Certainties unearthed: lessons on migration?

Kögel, Johannes (2023): Certainties unearthed: lessons on migration? Migration Studies and Social Theory: Problematizing Ontologies; De-Centering Migration, Tübingen, 14-15th September 2023.

Abstract

In "The Dawn of Everything," David Graeber and David Wengrow (2021) unearth certainties held regarding the social evolution of humankind, which supposedly began with the Neolithic revolution and – following a linear trajectory – resulted in modern state-building. The book is not about migration at all by its making, and yet mobility plays a vital part in the authors’ account. It imparts two vital lessons to migration research. The first concerns the role and function of migration as such. The second concerns the role of schismogenesis. Both conceptualizations are not new to migration studies, but they emphasize essential insights. By applying both concepts, migration as freedom and schismogenesis, to my own research project, I will attempt to dismantle the notion of the migrant subject.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
• Keywords: de-centering migration; schismogenesis; freedom; migrant subject; “mi/grant”
• Faculties: Social Sciences
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology; 300 Social sciences > 320 Political science
• Language: English