scholarly journals Archaeological and Ethnographic Hobbies of F. N. Glinka in the Context of His «Active Life»

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-297
Author(s):  
Natalia V. Zaytseva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Literature ◽  
Local History ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Life Attitudes ◽  
Active Life ◽  
General Benefit

The article is devoted to F. N. Glinka’s archaeological and ethnographic interests and research related to his interest in Russian history, his position as an educator, and his desire to be useful to society. The author focuses on Glinka’s local history journey of 1810–1811, his scientific and educational activities as Chairman of the Free society of admirers of Russian literature, folklore and ethnographic studies during the Petrozavodsk exile, archaeological research on the territory of Tver Karelia, and their poetic and scientific interpretation. Glinka’s archaeological and ethnographic research is considered in the article through the prism of his life attitudes, to which he has always remained faithful – to find happiness «in an active life, for the General benefit».

scholarly journals Forced Migrants from Central Asia in Terms of Archival Documents (1991-2002): A Case Study of the Chelyabinsk Region

2021 ◽  
pp. 767-778
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Avdashkin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Population Census ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Forced Migrants ◽  
Chelyabinsk Region ◽  
High Level

The article draws on the documents from the United State Archive of Chelyabinsk Region and the State Archive of the Russian Federation to examine forced migration from the former Soviet republics to the South Urals in 1991-2002. The choice of chronological framework is due to the fact that this period saw the peak of forced migration caused by the outflow from the military conflicts zones and due to the difficulties of post-socialist transit in the states of Central Asia. The 2002 Population Census allows the author to draw the balance of these processes and to identify the number of the region’s residents who arrived from the former Soviet Union republics between 1989 and 2002. The Chelyabinsk region is a part of the Russian-Kazakh frontier. After the collapse of the USSR and the reformatting of state borders, this borderland was an extended settlement area of the Russian-speaking population, mostly leaning towards moving from Kazakhstan. Due to a sufficiently high level of development, transport accessibility and low start-up opportunities for migrants, these border regions became one of the main places for receiving forced displacements from the Central Asian states, mostly Kazakhstan. In the current historiographical situation, a holistic reconstruction and detailing of these large-scale migrations requires a reliance on new historical sources. Archival documents of regional migration services contain valuable data on the number of forced migrants, their main areas of origin, socio-demographic characteristics, and other important parameters. The documents revealed in the fonds of the OGACHO and the GARF have showed that, at the initial stage, the backbone of migration flows was the Russian-speaking population from neighboring Kazakhstan, able-bodied, with a sufficiently high level of skills. This compensated for demographic losses due catastrophic growth of mortality and decline in birth rate. Thus, according to the migration service of the region, migration compensated for more than half of the total population loss, without any significant impact on its ethnic composition. At the same time, migrants encountered numerous difficulties in integrating into Russian society, which were rarely reflected in the specific documentation of state institutions. Many of the arrived, for various reasons, were not included in the forced migrants and refugees statistics due to numerous bureaucratic difficulties and an objective lack of resources for helping such a large number of people.

scholarly journals Ampa Co’i Ndai: Local Understanding of Kafā’a in Marriage among Eastern Indonesian Muslims

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 311
Author(s):  
Atun Wardatun
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Government Employee ◽  
Eastern Indonesia ◽  
Gender Power ◽  
A Site

This article draws on an ethnographic research that focuses on the cultural practice of female-paid matrimonial funding, ampa co’i ndai (ACN), among semi-urban Bimanese Muslims of Eastern Indonesia. The practice takes place when the bride, with the help of her parents and female relatives, pays her marriage payment (co’i, including mahr). It is used only when the prospective groom is a government employee, for it is assumed as a social status raiser. During the declaration of marriage, the payment is announced to have come from the groom. This article uses the practice as a site to examine the particularity of practising Islamic laws in everyday life of eastern Indonesian Muslims. The narratives of nineteen Muslim women who have been involved in ACN reveal what its functions as an equalising mechanism, through which gendered power-relations is minimised while perpetuating traditional position of wives and husbands as a complementary couple within their family as well as before society. I argue that  ACN has been seen as a modified understanding of kafā’a in fiqh which means “equality” to “complementarity.” However, this local understanding of kafā’a is a testament to the complexities of gender power relations.[Artikel ini adalah penelitian etnografi tentang praktik AMPA co’i ndai (ACN) di kalangan masyarakat semi-urban muslim Bima di kawasan timur Indonesia. Budaya ini dilaksanakan dengan cara pengantin perempuan, dengan bantuan orang tua dan saudara perempuannya, menyediakan biaya pernikahan (co’i dan mahar). Tradisi ini dipraktikkan hanya ketika calon pengantin pria adalah pegawai negeri, yang diasumsikan memiliki status sosial yang lebih. Namun, saat resepsi pernikahan, deiumumkan bahwa biaya-biaya berasal dari pengantin pria. Narasi kehidupan dari sembilan belas perempuan yang terlibat mengungkapkan fungsi ACN sebagai mekanisme penyetaraan gender dengan meminimalkan relasi kuasa serta nmendudukkan pasangan untuk saling melengkapi dalam keluarga maupun masyarakat. Praktik ACN dapat dilihat sebagai bentuk lokal pemahaman konsep kafā’a, yang berarti “kesetaraan” untuk “melengkapi”. Namun, pemahaman lokal kafā’a ini merupakan bukti kompleksitas relasi kuasa dalam masalah gender.]

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document