CALL FOR PAPERS
GENDER, GENERATIONS AND FAMILY IN TRANSNATIONAL SPACE                                                 Lisbona, 6-7 dicembre 2016

 

scadenza 15 luglio  – deadline 15th July (details in English below)

Workshop organizzato dalla Università di Urbino Carlo Bo – CNR ISSM – ICS Università di Lisbona nel quadro del protocollo FCT Portogallo – Italia presso l’Instituto de Ciências Sociais dell’Università di Lisbona

Comitato Scientifico:
Francesca Declich (università di Urbino Carlo Bo), Immacolata Caruso (CNR-ISSM), Marzia Grassi (ICS)

Dettagli della call:

Invited presenters and discussants: to be defined

During the last decades migrations from Africa through the European boundaries have increased exponentially due to the end of the Cold War, the rising of African conflicts and the Arab Springs in Northern Africa. Only recently kinship structures have been taken into account in relation to the motivations as well as to the adaptive strategies of migrants (Castles, 2005). It has been mostly social sciences that highlight these structures. Several scholars have wondered in which way the diverse forms of kinship aggregations have an impact on the modalities of adaptation of the migrants as well as the role of kinship structures for adapting in the country of migration and from the country of origin. This is crucial for instance in Portugal, where migrants keep in constant contact with people from the former colonies in Africa, Asia and America. Their long social history is to be analyzed and considered in studying the contemporary flows of migration. Italy, on the other side, has a long experience of interchange among many different migrants, especially in the Southern regions. Sicily, Calabria and Puglia are geographically close to the countries of Maghreb and have always experienced relations of exchange and migrations with other societies of the Mediterranean. These kinds of social relations and the role kinship structures play are an issue that still needs more social and historical research.

In an attempt to find a comprehensive concept to compare the present migratory phenomena in a context of globalization some scholars introduced the transnational approach to study family relationships at a distance. However, for some scholars, this approach does not recognize the difference in the different kinship systems and does not take into account the deconstruction that social sciences have done in the last twenty years of the definition of family and kinship (Carsten, 2004, Bryceson and Vuorela 2002). There is no consensus on the concept of family but it is crucial not to miss the particularities that characterize the adaptive differences of each kinship arrangement. Another consequence is considering as universal the categories of nuclear family that are specific only of a middle class western minority.

Is the support and pressure that migrants receive from the relatives in their countries of origin similar across linguistic, ethnic or national groups? To what extent the individual expectations of success of the migratory process are based on the expectations of the close and distant relatives who are in the country of origin? Which forms of autonomy of choice are negotiated by migrants in relation to their cultures of origin and their relative’s expectations towards them? Which role marriages among migrants and persons already resident in the country of migration play in the creation of new, diverse forms of domesticity? Which is the role played by different kinship structures in the dynamics of integration among migrants and individuals of the receiving country? Which is the role played by different systems of welfare, if available at all, in interaction with several kinship structures? The objectives of the conference is not to tackle the issues of parental structures in migratory process as tools for integration but rather to unpack the different ways hierarchical systems of power within the family structures work in migratory processes, and how they allocate their members to different social positions. Within migratory dynamics the role women and men play is different. It must be avoided the risk of considering implicitly traditional the intra-household relations, only because they are labelled as such, being a less public context that some-times escapes from control. It has been widely demonstrated that in the history of Maghreb’s countries and beyond, that the concept of tradition is continually used for political purposes to underline the boundaries of customs defined as “not to be colonized”, but instead commonly negotiated in the countries of origin. Either the re-imposition in large scale of the FGM in Sudan, or the spreading of the use of all covering veils progressively more constraining for the women in the Maghreb, and the family laws restrictive to the freedom of women in Egypt or Algeria following the decolonization are all examples of this political use of the tradition (Lucas,1996). Indubitably, gender roles in domestic contexts are renegotiated during the migratory processes and new power hierarchies are created and the new roles which sometimes are labelled as traditional. Ethnographic cases describe the opportunities met, for instance, by Somali refugee women in Egypt or Angolan migrants in Portugal in the renegotiation of the gender roles. Women as well as men, have an active leading role, mediating integration between different normative referents and values, struggling with the (re) construction of multiples identities. Some authors in particular contexts have considered, women in its central role as development agents in the societies of origin and destination In this perspective, the Mediterranean basin could emerge as an area of convergence between countries and regions in North and South of its shores, creating the necessary conditions for the definition of a sustainable development policy based around women empowerment and   their intangible heritage to be safeguarded and enhanced

Finally, to face the common challenges in this current times of political, environmental, socio-economic emergency, it is important, beyond the integration experiences, to discuss the process of adaptability and development, focusing on the ways in which international migration affects economic and social change in the origin, transit and destination societies of migration flows by valorizing the capitals carried on by human mobility. This means, for example, either to dwell on a few specific issues such as the so-called “social remittances”, or to investigate on networks and migrant’s relationships and ties, and, through the gender studies, to focus on the role of individuals as promoters of complex paths of geographical, economic, cultural mobility; such complex paths of mobility are related to individual choices, family strategies, as well as to the effects of social  and economic networks in the places of origin and destination in a relationship of mutual influence.

Papers are welcome that seek to present case studies and current research on frameworks related with transnational familystudies, gender, generation and migration in order to highlight the forms taken by the family as an institution and family relationships in contemporary world in movement, particularly in Southern Europe and Mediterranean area.

Possible topics may include but are not limited to the following issues:

–       Family, Kinship, care and transnationalism

–       Conjugal arrangements in transnational space

– Epistemological challenges in the methods of data collection in transnational mobility studies

–       Development and family strategies

–       Social remittance and  transnational networks

–       Gender and mobility (male-gender and female-gender studies)

–       Transnational citizenship and social categories

–       Transnational childhoods

–       Transnationalism across generations

The Conference “GENDER, GENERATIONS AND FAMILY IN TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION” is organized within the project “Migration, family and social network relationships between Africa and Southern Europe” (2015-2017) on the basis of the Bilateral Agreement for Scientific and Technological Cooperation CNR-ITALY / FCT – PORTUGAL which involves the two proponents institutions: ICS-ULisboa, Instituto di Studi sulle Societá del Mediterraneo (CNR), and Universitá degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo.

Multi-disciplinary and comparative studies form other geographical zone are encouraged.

PhD students are particularly welcome ::: No registration fee will be charged

Scientific committee:

Francesca Declich (University of Urbino – Carlo Bo)

Immacolata Caruso (Institute of Studies on Mediterranean Societies, Italian National Council of Research)

Marzia Grassi (Institute of Social Sciences – University of Lisbon)

Organizing committee at ICS-ULisboa

Marzia Grassi (coord.) Tatiana Ferreira and Marianna Bacci Tamburlini

ABSTRACTS

(200-250 words) and brief CV should be sent to ggftm.conference@gmail.com byJuly, 15

NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE by July, 31

FINAL PAPER SUBMISSION DEADLINE by October, 30

FINAL PROGRAMME will be announced by November, 15

http://www.tlnetwork.ics.ul.pt/index.php/dissemination/call-for-papers-ggfts