• Transnational Dwelling and Objects of Connection : An Ethnological Co...

  Povrzanovic Frykman, Maja Malmö University. Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM)   Conference contribution in Ways of dwelling : crisis, craft, creativity : 13th SIEF congress Göttingen, Germany March 26-30 2017; : SIEF (Societé Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore / International Society for Ethnology and Folklore) (2017) 13th SIEF (Societé Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore / International Society for Ethnology and Folklore) Congress (26-30 March 2017 : Göttingen, Germany)

  Conference contribution

  

  

  English abstract:	Migrants carry, send and receive things across state borders: coffee-makers and teapots, candy and spices, used and new clothes, medicine, books, and a myriad of other items of emotional or practical value. Home-made food is smuggled in overloaded suitcases, old shoes are repaired ‘back home’, kettles are travelling between the ‘here’ of residence and the ‘there’ of origin. The use of objects, products and food from one place in another indicates functioning transnational connections. Rather than ideas and discourses of identity and belonging, this paper explores objects of everyday use. They may serve as palpable connections between migrants, those who stayed behind, and homes located in different countries, and contribute to the (re)production of social ties. At the same time, ethnographic research shows that such objects facilitate familiar material practices that are central to the subjective experience of continuity within transnational dwelling. These are things to hold on to, they help migrants to overcome segregation between distant homes. The sense of self may be dependent on a particular object being in place, which thereby becomes a place of home. But it is not only a matter of embodied memories and sensory recollections; the sense of ‘being yourself in your own home’ is achieved by practical engagement with objects. Ethnological insights into the practices of transnational dwelling challenge the clear-cut conceptualisations of mobility and stability, of absence and presence, of ‘here’ and ‘there’. The ways some objects appear as material layers of transnational social fields depend on the specific intersections of economy, geography, and biography that are seldom fully contained in migrant categories pertaining to work, study, family, and asylum, or in the ethnic grouping of migrants. Empirical attention to personal engagements with the materiality of transnational dwelling can be opened up for theoretical contributions to critical studies of migration. Investigating the everyday objects of transnational connection rather than prioritising the markers of ethnic identity may help to destabilise the dominant ways migrants are thought of in terms of difference.
  Note:	The keynote lecture recording is available from: https://vimeo.com/album/4805520/video/235716762

• Paradise Lost or Gained? : TNC Establishment and Interethnic/Interrac...
  Petersson, Bo; Puskás, Tünde Eds: Espiña, Yolanda   Conference article in IMAGES OF EUROPE - Past, Present, Future - ISSEI 2014 Conference Proceedings, Porto Portugal; : Universidade Católica Editora - Porto (2016) The 14th International Conference of ISSEI : IMAGES OF EUROPE - Past, Present, Future (4-8 Aug, 2014 : Porto, Portugal)	Conference article

  

  

  English abstract:

  The paper discusses the dynamics of local ethnic, racial and social relations in a traditionally multi-ethnic Central European small town that has been heavily influenced by the establishment of a transnational company. The town in question is the traditionally triethnic (Slovak, Hungarian, Roma) Galanta in Slovakia, where the Korean transnational company Samsung since some then years back has established its presence. The paper combines theories on the everyday workings of ethnicity and race with theories on how transnational labour migration impact on interethnic relations. The focus is on categorization practices and discursive frames. In particular, the authors address to what extent engrained ethnic and racial stereotypes are maintained among the local population and to what extent they are challenged and reconstructed.

  Paradise Lost ISSEI-1-1.pdf   (52.51Kb)

  http://www.uceditora.ucp.pt/resources/Documentos/UCEditora/PDF%20Livros/Porto/Images%20of%20Europe.pdf

• Material Enactments of Shifting Hierarchies : Emic Perspectives on Hu...
  Povrzanovic Frykman, Maja Eds: Espiña, Yolanda   Conference article in Images of Europe : Past, Present, Future - ISSEI 2014 Conference Proceedings, Porto Portugal;; : Universidade Católica Editora (2016) The 2014 ISSEI Porto Conference Images of Europe : Past, Present, Future (4-8 August 2014 : Porto, Portugal)	Conference article

  

  

  ISSEI_MaterialE ... ierarchies_Frykman (1).pdf   (616.5Kb)

• Developing undergraduates’ methodological awareness : examples from p...
  Povrzanovic Frykman, Maja   Conference contribution in 33. Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Conference, Copenhagen 2015; : University of Copenhagen, The Saxo Institute (2015)	Conference contribution

  

  

  English abstract:	The paper presents research-related character of two courses within the multidisciplinary curriculum of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) programme at the Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University: 'Civilians in and after the war' and 'From theory to research results in PACS'. The first course introduces the students to the research content based on ethnographic research. Its specific importance to PACS is argued for and compared with the latter course, which focuses on research processes and problems that are generally pertinent to social sciences. The two courses appear as two distinct modalities of developing undergraduates’ research awareness and capacity that are based on an ethnologist’s expertise integrated in a multidisciplinary undergraduate programme.
  Note:	33rd Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Conference, Copenhagen, 18-21 August 2015

• Failed inclusions : transnational employment and educational attempts...
  Povrzanovic Frykman, Maja Malmö University. Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM)   Conference article in Immigrants and Civil Society, 16th Nordic Migration Reseacrh Conference & 9th ETMU Days, 13-15 August 2012, University of Turku, Finland; : University of Turku (2012)	Conference article

  

  

  English abstract:	This paper discusses empirical examples of Bosnian Croats and their children who settled in Sweden due to the 1990s war in their country. Their local economic and social incorporations have been relatively successful and not hindered by their transnational practices, which involve three countries (Sweden, Bosnia and Croatia). The paper focuses on the attempts to create employment and to gain education that make use of transnational spaces. My research participants did not use transnational options out of necessity, but out of perceived unproblematic possibilities of personal choice. Still, transnational options did not necessarily bring about satisfactory results: efforts were not necessarily rewarded in the expected ways. This invokes theoretical considerations of why this might be the case. The main theoretical point made in the paper pertains to the concept of community. It is deconstructed in line with the research participants’ expectations and disappointments that make clear the imagined character of ‘ethnic communities’ as well as the dynamics of local inclusions, which prove to be equally complex in any location within a transnational space.
  Note:	Immigrants and Civil Society, 16th Nordic Migration Reseacrh Conference & 9th ETMU Days, University of Turku, Finland, 13-15 August 2012

  Failed inclusio ... snian Croats in Sweden.pdf   (203.5Kb)

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