Suchergebnisse

Religious institutions such as the Catholic Church are gaining in importance again in the wake of the economic crisis in Spain. They act as a reference point and meeting place which keep the faith community together. Tangible assistance is offered and transnational communication structures and family bonds are sustained. With its patron saints, the Catholic Church serves as a place of remembrance to produce and reproduce senses of belongings that date back to the early colonial era. Social relations of migrants are manifested in a space which symbolizes the power and glory of the former Colonial regime. Taking the example of the congregation of San Lorenzo in an immigration neighbourhood in Madrid, I discuss the role and agency of religious artefacts in re-producing collective identities and allocating social and financial resources. By focusing on the object itself, the functions and cultural meanings of the figure in different historical contexts become apparent. The religious staging around the object of the saint show spatially and chronologically comprehensive chains of interaction which reflect deep seated power relations between the immigrant and the host communities.

The study of belonging, its underlying notions, and the politics of belonging shows that social, political, and territorial demarcations are still based on essentialist conceptions of the collective. These are often applied and reproduced in the social sciences as a result of methodological nationalism. Space-sensitive studies of migration and globalization and a return to the material have recently challenged social constructivist lines of argumentation and have provoked a conceptual shift from analytical categories with inherent spatiality, territoriality, and boundary marking to concepts based on movement and flow. In this paper the analysis of belonging and the related politics of belonging in migration studies incorporates space as an analytical category that cross-cuts established categorizations such as race, class, gender, and stage in the life cycle, and integrates a material semiotic perspective more systematically into the study of social relations at the intersection of the social categories mentioned. A new concept of belonging is defined which reflects the complex relations that individuals have with other people, circulating objects, artefacts, and changing social, political, and cultural landscapes, thus mirroring both the material conditions and the underlying power relations. Such an understanding of belonging proceeds from social naturalizations and fixations to the multiplicity and situatedness of individual attachments, which entangle social, imagined, and sensual-material relations that are constantly re-articulated and re-negotiated by actors in their day-to-day practices. In such a reading, belonging comes into being as a result of individual life stories, versatile contexts, and situated experiences and acts. In times of constant exchange through travel, mass media, and communication technologies, the conceptualization of belonging questions established sociocultural and political demarcations, indicates the compatibility of ascribed socio-cultural difference and stresses the permeability of borderlines. A space-sensitive theorization of social relations and belonging opens up new perspectives on the question of how social collectives are naturalized and by whom, and under which conditions they open up to new forms of belonging; it thus brings forth new findings about collectivization, social mobilization, and change.

The study of belonging, its underlying notions, and the politics of belonging shows that social, political, and territorial demarcations are still based on essentialist conceptions of the collective. These are often applied and reproduced in the social sciences as a result of methodological nationalism. Space-sensitive studies of migration and globalization and a return to the material have recently challenged social constructivist lines of argumentation and have provoked a conceptual shift from analytical categories with inherent spatiality, territoriality, and boundary marking to concepts based on movement and flow. In this paper the analysis of belonging and the related politics of belonging in migration studies incorporates space as an analytical category that cross-cuts established categorizations such as race, class, gender, and stage in the life cycle, and integrates a material semiotic perspective more systematically into the study of social relations at the intersection of the social categories mentioned. A new concept of belonging is defined which reflects the complex relations that individuals have with other people, circulating objects, artefacts, and changing social, political, and cultural landscapes, thus mirroring both the material conditions and the underlying power relations. Such an understanding of belonging proceeds from social naturalizations and fixations to the multiplicity and situatedness of individual attachments, which entangle social, imagined, and sensual-material relations that are constantly re-articulated and re-negotiated by actors in their day-to-day practices. In such a reading, belonging comes into being as a result of individual life stories, versatile contexts, and situated experiences and acts. In times of constant exchange through travel, mass media, and communication technologies, the conceptualization of belonging questions established sociocultural and political demarcations, indicates the compatibility of ascribed socio-cultural difference and stresses the permeability of borderlines. A space-sensitive theorization of social relations and belonging opens up new perspectives on the question of how social collectives are naturalized and by whom, and under which conditions they open up to new forms of belonging; it thus brings forth new findings about collectivization, social mobilization, and change.

AbstractCreative activism and urban art are increasingly being used as an instrument to collectively re‐appropriate the urban space and thus articulate urban belonging and citizenship from below. In cities worldwide, where different politics of place stimulate capitalist appropriation, individuals and groups use the public space as a laboratory for resistance, creative act, and as a medium for communication. As such, creative activism is a strategy for those who are widely excluded from social, political, cultural, and economic participation. Collectives are built through joint actions and experiences that are translated into the production situated forms of urban belonging. By drawing on space sensitive and situationist approaches and the power of creativity as an important moment in the analysis of action, the paper provides examples of how collective action and belonging is produced under conditions of contentious politics and exclusion that go beyond social norms, the social containment of institutions,and imposed collective identities.

Europe has been in a permanent political and economic crisis for over 10 years now, which has affected above all the southern countries such as Greece and Spain. In Spain, the crisis followed a period of high economic growth based on real estate speculation, labor recruitment (migration), and the expansion of the service sector, for example in tourism. The 15-M Movement of 2011 attracted attention with public protest, occupations of squares, and symbolic appropriations (street art and graffiti) in big cities like Madrid and Barcelona, ensuring that the street activism of citizens was no longer excluded from the political landscape. Their political message was against the commercialization of public spaces, control and surveillance of the public, and expulsion of dwellers from their homes. In this transnational and urban context, in which the different interests, actors and social movements collide, the social and the collective is reconfigured and finds different forms of expression. The ethnographic investigation of crises and protest therefore, requires innovative approaches that can grasp the relativity of the actors' appearing and the situativity of the protest forms against the background context. Material-semiotic perspectives understand objects and things not only as media for the transport of content and messages. Rather, the urban itself becomes an actor by incorporating socio-economic conditions, political-historical processes and spatial interdependencies. How is agency to be conceptualized and what role do urban space, urban forms, architecture and infrastructure play - in short, the material for protest? Using a case study, a protest situation around an eviction within the subprime crisis in Spain, this working paper shows how an ethnographic approach to protest can be rethought and methodically implemented. Spain's specific crisis within the wider European crisis scenario is is particularly suitable for such an examination, because power relations and social orders are more than ever under dispute.

This issue examines politics and practices that challenge the European border regime by contesting and negotiating asylum laws and regulations, practices of separation in refugee camps and accommodation centers, as much as political acts by undocumented migrants and activists seeking alternative ways of cohabitation. The different contributions all highlight the role of civil society initiatives during the migration movements in 2015 and 2016 in Europe by discussing critical perspectives on the European border regime and by looking at migration as a contesting political force. Topics related to mobilization and the appropriation of public spaces to actively declare one's solidarity, political activism to contest borders and boundary-making approaches (no border movements) and the engagement into voluntary work are critically reflected.

This issue examines politics and practices that challenge the European border regime by contesting and negotiating asylum laws and regulations, practices of separation in refugee camps and accommodation centers, as much as political acts by undocumented migrants and activists seeking alternative ways of cohabitation. The different contributions all highlight the role of civil society initiatives during the migration movements in 2015 and 2016 in Europe by discussing critical perspectives on the European border regime and by looking at migration as a contesting political force. Topics related to mobilization and the appropriation of public spaces to actively declare one's solidarity, political activism to contest borders and boundary-making approaches (no border movements) and the engagement into voluntary work are critically reflected.

Kreative Protestformen in urbanen Räumen haben in den letzten Jahren weltweit eine Renaissance erfahren. Symbolische Aneignungen durch Haus- und Platzbesetzungen, Graffiti und politische stencils (Schablonen) prägen zunehmend den öffentlichen Raum in Großstädten und stehen beispielhaft für Protest, der jenseits institutionalisierter politischer Auseinandersetzungen angesiedelt ist. Wie aber werden dadurch Bürgerrechte und diejenigen gestärkt, die sich nicht in vorgegebenen gesellschaftlichen Systemen und sozialen Strukturen bewegen? Welche Rolle spielt der urbane Raum für Vergemeinschaftungsprozesse, für die Konstituierung von Zugehörigkeit und sozialen Kollektiven?Am Beispiel des Stadtzentrums von Madrid zeigt sich im Rahmen des neoliberalen Umstrukturierungsprozesses, wie städtische Formen, die Machtbeziehungen prägen und reflektieren, und die daraus hervorgehenden soziomateriellen Beziehungen auch den Bewohner_innen in den alltäglichen Auseinandersetzungen für das 'Recht auf Stadt' dienen können. Anhand des Arbeiter- und Migrantenviertels Lavapiés wird erörtert, wie einerseits durch die Etablierung kultureller Institutionen und die Neugestaltung (inklusive verstärkte Kontrolle) öffentlicher Plätze Veränderungen des Images des Stadtteils sowie der Wohn-, Miet- und Besitzverhältnisse unterstützt und provoziert worden sind, und damit auch Gentrifizierung und die Vertreibung von weniger bemittelten Bevölkerungsgruppen. Als Folge dieser sozialräumlichen Wandlungsprozesse haben sich andererseits aber auch verschiedene widerständische und kreative Praktiken herausgebildet und Lavapiés zu einem umkämpften Raum gemacht. Diese Initiativen stehen – entgegen der Kommerzialisierung, Kontrolle und Vertreibung – für eine politische Kultur, die neue Formen der Zugehörigkeit schafft, die dynamisch, situativ und fließend sind. ; Creative forms of protest in the urban space have experienced a worldwide renaissance in recent years. The cities' public spaces are increasingly shaped by its symbolic appropriation through squatting, protest-camps, graffiti and stencils conveying political messages. These actions are examples of protest beyond institutionalized political discourses. But how can citizenship be enacted and agency produced by those people who are widely excluded from the imposed political regimes and pre-defined social structures? Which role does the public urban space play for processes of collectivization, the production of belonging and the construction of a social collective. Madrid exemplifies how urban forms that shape and reflect power relations and the resulting socio-material relations serve urban dwellers in their everyday struggle to claim their rights to the city.The working class and immigration neighborhood of Lavapiés illustrates how on the one hand the "multi"-cultural image is supported by the establishment of cultural institutions and the reshaping and control of public spaces. On the other hand, it exemplifies how changes in residential, rental and ownership patterns, gentrification and thus the displacement of less endowed people are provoked by urban restructuring and upgrading. As a result of these socio-spatial transformation processes, creative and resistant practices emerge by which belonging is produced, citizenry is articulated and by which Lavapiés becomes a visible contested urban space. The examples of political urban art and initiatives of neighborhood assemblies highlight how a political culture is formed against commercialization, control and displacement and how conceptions of belonging are produced that are dynamic, situative and circulating.