Localising transnationalism: researching political and cultural events in a context of migration

"Migration studies have extensively dealt with networks, transnational spaces and migration fields during the last 15 years. Recently, the focus has gone back to the very local rooting of these transnational spaces: Ludger Pries links geographic and sociological aspects by analysing the 'spatial spanning of the social'; Nina Glick Schiller and Ayse çaglar develop a 'theory of locality in migration studies'. In francophone social geography there is a similar research agenda influenced by Gildas Simon and in migration sociology there are growing interests in researching local-global embedding processes, such as Alain Tarrius' 'La mondialisation par le bas' (globalization from below). Inspired by these approaches, I give two empirical examples for localising transnationalism: By researching political and cultural events in a context of migration, I will show how the understanding of a specific event within an urban context can help us to recognize the rooting of transnational networks. Therefore, my epistemological focus considers festive events as platforms for the negotiation of inclusion/ exclusion and transformation processes within migration. Minorities and majorities are therefore seen as historically-evolved dynamic categories. This choice avoids taking an a priori-defined ethnic, religious or sociocultural category as a key issue in the processes of communitarization. The link of theoretical debates on rituals and events, on translocal social spaces and on globalization leads to innovative methodological instruments in action theory. These allow us to research festive events and their integrative impact in a migratory context. The 1st example will be the Murid parade in New York, where followers of a Sufi group get successfully integrated in the social and urban space in the United States. The 2nd example shows how origin works temporarily as a resource within festive events in Paris, which finally leads to the emergence of a we-group based on a common belonging to an urban territory." (author's abstract

When the mosque goes Beethoven: Expressing religious belongings through music

The present article will provide insight on music as a vector of religious belonging: a female choir at a mosque in the Lake Geneva Metropolitan Region has reinterpreted Beethoven's Ode to Joy with new text about the glory of the Messenger, and a regional political and religious event which has united music from Syria, Kosovo and Tunisia in order to put on stage the cosmopolitan characteristics of Swiss Muslims. Religious and national belonging as well as cultural references can be expressed in different ways through ritual practices (prayer), celebrations, food or clothing. These practices, influenced by gender and age, are highly diverse. Celebrations that are performed in public also depend on the local and global political context, the specific social situation and the specific place (location, public, legal framework etc.). As part of a broader research project on "(In)visible Islam in the city", a research team directed by Monika Salzbrunn has observed various forms of celebration - both religious and secular festive events - in which Muslim citizens are involved. At what audience are these musical performances directed? Can we really separate an analysis of religious belongings from an analysis of political and/or cultural performances

Vielfalt/Diversity/Diversité

Monika Salzbrunn: Vielfalt/Diversity/Diversit

Introduction

De la sociologie de l'immigration vers les études transnationales? Les multiples approches de la sociologie des migrations en France

Constructing Local Belonging through Art and Activism in Context of Anti-Migration Politics, Stigmatisation and Gentrification: What Migration Studies can Learn from Belleville and Maddalena

Despite a decade of self-criticism, research perspectives on migration studies remain too often centred on national belonging (Glick Schiller & Çağlar 2011). Based on two empirical examples, self-organised fashion and music shows in Paris and Genoa, this article shows how “event lenses” can constructively replace “ethnic lenses” in the analysis of artivistic practices that aim at changing political situations and living conditions. Wearing “event lenses” also helps us to question supposed homogeneities and to investigate common civic or political practices and interests by emphasizing multiple belonging processes in various social situations (Yuval-Davis et al. 2006, 7). I show how the research perspective of migration studies can be guided by the complexity of migrants’ multiple belongings and by situational analysis. The article presents results from my ERC project “ARTIVISM. Art and activism. Creativity and Performance as Subversive Forms of Political Expression in Super-Diverse Cities”, guided by an event-centred approach and multi-sensory audio-visual ethnography. The Parisian district of Belleville and the Maddalena district of Genoa suffer both from negative stigmatisations related to informal economical practices. I show how the super-diverse populations in these marginalised but gentrifying spaces creatively reverse xenophobic stigmata, by valorising their biographies and multiple belongings through fashion shows

Harald Kleinschmidt, Migration und Integration. Theoretische und historische Perspektiven

À première vue, le sous-titre de cet ouvrage sur la migration et l'intégration, « perspectives théoriques et historiques », paraît quelque peu audacieux, d'autant que cette ambition tranche avec le langage narratif qui apparaît déjà à la lecture de la table des matières : « Pourquoi des Africains sont venus à Kassel au XVIIIe siècle » (chapitre 8) ou « Pourquoi James Cook voyagea dans le Pacifique et des marchandises vinrent de Hawaï à Göttingen » (chapitre 10). Si l'on fait toutefois le pari..

Börse, Forum, Laufsteg: "Religiöse" Feste als Hybride

Gibt es "religiöse" Ereignisse? Oder sind nicht alle Zusammenkünfte, die anlässlich religiöser Praktiken organisiert werden, per se hybrid? Die Suche nach Gemeinschaft und der Bedarf nach Spiritualität sind nicht die einzigen Beweggründe zur Teilnahme: ein historischer Blick auf religiös definierte Gemeinschaften zeigt, dass viele klare marktwirtschaftliche Ziele verfolgen und gleichzeitig als Kontaktbörse für den Zugang zu politischer Macht fungieren. Schließlich sind religiöse Feste auch Bühnen, auf denen Repräsentationen des eigenen Status, der Familie, der Beziehungen und der Reputation etc. in Szene gesetzt werden. Welche Formen nehmen eine solche Kontakt- und Tausch-Börse, ein Forum für Informationen und Waren sowie ein Laufsteg für das Performieren von Zugehörigkeit und Bedeutung heute an? Im Rahmen eines vom Schweizer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaft durchgeführten Projektes zur "(Un)Sichtbarkeit des Islam im urbanen Raum" hat ein Forschungsteam unter der Leitung von Prof. Monika Salzbrunn die Inszenierung von multiplen Zugehörigkeiten untersucht. Wir schlagen vor, anhand von Video- und Tonaufnahmen von Festen westafrikanischer Sufi-Bruderschaften in der Region um den Genfer See zu zeigen, wie vielschichtig die Wahrnehmungen und Performanzen des jeweiligen Ereignisses sind: eine Wahlkampfarena für den Botschafter, ein wichtiges Wirtschaftsforum für Stoffhändlerinnen aus dem Mittelmeerraum und eine transnationale Austausch- und Kontaktbörse für zumeist hochqualifizierte Senegalesinnen und Senegalesen. Schließlich ist das lokale Ereignis Teil eines translokalen Raumes, in dem Video-Aufnahmen von weiteren hybriden Ereignissen aus dem selben Beziehungskreis während des jeweiligen Festes projiziert werden