Migration, mobility, refugee as well as cross-border movements are contested objects of knowledge. And practices of knowledge production are always part of governing migration.
For the EUropean context the crisis of Schengen in 2015 has led to an increased demand and call for more knowledge production on migration: For example since 2016 the EU Comission’s DG Research has an advisor on the topic of migration. Also in 2016 the German Ministry of Education and Research has allocated 18 Million Euro for migration research within the social sciences and humanities. This new will for knowledge thus produces knowledge on migration but not of migration. The perspective of migration is constantly ignored and invisibilized within the recent proliferation of migration studies.
This is why issue 4 (1) of movements focusses on knowledge and knowledge production. We are particularly interested in contributions that tackle with the following questions and topics:
Modes, forms and functions of knowledge about migration
In what different forms and modes is knowledge about migration produced? What are the differences between knowledges of and about migration? Why are cartographies, mappings, visual, cultural and artistic approaches so sought after right now when tackling migration and what effect does this have? What critical, affective, affirmative and reifying qualities do different modes of knowledge have?
New actors and Clusters of knowledge production
Recently more and more migration research networks, institutes, centres and councils on migration have emerged. We are interested in the political and research effects this institutionalization, professionalization and pooling or clustering of knowledge production about migration has.
The nexus of politics, research and knowledge production
What effects does the EU research framework have on migration politics and studies? What kind of coherences and correlations between research politics and migration politics as well as security, economic and other politics have emerged (here)? How are the political economies of migration research to be understood (in this context)? But also: What kind of knowledges on or of migration do civil society organisations produce? In which ways do they (or do they not) produce counter memories or counter knowledge? How are databanks and digital networks used for these purposes?
The history of migration research
When displaying the history of migration research, when narrating the genealogy of migration research the perspective of migration is still heavily invisibilized. Inspite of decades of postcolonial and antiracist struggles at universities and in scientific research, these are mostly not considered relevant when talking about developments in migration research. This is why we are interested in projects re-writing the history of migration research.
Critical knowledge production
What have efforts to bring about a critical perspective in migration and border studies, that is self-reflective, sensible to power relations and critical of current forms of governing migration lead to? Where have we arrived with concepts like autonomy of migration, border regime (analysis), border as method, with perspectives taken from governmentality studies and from historical materialism? Where do concepts like “solidarity” or “conviviality” lead to?
Submission of abstracts – deadlines
We are looking forward to receiving abstracts of no more than 500 words by 15th of June 2017. We welcome abstracts for all formats of movements: academic articles, research reports, political interventions in essay format, as well as interviews and book reviews. When submitting an abstract, please indicate the format the submission is meant for. Academic articles should be no longer than 50.000 characters (including spaces), research reports no longer than 30.000 characters and interventions no longer than 20.000 characters. The final contributions will be due by 30 September 2017.
All submissions will pass through a collaborative review process conducted by the editorial board. Academic articles are additionally peer-reviewed by at least two anonymous experts. In any case, the editorial team will discuss comments and suggestions with the authors in a transparent process. Final decisions on the acceptance of contributions are made by movements’ editorial board. The issue will be published in April 2018.
For further questions and submissions of abstracts: submit@movements-journal.org
For more information on the journal and the review process see http://movements-journal.org/issues/01.grenzregime/01.editorial~en.html