Call for Papers: Experiencing (in)securities

This workshop builds from the premise that the experience of migration produces inherent vulnerabilities: from physically perilous journeys and exposure to exploitative criminality, to precarious living conditions and desperate survival strategies. It is also the case, however, that the governing of migration in the name of security and humanitarianism ‘crisis’ generates (in)securities in turn. The field is characterised by multiple initiatives from various authorities that seek to distinguish, first, between different kinds of mobility, but also to intervene on lives to create recognisable and tractable subjects. These initiatives shape the experience of migrants in Europe, of course, but also spiral into and out from the European context. That is, the ‘new’ relationship between security and mobility within the current crisis is re-articulating long-standing social, economic and cultural divisions in Europe and beyond.

This workshop is motivated by a concern to understand and document what is both new and enduring about the lived (in)securities being experienced within the contemporary
migration/security context. Questions to be examined may include (but are not limited to):

• How is (in)security experienced, embodied and expressed by migrant subjects?
• What is the role and significance of ‘intermediaries’ (e.g. government, civil society, private actors including labour market intermediaries, and others) in shaping lived experiences of (in)security?
• What social, cultural, and ethical dilemmas and demands accompany interventions seeking to mitigate migrant insecurity?
• Who and what are the networks and flows of knowledge related to lived (in)securities?

We invite paper proposals (abstracts of 200 words) addressing these and related questions in different areas from a theoretical, empirical, and/or normative perspective. The workshop is particularly interested in papers that examine the social, political and ethical dynamics of knowledge production within the crisis and how the research community can best generate knowledge about, with and for people affected by the migration crisis.

Please send abstracts to Deirdre Conlon (dconlon@leeds.ac.uk) by Friday 27 January 2017.

Further details and registration instructions will follow, and will be posted on our website.