Call for abstracts: Family Life in the Age of Migration and Mobility: Theory, Policy and Practice

On September 16-20, 2013 in Norrköping, Sweden, a conference entitled, "Family Life in the Age of Migration and Mobility" Theory, Policy and Practice" will take place at Linköping University, Campus Norrköping.This conference will explore contemporary family life through the lenses of mobilty and migration.

Calls for abstracts deadline: 1st June 2013 .

Conference Website

In an age of migration and mobility not only do many facets of contemporary family life take place against the backdrop of intensified movement in its various forms, but the practices of families themselves are deeply embedded in such movements. This conference seeks to ‘make sense’ of the challenges this poses for families and for academic, empirical and policy understandings of family life in Europe and beyond. The conference adopts the concept of ‘mobilities’ as its central analytical frame. By examining a wide range of topics and drawing on several disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, sociology, socio-legal studies and social/public policy, the conference seeks to ‘stretch’ the application of the mobilities lens into new areas of family life. Three key themes frame the conference:

(I)    multi-local family lives in national and transnational contexts,
(II)   the globalization of reproduction and social reproduction across the family-life cycle, and
(III)  national, supranational and transnational policies and laws relating to family life in an age of migration and mobility.

This conference will explore contemporary family life through the lenses of mobilty and migration. Its central aim is to connect a research field fragmented in terms of discipline and scientific focus, and thus enable an interdisciplinary exchange generating new insights for theory, policy and empirical analysis relating to the lives of families in the context of contemporary patterns of movement. In defining the scientific scope of the conference, we conceive mobilities as multiple, and are particularly interested in social/occupational (vertical) mobility and geographical (horizontal) mobility/migration, and intersections between them. We also adopt a broad understanding of ‘family’, examining various stages of the family-life cycle, and ‘private’, as well as ‘public’ aspects of family-life. The dominant focus is on Europe, but in line with a mobilities paradigm we also explore ‘non-European’ family life through global and transnational lenses. Finally, we approach the topic from theoretical, empirical and policy positions, and from several disciplinary perspectives, including but not only, anthropology, sociology, socio-legal studies and social/public policy. The primary intention is to overcome deficits in the academic and policy framing of issues around mobility/migration and family life that result from too narrowly defined research questions in the respective disciplines. To help achieve this, three key themes will be addressed within the conference.

Open Call for Contributions: Posters and Short Talks

The aim is to generate original insights for the fields of family and migration studies, as well as for the mobilities paradigm per se. In a period in which issues around family life, migration and mobilities are high on the political agenda in Europe and elsewhere, the intention is also to draw on the insights gained from theoretical and empirical analyses to address deficits in the policy framing of those issues. Contributions which examine issues around family, migration and mobility in the context of the current economic crisis are especially welcome. For the conference programme with a list of all invited speakers see here.

We invite submission of abstracts for short talks and poster session from PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and established scholars relating to one of the three conference themes or to the general topic of the conference.

A limited number of conference grants to support the participation of PhD students presenting a short talk or poster is available. Full information on the grants and the application procedure you can find below.

Procedure for abstract submission

Abstracts of 250 words (or 750-1000 words if applying for a conference grant) should be submitted by 1st June 2013.

Tags: ["Conference", "family", "research", "migration", "mobility", "policies", "law"]

Published Apr. 25, 2013 3:28 PM - Last modified May 10, 2013 10:41 AM