Home | Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity

About the Institute

The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity is one of the foremost centers for the multi-disciplinary study of diversity, in its multiple forms, in today’s globalizing world.

INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS

The focus here is on the state at different levels, social and legal categorizations and meso-level organisations. Do organisations and political institutions reflect diversity? Are they open or closed to change?

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND ATTITUDES

How do different groups perceive the diversification of their cities, neighbourhoods, societies? How inclusive or exclusive are encounters and social interactions and what determines that?

INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES

Dynamics surrounding migration and diversity take many forms. What do the experiences of migration and diversification mean to individuals? How is that determined by age, gender, racism? What identifications develop in different contexts and interactions?

INSIGHTS@mpimmg

In INSIGHTS@mpimmg, our researchers give brief 3 minute insights into their work: what they research, how they do it and why it is significant.

News & Updates

Artificial intelligence, quantum physics and future challenges

September 16, 2024

What opportunities and risks does artificial intelligence offer? What is the relationship between science and politics? What could extraterrestrial life look like? And how was quantum theory developed in Göttingen around 100 years ago? These and other current research questions are the focus of this year's lecture series “Science at the Göttingen Literature Festival”.

For an open society

Appeal by Patrick Cramer, President of the Max Planck Society, in which he refers to the research results of the MPI-MMG DivA project. According to this study, more than two thirds of people in German cities see social diversity as a benefit.

Insights@MPIMMG

September 03, 2024

In this series, our researchers give brief 3 minute insights into their work: what they research, how they do it and why it is significant. This time: Victoria Kumala Sakti on “Ageing in displacement”.

MPI-MMG in Dialogue

Invited scholars discuss cutting-edge research and new ideas with the institute’s scientists

Missed the last event? Watch the video here.

Talking about migration – words, data, images

This workshop will explore two aspects related to public opinion on migration. How do people acquire and process information and what are the most effective ways of presenting information about migration to the public.
Co-convened by Daniel Hiebert, Steven Vertovec, and Anna Triandafyllidou
Toronto Metropolitan University at CERC Migration office / online via Zoom

Awards for “Forever 17”

Ulrike Bialas’ book ”Forever 17: Coming of Age in the German Asylum System” was rewarded the ”Thomas & Znaniecki Best Book Award of the American Sociological Association” and the ”Research Award Ethnography of the German Sociological Association”.

Superdiversity. Migration and Social Complexity

This new book Superdiversity by Steven Vertovec presents a convincing case for recognizing new social formations created by changing migration patterns and calls for a re-thinking of public policy and social scientific approaches to social difference.
The Open Access version is now available at www.taylorfrancis.com.

"We need to move away from multiculturalism"

Steven Vertovec researches the complexity of today's migration movements. A conversation about his concept of superdiversity, xenophobia, right-wing populists and the situation in schools. (in German) • Der Standard, 1. September 2024

Vanessa Rau in conversation with Dagmar Herzog

Video August 28, 2024

One to One@MPI-MMG

In our second One to One Series video Postdoc Dr. Vanessa Rau is in conversation with Dagmar Herzog, Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, on Herzog’s newest book “The Question of Unworthy Life” and contemporary Germany as a migration society.

Forthcoming Events

Epistemic Trust and Migration Studies

Conference

Oct 16, 2024 - Oct 18, 2024

Berlin

Ageing in a Time of Mobility: Reflections on the Field from Past to Future

Workshop

Oct 16, 2024 - Oct 18, 2024

Harnack Haus, Berlin

ALUMNI HOUR | Magdalena Suerbaum (Universität Bielefeld, Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies): "The in-between: navigating academic (non-)belonging"

Magdalena Suerbaum (Universität Bielefeld, Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies)

Oct 30, 2024 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

Zoom Meeting

Jewish–Muslim Encounters in Urban Europe: Under Pressure

Workshop

Nov 4, 2024

Berlin

The Visceral and the Virtual: Memorial Practices in Eastern and Southeastern Europe

Workshop

Jan 29, 2025 - Feb 1, 2025

Harnack House Berlin

IN DIALOGUE: our series of events on new research findings and current debates will continue. We will be discussing superdiversity, German migration policy, diversity assent and age and migration. Videos of previous In Dialogue events can be found here.

MPI-MMG @ Conferences

▪	Ulrike Bialas: "From Men to Minors: How Legal and Social Constructs of Age Complicate South-North Migration" Point Sud workshop series November 12-16, 2024 \| Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
▪	Ulrike Bialas: "Buchvorstellung: Forever 17: Coming of Age in the German Asylum System" DGS Konferenz "Klasse, Klassifikationen, Klassifizierungen" September 23-25, 2024 \| Osnabrück
▪	Elisa Lanari: "I am here because Laura is here:" Personal relationships and (post)arrival brokers in small-mountain towns Conference on migration research September 18-20, 2024 \| Inssbruck
▪	Salah Punathil: "Racial Capitalism, Sexuality and Labour: Experience of Young Northeast Women in the Spa Industry in Hyderabad, India" Lecture September 18, 2024 \| Leiden
▪	Yael Peled: "Together with A. Drożdżowicz "The complexities of linguistic discrimination." More information: https://engagedphilosophy.org/understanding-bias-implicit-bias-reading-group-special-issue/" Online talk in series "UNDERSTANDING BIAS: IMPLICIT BIAS READING GROUP, SPECIAL ISSUE!" September 16, 2024

all events

Career

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS | Black multiplicities, African multiplicities? Theorising Migration, Identity, and Blackness from European perspectives

Deadline for applications is 2 October 2024
The Migration, Identity, and Blackness in Europe Research Group invites applications for 2-3 workshop contributions from scholars based in Europe (including the UK).

Job Offers

Currently we do not have any vacancies.

CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS

Palgrave Macmillan
Global Diversities

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Recent MMG Publications | Monographs and Edited Volumes

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-55544-2

https://www.routledge.com/Superdiversity-Migration-and-Social-Complexity/Vertovec/p/book/9780415834636#sup

https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/aspiring-in-later-life/9781978830400

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo208300969.html

https://profilebooks.com/work/how-to-live-with-each-other/

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-eu-migrant-generation-in-asia

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/schooling-the-nation/C17A639E1EF9E1448842B6ACEA6216F5

https://www.bpb.de/shop/buecher/schriftenreihe/519287/religionsverfassungsrecht-revisited/

The Global Diversities Book Series

Working Papers

The MMG Working Paper Series is designed to communicate work in progress and to disseminate key findings in areas related to the core research themes of the institute. The series includes contributions from our own research staff members, visiting scholars and participants in institute events.

more

Issues

Sampaio, D., & Amrith, M. (Eds.). (2023). Special issue: Southern reconfigurations of the ageing-migration nexus [Special Issue]. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(4). Link

Rau, V., & Nicoubin, M. (Eds.). (2023). Religionsverfassungsrecht revisited: Religion, Säkularität und Gesellschaft im Wandel [Special Issue]. Schriftenreihe / Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, 10822. Link

Reddy, G., Coultas, C. & Lukate, J.M. (Eds.) (2023). Towards a social psychology of precarity [Special Issue]. British Journal of Social Psychology, 62(S1). Link

Journal Articles

Bialas, U. (2024). Who is a minor? Age assessments of refugees in Germany and the classificatory multiplicity of the state. Ethnic and Racial Studies. Link

Vertovec, S., & Genest, S. (2024). Super-Diversity and systems thinking: Selected moments from a conversation with Steven Vertovec. Humans, 4(3), 279-283. Link

Fliess, N., Kiani, A., & Østergaard-Nielsen, E. (2024). Why do autocracies enfranchise their citizens abroad? A large-N event history analysis, 1990–2010. Democratization, 1-25. Link

Rau, V., & Baykara-Krumme, H. (2024). Migration meets disability. Approaches to intersectionality in the context of a disability rights organization. Disability & Society. Link

Kyselova, O. (2024). The restriction of labour rights in war conditions: The Ukranian experience. InterEULawEast, 11(1), 167-199. Link

Matyjas-Lysakowska, P., & Kyselova, O. (2024). Employee subordination of civil service officials in the context of remote work: Insights from Polish and Ukranian experience. Futurity: Economics and Law, 4(2), 148-167. Link

Peretz, D. (2024). Mediatization of Jewish–Muslim dialogue in Germany amid COVID‑19. Contemporary Jewry. Link

Lemon, E., Torno, S., & Rashidov, T. (2024). Values education, the family, and youth in Tajikistan: Building docile subjects. Problems of Post-Communism, 1-11. Link

Emmerich, A. (2024). Freundschaftspioniere im Bahnhofsviertel: Juden und Muslime in einer multikulturellen Nachbarschaft. Herder-Korrespondenz: Monatshefte für Gesellschaft und Religion, 2024(5), 30-32. Link

Bass, M. (2024). Summer (somewhere) in the city. Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies, OnlineFirst, 1-2. Link

Lanari, E. (2024). Makeshift activism and the afterlives of refugee welcome in Covid-19 Italy. Critique of Anthropology, OnlineFirst, 1-20. Link

Sobhy, H. (2024). When do teachers strike: Between strong Unions, divergent preferences and political opportunity in Tunisia. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1-16. Link

Drożdżowicz, A., & Peled, Y. (2024). The complexities of linguistic discrimination. Philosophical Psychology. Link

Vertovec, S., Hiebert, D., Spoonley, P., & Gamlen, A. (2024). Visualizing superdiversity and “seeing” urban socio-economic complexity. Urban Geography, 45(2), 179-200. Link

Contributions to a collected Edition

Schönwälder, K., & Petermann, S. (2024). Vielfalt aus Sicht der Bevölkerung: eine alltägliche Normalität. In F. Gesemann, D. Filsinger, & S. Münch (Eds.), Handbuch Lokale Integrationspolitik (pp. 1-13). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Link

Lukate, J. M. (2023). Ein Nachwort auf (Schwarze) Haare. In E. H. Murandu (Ed.), Book about hair (pp. 330-348). Weimar: Lucia Verlag. Link

Seethaler-Wari, S. (2024). Architektur und kulturspezifische Raumnutzung: Wohnraumgestaltung für eine heterogene Bewohner*innenschaft. In F. Werner, P. Piechura, C. Bormann, & I. Breckner (Eds.), Flucht, Raum, Forschung: Eine Einführung in raumwissenschaftliche und planungsrelevanten Themen (pp. 231-250). Wiesbaden: Springer. Link

Szepan, L. (2023). Making the "social business" work: Organizational identity as revolving stage. In M. May, S. Groth, & J. Müske (Eds.), Morality as organizational practice: Negotiating, performing, and navigating moral standards in contexts of work (pp. 125-136). Münster: Waxmann.

Tahiiev, A. (2023). Шиизм на постсоветском пространстве: влияние новых медиа / Shi’ism in the post-Soviet space: the influence of new media. In E. Muratova, & Z. Khabibullina (Eds.), Виртуальный ислам на постсоветском пространстве: киберсреда и религиозные авторитеты / Virtual Islam in the post-Soviet space: cyber environment and religious authorities. (pp. 80-108). Baku: Idrak. Link

Bass, M., Davis, C., Nedsreal, N., & Walendom, L. (2023). Why all the black women sit together on the U-Bahn. In S. Chatterjee, & P.-H. Lee (Eds.), Plural Feminisms: Navigating Resistance as Everyday Praxis (pp. 59-74). London: Bloomsbury Academic. Link

Amrith, M. (2023). Migrant eldercare workers. In S. Torres, & A. Hunter (Eds.), Handbook on Migration and Ageing. (pp. 217-227). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Link

Amrith, M., Sakti, V. K., & Sampaio, D. (2023). Introduction. In M. Amrith, V. K. Sakti, & D. Sampaio (Eds.), Aspiring in later life: Movements across time, space, and generations (pp. 1-16). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Link

Amrith, M. (2023). Letting go and looking ahead: The aspirations of middle-aged migrant domestic workers in Singapore and Hong Kong. In M. Amrith, V. K. Sakti, & D. Sampaio (Eds.), Aspiring in later life: Movements across time, space, and generations. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Link

Appointment / Career

2023

Arndt-Walter Emmerich | Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Hertfordshire
Annelies Kusters | Professor of Sociolinguistics at the School of Social Sciences at the Heriot-Watt University
Christine Lang | Assistant professor in Social Geography and Reflexive Migration Studies at Osnabrück University
Damian Omar Martinez | Research Fellow “María Zambrano” at the Department of Sociology, University of Murcia (Spain)
Sabine Mohamed | Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University
Raphael Susewind | Associate Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Methodology at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Book Publications 2023

Diao, Yin. 2023. Faith by Aurality in China’s Ethnic Borderland. Media, Mobility, and Christianity at the Margins. Boydell and Brewer.
https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781648250743/faith-by-aurality-in-chinas-ethnic-borderland/
Gupta, Radhika. 2023. “Freedom in Captivity: Negotiations of Belonging along Kashmir’s Frontier”. Cambridge University Press” (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/freedom-in-captivity/8AF1C8BDD9BE3FECAB3D847A87CEDA90)
Liu, Jifeng. 2023. 族群身份與跨國網絡：馬來西亞砂拉越華人基督徒研究 (Ethnic Identities and Transnational Networks: Chinese Christians in Sarawak, Malaysia). Chinese Christian Literature Council (Taiwan).
Mahadev, Neena. 2023. Karma and Grace: Religious Difference in Millennial Sri Lanka, Columbia University Press. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/karma-and-grace/9780231205290 (discount with CUP20).
Vevaina, Leilah. 2023. Trust Matters: Parsi Endowments in Mumbai and the Horoscope of the City, Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/trust-matters

Awards 2023

► Radhika Gupta was awarded an ERC Consolidator grant in 2023 for a project titled “Entangled Universals of Transnational Islamic Charity” (read more)
► Julia Martínez-Ariño was awarded the 2023 ISSR (International Society for Science and Religion) Best Book Award for her book "Urban Secularism."
► Ke-hsien Huang was awarded the ICAS Book Prize of Chinese Language Edition 2023 for his book “危殆生活：無家者的社會世界與幫助網絡 (Precarious Living: Homeless People and the Helping Networks in Taiwan)“ 春山出版有限公司 SpringHill Publishing Ltd., 2021.

Grants

Sahana Udupa was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to study small platform discourse. read more

Online Media

The City Show

Podcast

The City show is a podcast about complexity and how people live and adapt to life in fast-changing cities across Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Blogs

Researchers from the institute describe the development of their projects and the challenges, delights and frustrations of conducting social scientific research.

Online Lectures

Video

Here you will find videos from lectures given by distinguished researchers at the MPI MMG.

Diversity Interviews

Here you will find transcripts of interviews with distinguished scientists, led by staff members of the MMG.

MPI-MMG linked Journals

NEW DIVERSITIES

New Diversities is an international, peer reviewed, scholarly and professional journal, published by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.

Global Networks

Global Networks publishes high quality, peer-reviewed research on global networks, transnational affairs and practices, and their relation to wider theories of globalization. The journal provides a forum for discussion, debate and the refinement of key ideas in this emerging field.

CityScapes

CityScapes is a 144 page biannual print publication. It is a hybrid of forms, simultaneously invested in scholarly discourse around contemporary urbanism in Africa and the Global South, as much as individual everyday experiences and activities of the multitude of actors that are actively involved in shaping cities across the continent and the rest of the developing world.

All social scientific research at the Institute, particularly concerning informed consent and involving visual materials, is designed to follow the ethical guidelines formulated by the American Anthropological Association (see http://www.aaanet.org/... ).

All material on the Institute’s website is protected by copyright. If you wish to use material from the website, please contact our Research Coordinator, Dr. Norbert Winnige (winnige(at)mmg.mpg.de).

About the Institute

INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND ATTITUDES

INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES

INSIGHTS@mpimmg

News & Updates

Forthcoming Events

MPI-MMG @ Conferences

Career

Job Offers

CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS

Recent MMG Publications | Monographs and Edited Volumes

Working Papers

Alumni News

Online Media

MPI-MMG linked Journals