Publication details
Decolonizing, decentering, and deracializing: A critical cultural sociology of migration
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Migration studies has, of late, become much more reflexive. A recent (2023) issue of the journal Sociological Forum has published a special issue on “decolonizing” the field. The authors variously suggest different forms of paradigm shifts, which, besides decolonizing, include decentering or adopting a Du Boisian approach that takes race seriously. My goal is to bring these perspectives into conversation with cultural sociology, to explore the ways in which studying meaning-making processes and hermeneutically reconstructing cultural structures can help understand migration-related phenomena. In particular, I argue that the analytical tool of symbolic boundaries represents a useful common language and a bridge of sorts. To illuminate the possibilities, I provide empirical examples from a research study on attitudes toward migration in Czechia, a country that presents a compelling analytical puzzle: there are few “migrants” yet the issue of migration looms large on political and public agendas. |
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