On the negotiation of conviviality and participation in the post-migrant urban society of Frankfurt (Main)
Rebekka Schuster
My dissertation project examines how post-migrant ways of living together are shaped in transethnic spaces. This work distances itself from a discourse on migration that predominantly problematizes negative aspects of ‘integration’ and thus challenges hegemonic societal conditions. Instead, it provides a perspective on the (intersectional) plurality of dimensions and thus on a diverse, plural society. Migration significantly shapes society as a whole. Therefore, by adopting a ‘post-migrant’ perspective, the act of migration is taken as a starting point to address subsequent social transformations and negotiations of living together in diversity (Foroutan 2018). This project focuses on precisely these processes based on the central research question: how do diversely positioned actors shape transethnic, sociocultural spaces in our post-migrant society and what challenges, opportunities, and new perspectives arise for an understanding of society that conceptualizes migration as a valuable resource?
This project particularly embraces previously marginalized stories and thus focuses on the perception of a society where migration stories are part of everyday life (Yıldız 2018). This also requires confronting the dominant society’s own whiteness, its past, and the continuities of an inherent racism (El-Tayeb 2016). Rather than maintaining white and heteronormatively dominated debates and regarding ‘integration’ as a one-sided obligation, this project seeks to reconceptualize the post- migrant society and explore alternative ways of a solidarity-based conviviality. Therefore, I am working with several migrant organizations whose work is rooted in welfare work or community networking, as well as with institutions, associations and neighborhood initiatives that are dedicated to the improvement of opportunities for participation and involvement for people with and without migration histories. At such “productive places of migration-related diversity” (Hillmann/Alpermann 2018), new projects and opportunities emerge in which various actors are involved. Also, I focus on the cosmopolitan realities of everyday life in Frankfurt (Main) in order to elaborate how post-migrant togetherness is negotiated implicitly and on a daily basis. From the perspectives I encounter in the scope of my research, a ‘post-migrant gaze’ on Frankfurt’s urban society emerges, which shows the imbalances and challenges many citizens of Frankfurt are confronted with. At the same time, the empirical research shows the efforts of various actors to shape a solidary conviviality in the urban society.
Duration
2022 - 2025
Funding
PhD scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
Supervisor
Prof. Dr. Olaf Zenker