Laboratorio / Workshop

How Relevant is Migration Research?

Exploring new communication formats and channels
3 febbraio 2023
Orario di inizio 
09:00
Palazzo di Sociologia - Via Verdi 26, Trento
Professors Room - I floor
Destinatari: 
Tutti/e
Partecipazione: 
Ingresso libero

Participants:

  • Pieter Bevelander (Malmo University)
  • Paolo Boccagni (Università di Trento)
  • Martina Cvajner (Università di Trento)
  • Gianni d'Amato (University of Neuchâtel)
  • Claudia Finotelli (Universidad Complutense)
  • Giuseppe Sciortino (Università di Trento)

Abstract:

What does relevance mean in migration studies? How is it perceived, defined, and assessed? To what readerships, public and social or political debates is migration research relevant, and what accounts for the gap between its expected (or aspired) and actual relevance? 
Much recent debate on the dissemination and communication of research findings, in terms of more or less credible and sustainable strategies and practices, has been driven by similar questions - as much as by more normative ones of accountability and ethical compliance. As many colleagues share the perception of a limited relevance of their own research out of a strictly academic domain, it is worth discussing the merit, but also the modes, of a potentially deeper and larger relevance. What are, for instance, the prospects and dilemmas of entangling knowledge production and dissemination with arts and humanities, with socio-political activism, or with the use of participatory and transformative methodologies? Does this vary along with disciplinary backgrounds, substantive research subjects, target groups, and personal values or motivations? 
Based on the individual experience of each participant, our workshop will feed into the ongoing conversation on the societal and political relevance of migration studies, particularly with regard to its potential for informing public debate and reaching out to a diverse audience of readers and interlocutors. How far, and under what conditions, can migration scholars undermine the principled divide between "opponents" and "supporters" on all that has to do with migration? Is it in their remit, and in their potential, to pave the way for less exclusionary attitudes toward mobile or displaced individuals and social groups?
 

Program

9 am - Workshop

3 pm - Discussion of potential collaborative projects