Images and stories from the borderlands

My paper introduces geo-political and symbolic dynamics of 21st century Europe through three conceptual prisms: those of borders or border communities, networks, and neighbourhoods. Each of these can be seen as both descriptive lenses for capturing specific phenomenon of social interaction in geographical spaces as well as metaphors for imagining human encounters across visible or invisible divisions, such as for example nationhood, ethnicity, race, religion or gender. In the first part, my paper analyses the implications for each of these imaginaries for theoretical and empirical research. In the second part I will show with different examples how these conceptual frames affected my own fieldwork practices in a series of European research projects during the last decade: European Border Discourse, 2000-2003; Changing City Spaces 2002-2005, Sefone 2007-2010 and TNMundi 2006-2010. Examples will include a rich, multi-layered spectrum of every-day life narratives as well as examples of artistic productions. A version of this paper with the text of interviews in both German and English throughout is available on request from the author

Cultural diversity in Europe: a story of mutual benefit

The paper highlights the considerable positive impact of cultural diversity and the mutual benefit accrued for migrants and non-migrants alike. Against the background of growing hostility against, and increasing politicisation of the presence of migrants in European societies it sets a different vision of mutual respect, collaboration and benefit. So as to show the way in which contemporary migration is not a ‘one-way’ street of movements from poorer to richer countries where the rich offer all and receive nothing in return, the paper develops a four-tiered ‘hub’ structure that highlights complex multidirectional connections and mutual support of people in transnational networks. Central to the argument is the understanding that migrants do not come empty-handed but possess substantial ‘transcultural capital ‘that forms the basis for enriching reciprocal encounters between the global North and the global South. The paper offers much-needed empirical data from these encounters based on the author’s field work in Madagascar and across different European countries

Characterization of a monoclonal antibody that induces the acrosome reaction of sea urchin sperm.

A monoclonal antibody, J18/29, induces the acrosome reaction (AR) in spermatozoa of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. J18/29 induces increases in both intracellular Ca2+ and intracellular pH similar to those occurring upon induction of the AR by the natural inducer, the fucose sulfate-rich glycoconjugate of egg jelly. Lowering the Ca2+ concentration or the pH of the seawater inhibits the J18/29-induced AR, as does treatment with Co2+, an inhibitor of Ca2+ channels. The J18/29-induced AR is also inhibited by verapamil, tetraethylammonium chloride, and elevated K+. All these treatments cause similar inhibition of the egg jelly-induced AR. J18/29 reacts with a group of membrane proteins ranging in molecular mass from 340 to 25 kD, as shown by immunoprecipitation of lysates of 125I-labeled sperm and Western blots. The most prominent reacting proteins are of molecular masses of 320, 240, 170, and 58 kD. The basis of the multiple reactivity appears to reside in the polypeptide chains of these proteins, as J18/29 binding is sensitive to protease digestion but resistant to periodate oxidation. There are approximately 570,000 sites per cell for J18/29 binding. J18/29 is the only reagent of known binding specificity that induces the AR; it identifies a subset of sperm membrane proteins whose individual characterization may lead to the isolation of the receptors involved in the triggering of the AR at fertilization

Music and Migration: A Transnational Approach

This special issue on the theme of Music and Migration addresses the highly topical theme of migration and the vitality of “cultural diasporas” through the prism of migrating musicians and migrating musical forms. All nine original articles, including our own, engage with broader questions of how new modes of mobility and sociality are borne out of the social, cultural, historical and political interfaces between migration and music. Through a transnational, comparative and multi-level approach to the relationship between migration, movement and music, this special issue focuses on the aesthetic intersections between the local and the global, and between agency and identity. By taking music as its specific focus, the issue seeks to contribute to ongoing theoretical and methodological debates within migration and diaspora studies, including those related to transnational networks, globalization and cultural flows

Singing a New Song? Transnational Migration, Methodological Nationalism and Cosmopolitan Perspectives

The question posed by this article is how all of us - scholars, musicians, citizens of the world can step out of the migrant/native divide and still leave room to study and theorize creative processes that bring together the intertwining of cultural influences. How can we discard a concept of hybridity with its implications of a prior state of native purity and address the ongoing mutual interactions that unfold within migration processes? This is an ever pressing question for cultural theory in a world in which there is widespread migration and a cyberspace environment of multiple interconnections. Migration provides a base for theorizing cultural processes that extend beyond the specificity of people crossing borders. In order to begin answering this question it is useful to ask when and why do we see a migrant/ foreigner vs. native divide in the first place. This divide reflects and reinforces a tendency in various disciplines to equate nation-state boundaries with the concept of society. In the first section of this article, we will explore the nature and implications of methodological nationalism and place it within a historical context. In its stead we will offer what Glick Schiller has called “a global power perspective on migration” (Glick Schiller, 2009, 2010b). In the second part of the paper we will apply this perspective to case studies of the transnational social field of musical creation that stretches between Europe and localities of artistic production in Africa. Focusing on the movements and interconnections of musicians of Malagasy origin, we will illustrate the ways in which transnational networking can give rise to substantial ‘transcultural capital’, (Kiwan and Meinhof, 2011; Meinhof, 2009; Meinhof and Triandafyllidou, 2006b) and thus underpin the professionalization of some artists, but can also reflect the inequalities and multiple pressures for authenticity in the world music market

Moderne und Rückständigkeit.

Im folgenden Artikel werde ich knapp die Genese von Diskursen kolonialer Zeitlichkeit in China umreißen. Ich werde darauf eingehen, was koloniale Zeitlichkeit ist und warum ihre Erforschung für die postkoloniale Soziologie gewinnversprechend ist. Anschließend werde ich knapp darstellen, wie in China der Begriff der Moderne und Diskurse um Fortschritt und Modernisierung im Kontext des westlichen und japanischen Kolonialismus entstanden, und warum die Genese in diesem Kontext dazu führte, dass das Konzept der Moderne mit einem Element der Kolonialität – mit kolonialer Zeitlichkeit – aufgeladen wurde. Anschließend werde ich ebenso knapp umreißen, welche sozialen Auswirkungen die Verbindung von Moderne und kolonialer Zeitlichkeit in China hatte, indem ich die Performativität des Konzeptes in verschiedenen Reformversuchen und Diskursen in China anspreche

Das Hervorbringen von Vielfalt in der Shoppingmall

Im folgenden Aufsatz ziehe ich videographische Daten von Interaktionen während des Shoppings in Shoppingmallgeschäften in China heran, um die situierte Etablierung von Vielfalt in Shoppingmalls zu untersuchen. Anhand der exemplarischen Daten skizziere ich das Argument, dass in Shoppingmallgeschäften eine bestimmte Art von Vielfalt, und damit indirekt auch eine bestimmte Art von Auswahl hervorgebracht wird. Diese Vielfalt wird auf drei Ebenen hervorgebracht: Die Vielfalt des Angebotes wird in Interaktionen zwischen Kund*innen und Verkäufer*innen als eine geteilte Situationsdefinition etabliert; der Geschäftsraum wird so arrangiert, dass seine Waren als vielfältiges Angebot erlebbar und erkundbar werden; das Geschäft und sein Angebot werden so designt, dass eine bestimmte, in Marketingdiskursen entworfene Vorstellung von Vielfalt realisiert wird. Die Vielfalt des Angebotes ist damit nicht einfach durch die Anzahl oder Beschaffenheit der Objekte im Geschäft bedingt, sondern wird sozial konstruiert – und das in einer Weise, die nur eine bestimmte Art von Vielfalt fördert. Das Angebot der Shoppingmall erlaubt dabei eine Vielfalt von Waren und Stilen, aber nicht unbedingt eine Vielfalt von verschiedenen Umgangsweisen mit Waren

Postkoloniale Perspektivierung der Soziologie: Von Äpfeln und Birnen in der gegenwärtigen Debatte

Im vorliegenden Aufsatz strukturieren wir die seit 2018 in der SOZIOLOGIE geführte, anhaltende Diskussion um postkoloniale Soziologie anhand zentraler theoretischer Vorannahmen zu Raum, Wissen und Macht, sowie in Bezug auf zugrundeliegende Erkenntnisinteressen. Wir fokussieren uns auf Missverständnisse, die durch mangelnde Klärung theoretischer Vorannahmen entstehen können. Dabei gehen wir auf die für uns wesentlichen Argumente in der Debatte sowie auf die deutschsprachige postkoloniale Soziologie-Landschaft ein und plädieren für eine post- und dekoloniale Perspektivierung der Soziologie als Erkenntnismethode. Dies erlaubt aus unserer Sicht zweierlei: einerseits, blinde Flecken der Soziologie als Produkte eines bestimmten institutionellen Konstituierungsprozesses dieser Disziplin zu reflektieren; andererseits, die Soziologie systematisch als relationale, geschichtssensibilisierte, globale Soziologie der Macht neu zu denken. In this essay, we structure the ongoing discussion on postcolonial sociology taking place in SOZIOLOGIE since 2018 in terms of key theoretical presuppositions about space, knowledge, and power, as well as in terms of underlying epistemological interests. We focus on the misunderstandings that can arise from a lack of clarification of theoretical presuppositions. In doing so, we address what we consider to be the main arguments in the debate as well as the German-language postcolonial sociology landscape and argue for a post- and decolonial perspectivization of sociology as an epistemological method. In our view, this allows for two things: on the one hand, to reflect on blind spots in sociology as products of a particular institutional constitutional process of this discipline; on the other hand, to systematically rethink sociology as a relational, historically sensitive, global sociology of power