"Towards the Ethnography of Super-Diversity"

For more details please contact esser(at)mmg.mpg.de.

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‘Super-­diversity’ denotes a transformation of population patterns, especially arising from shifts in global mobility. Around the world over the past three decades, there have been increasing movements of people from more varied national, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds; in addition, there has been a diversification of migration channels, legal conditions, gender patterns, age ratios, transnational connections and forms of human capital. Such new complexities are evident in myriad urban contexts around the world – but how can we study them ethnographically?

Although there have been numerous significant calls to re-­tool numerous social sciences in light of emergent societal complexities, many of our methods are arguably still not up to the task. In this informal workshop, we explore some of the theoretical and methodological issues at hand, and provide an inventory of some research techniques suggesting how we can best study, The format will not be a conventional one (i.e., research presentations, followed by Q&A); rather, we will ask each participant to offer a ten-­minute ‘Impulsvortrag’ – a brief talk intended to kick-­off discussion surrounding a particular theme, technique, and set of challenges around the task of fashioning the ethnography of super-­diversity.