Mobile People - Mobile Ethnographer: Thinking about Cultural Mobilities
Mobile People - Mobile Ethnographer: Thinking about Cultural Mobilities

Author(s): Maria Panteleou
Subject(s): Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Migration Studies
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: migration studies; cultural mobilities; multi-sited ethnography;
Summary/Abstract: This presentation, starting from the field research reflections and seeking a theoretical framework for continuous mobile immigrants, suggests the approach of cultural mobilities as an analytical lens for understanding modern and multiple forms of movement. It argues that all movements are culturally constructed and should be considered within the particular social, economic and political contexts that unfold. The emergence of subjective migration experiences about mobilities (from below), in conjunction with an examination of the policies adopted by the states for these (from above) can help us to understand better how different types of movement are being promoted or are limited by states and how these overlaps are interpreted by the people themselves. It also proposes multi-sited ethnography as a methodological tool for understanding how people's cultural concepts and practices are transformed or reproduced when they move. Finally, it concludes that mobilities are simply the means to illuminate the particular aspects of each culture and the way they are expressed, interpreted and renegotiated in the contemporary, diverse spatial and temporal contexts.

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