Workshop 1: Documenting Processes of Spatial Mobility (Winter School 2016)

Workshop 1 : Documenting Processes of Spatial Mobility: Qualitative and Ethnographic Approaches

Coordinators:

• Dr Rémy Delage : Geographer (Centre for South Asian Studies, CNRS-EHESS, Paris / IFP, Pondicherry)

• Dr Aurélie Varrel : Geographer (IFP, Pondicherry / Centre for South Asian Studies, CNRS-EHESS, Paris)

Invited Tutors:

• Dr Tristan Bruslé : Geographer (CSH, New Delhi / Centre for Himalayan Studies, CNRS, Paris)

• Prof. Mohammed Abdul Kalam : (Dept. of Sociology, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam)

• Dr Marie Percot : Anthropologist (Paris)

Argument-Purpose : This workshop focuses on the theory and practice of ethnographic fieldwork in South Asia and beyond, primarily discussing conceptual and methodological issues regarding the observation, description and analysis of various types of spatial mobilities (daily commuting, seasonal migration, international labour migration, etc.). The paradigm of the opposition between society of departure (homeland) and host society (hostland) being outdated, it is rather in terms of continuity and not rupture with the society of origin that we reason.

While drawing some concepts and innovative tools drawn from French human geography and Anglo-Saxon migration studies, our aim is to provide students with an intensive training course presenting theories, concepts and ethnographic research methods relating to mobility (Day 1). Mobility is not only envisaged as a research object, but also as a fluid process and as an efficient method of investigation, within a network of interlinked field sites. Indeed, historians, anthropologists and geographers share a common method for apprehending migration processes and describing transnational networks, that is the multi-sited and mobile/itinerant ethnography, as introduced and popularized by George Marcus (1995), brilliantly debated, critiqued and practiced by Alessandro Monsutti (2010), and well synthesized by Ester Gallo (2009), Karen O’Reilly (2009) and Novoa (2015), among others. Various case studies focusing on South Asia and diasporic contexts will then complement and illustrate the formal training (Day 2). The third day of the workshop will take the form of a collaborative session between scholars and students during which a research topic will be chosen and defined, developed and finalized into a formal research proposal while using the concepts and methods taught during the first two days (Day 3).

Workshop Schedule