Method as Border: Tuning in to the Cacophony of Academic Backstages of Migration, Mobility and Border Studies

Abstract

This thematic issue is a collection of articles reflecting on methods as border devices of hierarchical inclusion spanning migration, mobility and border studies. It maps some key concerns and responses emerging from what we call academic backstages of migration, mobility and border research by younger academics. These concerns are around (dis)entangling positions beyond Us/Them (i.e. researcher/researched), delinking from the spectacle of migration and deviating from the categories of migration apparatuses. While these concerns are not new in themselves the articles however situate these broader concerns shaping migration, mobility and border studies within specific contexts, dilemmas, choices, doubts, tactics and unresolved paradoxes of doing fieldwork. The aim of this thematic issue is not to prescribe “best methods” but in fact to make space for un-masking practices of methods as unfinished processes that are politically and ethically charged, while nevertheless shedding light in (re)new(ed) directions urgent for migration, mobility and border studies. Such an ambition is inevitably partial and situated, rather than comprehensive and all-encompassing. The majority of the contributions then enact and suggest different modes of reflexivity, ranging from reflexive inversion, critical complicity, collective self-inquiry, and reflexive ethnography of emotions, while other contributions elaborate shifts in research questions and processes based on failures, and doubts emerging during fieldwork. We invite the readers to then read the contributions against one another as a practice of attuning to what we call a ‘cacophony of academic backstages,’ or in other words, to the ways in which methods are never settled while calling attention to the politics of knowledge production unfolding in everyday fieldwork practices.

Counter moves. Destabilizing the grand narrative of onward migration and secondary movements in Europe

“…Or is it rather the idea that migration scholars tend to follow (intentionally or unintentionally) the policy agendas of particular migration apparatuses (Dahinden, 2016), persisting colonial fault lines (Samaddar, 2020) or indeed societal scripts related to border crises and the need to help (Cabot, 2016)? With these questions in mind, I seek to engage with contemporary conversations about what is included/excluded and visible/invisible through our academic writing (Aparna et al, 2020).…”

Sheltering difference: (un)doing the migrant/volunteer divide through sheltering practices in Mexico and the Netherlands

“…With this critical standpoint, we aim to contribute to this Special Issue (Ryan et al, this issue) by not only advancing knowledge on sheltering practices at the border and the relational politics involved but also by reflecting on the empirical and ethical challenges related to this research. In this process, we rely on the so-called methodological backstage approach (Aparna et al, 2020 ), which articulates the importance of scholarly reflexivity in questions of borders, emotional labor, and power asymmetries in fieldwork practices.…”

Methods as Moving Ground: Reflections on the ‘Doings’ of Mobile Methodologies

“…Therefore, and in line with the main objective of this thematic issue, we reflect on the actual 'doings' and implications of these methodological approaches. More specifically, we relate mobile methodologies with the question of 'academic inclusion' (see Aparna, Schapendonk, & Merlín-Escorza, 2020). While the four authors of this article all strongly value mobile research approaches, we came together to discuss our standpoints and insights regarding power and positionality (Faria & Mollett, 2016) and the question of representation (Merriman, 2014), derived from our own fieldwork experiences.…”