Seminar on Presences and absences in stories about racism and disadvantage
Speaker: Dr Maja Cederberg of Oxford Brookes University
Chair: Dr. Umut Erel of Open University
Date: 22nd Oct 09 @ 7:00
Venue: G3, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS)
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Organised by Kurdish Studies and Students Organisation (KSSO)
Abstract
This paper engages with debates surrounding the use of biographical narrative interviews in the social sciences. It draws on narrative interviews with different groups of migrants in Sweden, and focuses particularly on how the migrants narrate experiences of racism, discrimination and disadvantage. By considering the migrants’ narratives alongside an analysis of political and popular debates concerning migrant integration, we see that aside from providing access to a multitude of subjective experiences that help challenge dominant narratives, those dominant narratives are at the same time reflected in, and to some extent frame, migrant narratives. In the paper, I will explore both the content and framing of migrants’ stories about racism and disadvantage, and, drawing on Foucault, I will argue that attending to how power is exercised through discourse when analyzing migrant narratives, can take us a step further in using narrative interviews for understanding social inequalities, in terms of both the experience and reproduction of these.
Dr Maja Cederberg is Lecturer in the Department of International Relations, Politics and Sociology, Oxford Brookes University. Her fields of research are in the areas of international migration, gender, ethnicity, ‘race’ and racism, social inequalities and citizenship. Other research interests include work and employment, labour market and welfare policies, social and cultural theory, and qualitative research methods, particularly the use of narrative interviews in social science research.
http://ssl.brookes.ac.uk/staff/prof.asp?ID=315
Dr Umut Erel is RCUK Academic Fellow - Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance and Sociology Department, Open University.
http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/staff/people-profile.php?name=Umut_Erel
Further information
www.ksso.org.uk
mc@ksso.org.uk
Dr Umut Erel is RCUK Academic Fellow - Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance and Sociology Department, Open University.
http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/staff/people-profile.php?name=Umut_Erel
Further information
www.ksso.org.uk
mc@ksso.org.uk
