Prague, November 29-December 1, 2017

Methodological seminar

Migrants in the City:

Materialities, Precarities, and the City Space

Prague, November 29-December 1, 2017

organized by

the Institute of Ethnology, The Czech Academy of Sciences

the Institute of Sociological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University

in cooperation with Multicultural Center Prague

The aim of the seminar is an in depth inquiry into the methodology of researching migrant mobilities in the city space, using the available technologies and research techniques. Taking as a point of departure today's dynamic developments in the presence of migrants in cities, we would like to propose a closer look at the ways we can explore this phenomenon. Focusing on the everyday mobility of people and material objects, and on the conditions under which they are forced or enabled to cross boundaries and function in the new space, we will debate the perspectives and theoretical traditions of social anthropology, sociology, and social geography, which enable us to better understand the migrant predicament today.

The seminar will be accompanied by a workshop for Polish and Czech students interested in migration.

We invite all interested researchers and practitioners working in the field of migration, border studies, and mobility studies to take part in the seminar.

Participation in the seminar is free.

Organizers:

Helena Patzer (Institute of Ethnology, The Czech Academy of Sciences; Warsaw University)

Zdeněk Uherek (Institute of Sociological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University; Institute of Ethnology, The Czech Academy of Sciences)

Jakub Grygar (Institute of Sociological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University)

If you are interested in attending the seminar, please contact Dr Helena Patzer: helenapatzer@wp.pl

SEMINAR PROGRAM

„Migrants in the City: Materialities, Precarities, and the City Space"

Wednesday, November 29

Department of Music History, Inst. of Ethnology CAS, Puškinovo náměstí 9, Praha 6 – Bubeneč

10:00 - 10:15 start of workshop, welcome speech (Jakub Grygar, Helena Patzer)

10:15 - 11:00 Introductory lecture: Andrej Sulitka "Národnostně menšinová politika ČR po roce 1989"

11:00-12:00 Introductory discussion and brainstorming "The signs of immigrant presence in the city" (Jakub Grygar, Helena Patzer)

12:00-13:00 creating student working groups

13:00 - 16:00 group observations in the city

16:00 - 17:30 walk with Multicultural Center Prague (meeting point: Masarykovo Nadrazi)

Thursday, November 30

Department of Music History, Inst. of Ethnology CAS, Puškinovo náměstí 9, Praha 6 – Bubeneč / Sapa

10:00 – 10:15 welcome remarks (Zdeněk Uherek)

10:15 - 11:30 presentation of student research group "Migrants and Refugees Domesticating Space. An Anthropology of Mobility in Warsaw and its Vicinity" (Warsaw University)

11:30 - 13:00 travel to Sapa Vietnamese Market

13:00 - 14:00 walk in Sapa

14:00 - 15:00 lunch in Sapa

15:00 - 16:30: presentation of the Vietnamese project (Grygar, Čada, Freidingerová: Innovations in Ethnic Entrepreneurship and Emerging Everyday Multiculturalism. Vietnamese Diaspora in the Czech Republic)

Friday, December 1

Institut of Sociological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, U Kříže 8, Praha 5 - Jinonice

10:00 - 11:30 panel 1

Karel Čada "Burkinis, Slippery Slope and Euroscepticism: Islamophobia in Post-communist Europe"

Yana Leontieva "Survey of immigrants in the city of Prague: presentation of main findings and discussion of methodological challenges"

Helena Patzer „Pitfalls of Doing Ethnography of Migration in the City"

11:30-11:45 coffee break

11:45 - 13:15 panel 2

Luděk Sýkora "Learning everyday multiculture in postsocialist city: xenophobic attitudes and convivial practices in new places of immigration"

Grażyna Szymańska, Institute of Sociology, Warsaw University "From city bazaars to suburbian trade centres: changes of residential and occupational patterns of the Vietnamese community in Warsaw"

Marta Kindler, Centre for Migration Research, Warsaw "Social networks and everyday integration. Ukrainian migrants in Warsaw and vicinities"

13:15 - 14:30 lunch (canteen)

14:30 - 16:00 panel 3

Ema Hresanova "Vulnerability and migrant women's health"

Zuzana Sekeráková Búriková, FSS "Studying invisible migrants: Au pairs in a global city"

Petra Ezzedine-Luksikova "How to sell migrant domestic workers? Commodification of care and advocacy practice"

16:00 – 16:15 coffee break

16:15 – 17:30 ending discussion

The methodological challenges of researching migrants in the city (discussant: Nadya Bernadette Jaworsky)