Transnational Ethnographies and Anthropological Imaginings of Migrancy

Wilding, Raelene

doi:10.1080/13691830601154310

Cited by 33 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Traditionally, cosmopolitans have been conceptualised as elites (Beck, 2002;Hannerz, 2007) who "pursue refined consumption, and are open to all forms of otherness" (Hiebert, 2002, p212), but various scholars now suggest that global elites ironically have limited engagement with the "other", and a "rather 2 restricted corridor of physical movement" (Vertovec and Cohen, 2002, p7; also Calhoun, 2002) between global cities. A recent surge of scholarly work on migration focussing on migrants" transnational spatial practices (Kelly and Lusis, 2006;Wilding, 2007), social and political identities Mohan, 2006;Vertovec, 2001), and relationships with the State (Koser, 2007;Leitner and Ehrkamp, 2006;Morris, 1997;Zierhofer, 2007), suggest that working-class migrants while maintaining "intense linkages and exchanges with sending and receiving contexts" (Vertovec, 2001, p575) also perform varieties of cosmopolitan behaviours. Scholars now suggest that these "working-class cosmopolitans" (Werbner, 1999) are open to difference neither as an ethico-political project, nor as conscious choice, but as a practical orientation towards "getting by" -one that requires a strategic engagement with others through coerced choices in order to survive in new environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Places of Everyday Cosmopolitanisms: East European Construction Workers in London

Datta

2009

Environ Plan A

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Original citation:The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published as: Datta, Ayona ( LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author's final manuscript accepted version of the journal article, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer review process. Some differences between this version and the published version may remain. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. access to social and cultural capital in specific localised contexts. Thus subjective perceptions of gendered, ethnic, and racial notions of "others" that are carried across national boundaries are reinforced or challenged as their encounters with "others" produce perceptions of marginalisation or empowerment in these places. This paper finally suggests that cosmopolitanism should be understood not simply through class but rather through access to power and capital in everyday localised contexts. 1 PLACES OF EVERYDAY COSMOPOLITANISMS: EAST-EUROPEAN CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IN LONDON INTRODUCTIONCosmopolitanism, in its most fundamental sense implies openness to difference. As the process of enlargement of social, cultural, and personal agendas, and as infinite ways of becoming open to "others" (Pollock et. al, 2000), cosmopolitanism has recently made a comeback in studies on globalisation and cultural politics. Traditionally, cosmopolitans have been conceptualised as elites (Beck, 2002;Hannerz, 2007) who "pursue refined consumption, and are open to all forms of otherness" (Hiebert, 2002, p212), but various scholars now suggest that global elites ironically have limited engagement with the "other", and a "rather 2 restricted corridor of physical movement" (Vertovec and Cohen, 2002, p7; also Calhoun, 2002) between global cities. A recent surge of scholarly work on migration focussing on migrants" transnational spatial practices (Kelly and Lusis, 2006;Wilding, 2007), social and political identities Mohan, 2006;Vertovec, 2001), and relationships with the State (Koser, 2007;Leitner and Ehrkamp, 2006;Morris, 1997;Zierhofer, 2007), suggest that working-class migrants while maintaining "intense linkages and exchanges with sending and receiving contexts" (Vertovec, 2001, p575) also perform varieties of cosmopolitan behaviours. Scholars now suggest that these "working-class cosmopolitans" (Werbner, 1999) are open to difference neither as an ethico-political project, nor as conscious choice, but as a practical orientation towa...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Places of Everyday Cosmopolitanisms: East European Construction Workers in London

Datta

2009

Environ Plan A

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“…By defining (methodological) nationalism as Scylla and (methodological) cosmopolitanism as Charybdis, Wimmer and Glick Schiller (2003: 600) invite one to search for ways of surviving methodologically between these two perils. While they point to neglected social processes beyond the national level, scholars like Olwig (2003) and Wilding (2007) call attention to social networks in which transmigrants are involved at the subnational level (such as family, neighbourhood, friends and sports clubs). Wilding says that 'by privileging global flows and connections between national contexts, other foundations of social and cultural life are in danger of being overlooked', such as 'non-national or even a-national cultural patterns, cultural values and social ties' (Wilding 2007: 345).…”

Section: The Problem Of Methodsological Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global sense of migrant places: towards a place perspective in the study of migrant transnationalism

Gielis

2009

Global Networks

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Contemporary transnational migrants have complex social lives in that they live in a number of different cross‐border social networks at the same time. Most transmigration scholars try to grasp this social complexity of migrant transnationalism by using a network lens. In this article, I argue in favour of adding a place lens to the analytical tool kit of transmigration scholars. Although a network lens works well for studying the internal complexity of cross‐border social networks, a place lens is more useful for gaining an understanding of their external complexity, in other words the ways these networks interrelate. By drawing on geographical and anthropological literature on open and relational understandings of place, and especially on the work of Doreen Massey and Arjun Appadurai, I shall show that interrelating migrant networks are visible in place in two ways. On the one hand, migrant places are meeting places of social networks, and on the other hand they are sites (translocalities) where transmigrants can reach out to people in other places.

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“…It appears in arguments on the linear integration of migrants in 'host' nations, with scholars arguing that practices and attachments relating to the homeland are ubiquitous among first generation migrants but become sparse among young people in subsequent generation (Levitt and Jaworsky 2007, p.133). Focusing on the 'facts' of transnationalism -language fluency and intention of returning 'home' as proof of this thesis -these analyses deny a more complex, plural and ambiguous interplay of historical, embodied and psychic experiences in which migrants and non-migrants participate (Wilding 2007). These arguments further presuppose that second-generation young people become detached from their cultural histories leading to assumptions of uprootedness, in-betweeness, and liminality -the basis of demands for assimilation (Alexander 1996;Solomos 1988).…”

Section: Ethnography As a Colonial Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diaspora as an Ethnographic Method

James

2016

YOUNG

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Article (Accepted Version) http://sro.sussex.ac.uk James, Malcolm (2016) Diaspora as an ethnographic method: decolonial reflections on researching urban multiculture in outer East London. Young, 24 (3). pp. 222-237. ISSN 1103-3088 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/59771/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse:Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University.Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. This paper reflects on diaspora as an ethnographic method. Grounded in a decolonial critique of colonial methodologies (including an evaluation of transnational scholarship), it discusses how diaspora provides intellectual and practical tools for ethnography; tools grounded in the appreciation for the relational, dialogical and poetic qualities of social and cultural life and invested in decolonial approaches to knowledge and power. This paper is not another call for a one-size-fits-all approach to ethnographic methods, but instead reflects on the knots of ethnographic enquiry around three outer East London youth clubs, between 2008 and 2012. In so doing, it highlights a number of debates pertinent to this Special Issue: how to think and do ethnography with young people in a changing migratory and racialised landscape; how to engage transformations in youth culture; and how to address digital technologies.

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Transnational Ethnographies and Anthropological Imaginings of Migrancy

Cited by 33 publications

References 41 publications

Places of Everyday Cosmopolitanisms: East European Construction Workers in London

Places of Everyday Cosmopolitanisms: East European Construction Workers in London

A global sense of migrant places: towards a place perspective in the study of migrant transnationalism

Diaspora as an Ethnographic Method

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