Da li mačke jedu lice? Kako i zašto smo gledale seriju Seks i grad

Author(s): Danica Minić,Slobodanka Dekić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: Special /2004

This article presents the results of the mini-research in the female Belgrade audience of the series Sex and the City. The article is the report on the contents of the focus groups’ discussions about Sex and the City and it deals with the three main themes of the series as the members of the focus group have identified them. These three themes were: sex and power, sex and single status and speech about sexuality. The opinions of the members of the focus group were polarized the most in relation to the question: to what exent the series subverts the common gender conventions with respect to these three themes or reafirms them.

Šta govore fotografije

Author(s): Ksenija Jovović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: Special /2004

This contribution graphically presents the results of a mini-research in the visal representation of women in the daily newspapers in Serbia. Photographs are treated as media texts and analyzed content wise; therefore, the presented quantifications refer to their informative and not their aesthetic value. According to the results of this research, the quality and the quantity of the visual representation of women could be a fairly reliable indication of the daily newspapers’ profile.

O broju

Author(s): Snježana Milivojević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: Special /2004

Women and Media, the special edition of journal Genero, is dedicated to the representation of women in public communication. This is also the first publication of Belgrade Women's Studies Center in which student research papers are published. The texts present a result of the Research seminar, held in 2002, on the basis of research that was part of methodological training for students. Contributions to this issue exceeded the demands of schoolwork, affirming once more that student's research efforts deserve support. The issue is also enriched with the contributions by female artists Maja Rakocevic, Jelena Radic and Maja Bekan, who critically intervened on the products of popular media - advertisements, front pages of newspapers and women's press. The editor of the issue and the author of the introductory essay "Women and Media: The Strategies of Exclusion" is Snjezana Milivojevic, PhD, the lecturer in Belgrade Women's Studies Center and the professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade.

Žene i štampa

Author(s): Teresa Stratford / Language(s): Serbian Issue: Special /2004

Govor o seksualnosti

Author(s): Olivera Mićković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: Special /2004

Through these interviews, as well as the texts related to them, I want to find the new framework for the speech about sexuality and about the position of the singles. The language and our habits of language use create dichotomy that I define as vulgar vs. academic, which makes it impossible for personal to appear in the public sphere. Accordingly, theoretical framework in which this work appears excludes the excplicit speech about sexuality. On the other hand, I want to point out the political relevance of the series as Sex and the City, as they find the ways to play with language, speek publicly about something that is being silenced and indirectly effect us by subverting the strengths of these dichotomies. Therefore, through this series the opportunity is created for us to read the interviews with women that encourage questioning our intimate positions.

Beleške o autorkama/autorima

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Serbian Issue: Special /2004

Changing Events – Stable Networks. Regime Turnovers, the “Great Trip” and the Life History of a Bulgarian-Turkish Entrepreneur

Author(s): Michal Svoboda / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

Based on the case study of the career history of a Bulgarian-Turkish entrepreneur I elaborate on the idea that significant (macro-level) events such as governmental takeovers or migration do not influence the economic decisions of individuals on the micro-level. It is the social capital, embedded in networks of people, which provides direct access to economic resources. Social networks are of different types (kin or non-kin) with varying influence on an individual in different stages of his life course. The subject of this research, a man called Akhun, is a successful entrepreneur who was able to activate and manipulate (scarce) resources in different historical periods. He began his informal enterprise in the times of the communist regime. The enterprise started to suffer after the beginning of the “Revival Process” and later – in 1989 being part of what has been called the “Great Trip” – he was even forced to leave the country. However, he returned in 1990 and, based on his previous networks, started a new business. The enterprise, a family farm, successfully develops until today. Akhun’s story is to be seen as an example of post-socialist entrepreneurial development.

Return Migration: the Changing Faces and Challenging Facets of a Field of Study

Author(s): Jasna Čapo Žmegač / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

Various conceptualizations of return migration – understanding it as a “myth”, “illusion”, “natural homecoming”, etc. – point out dominant approaches and research paradigms within migration studies as well as hidden ideological and political agendas. It is argued that the latter had a different impact on migration studies in emigration and immigration countries. Contemporary circumstances of enhanced global mobility have diversified the categories of return migration so that researchers have added various qualifications to the generic term. They speak of imagined and provisional return, (co-)ethnic return, ancestral or roots return, partial and virtual return, etc. The new research paradigm of transnationalism which embraces these new conceptualisations, can thus be said to have enlarged rather than dissolved the meaning of the term. Finally, based on the broad spectrum of possible studies on return in the ethnographically probing Croatian context, it is argued that return – as part of an ongoing and reversible migration process – might be studied as just another kind of immigration.

Irregular Migration and Undocumented Migrant Work After Bulgaria’s EU Accession

Author(s): Mila Mancheva / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

The present article discusses the main characteristics of the processes of irregular migration to and through Bulgaria. Outlined are the different types of irregular migrants and their relationship with the informal economy in the context of the existing migration regime in the country. Traced are the status dynamics among irregulars, the niches of irregular work, the related recruitment patterns as well as the networks of assistance among irregulars.

Implications of Migration Flows on the Community Life of a Romanian Village. A Case Study of Biled, Timiş County, Romania

Author(s): Ania Ceauşescu,Melinda Dincă / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

The phenomenon of migration has always existed, manifesting itself through transhumance, invasion, colonization and crusades. The strong appeal of the more prosperous regions for the poorer populations has often been a determining factor for migration flows. Whether it receives immigrants or provides emigrants, the Romanian village Biled was and remains significantly involved in the social phenomena of internal and external migration. Located in the historical region of Banat, Biled has undergone many stages of migration. The two World Wars and the post-war period, as well as communism, brought significant changes to the ethnic composition of Biled, and substantial transformations in the social, cultural, economic, and demographic evolution of the community. Our study focuses on the socio-cultural effects of the internal and external migratory phenomena on the community of Biled. These effects have an impact on all social classes and categories. At the macro level, we have an ageing population that cannot contribute significantly to the socio-economic development of the Romanian rural society. It is difficult to transmit the socio-cultural reproduction of the habits, traditions and cultural practices intergenerationally without the active participation of the working age population of the village. Moreover, the direct effects on the education and personal development of children from families with one or both parents who have left to work abroad are very significant. However, we decided to give more attention to the socio-cultural distance between different ethnic, regional, and religious groups from the current community and to make an analysis of the main causes and effects of the migration flows in recent decades in Biled.

Migrants of the Future – Serbian Youth between Imaginary and Real Migration

Author(s): Ildiko Erdei / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

One of several opinion polls of the student population in Serbia, conducted in May 2008, revealed that about 78% of the interviewees is ready to leave Serbia immediately after they get their diploma. Although there are many who declare that they are ready to permanently return to their home country, and certainly a great majority is in one way or another engaged in a widespread public debate about the issue of emigration, the portion of those who have already made concrete plans and preparations for leaving is considerably smaller. Focussing on the wishes and plans of the young for leaving after 2000, I will try to formulate answers to two questions: first, what is the social and cultural context of this fervent debate, supposing that the various discourses on youth, at the particular moment centred on the migration issue, might in fact represent a part of the wider process of reconstruction of youth as a social category in postsocialist transformations; and second, what are the characteristics of the more shadowy process that, in the private arena of family life and family planning, accompanies this more exposed political debate. In short: what kind of home will Serbia become if the young people wish so strongly to escape from it?

No Safe Haven: the Reception of Irregular Boat Migrants in Greece

Author(s): Jutta Lauth Bacas / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

Unauthorized entry of migrants into Europe’s “Schengenland” is a social phenomenon that has not only increased rapidly in the last decade, it has also become a major concern of migration studies in recent years. The Greek-Turkish border, which separates EU territory from a non-European country and which is often crossed by irregular migrants and persons seeking refuge from the Middle and Far East, is especially relevant for studying irregular migration flows in Southeastern Europe. The article shall focus on the reception of unauthorized migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos who managed to cross the Greek-Turkish border by boat clandestinely. Based on anthropological fieldwork on the Greek island of Lesbos, ethnographic data on the migratory process from Turkey to Greece about how undocumented migrants cross the maritime border, how they are received in Greece and how their apprehension on the island of Lesbos works will be presented. In discussing the findings, the category of illegal migration shall be challenged. Based on empirical data from the Greek-Turkish maritime border, we have to think of managing unauthorized migration as a complex system with interrelated legal practices as well as unlawful actions of all actors involved.

The Strategies that Foreign Women Domestic Workers Use to Overcome the Stereotypes They Face in Turkey

Author(s): Burcu Şimşek / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

This paper questions the stereotypes that foreign domestic workers face and their strategies to overcome these stereotypes, and aims to raise questions about the issues that foreign domestic workers face in Turkey from a feminist perspective. In this respect, the paper summarizes the discussions concerning waged domestic work in Turkey and questions the way that gender is performed in the context of the home by two women, the foreign domestic worker and the host employer. For this paper, 5 foreign women working as domestic workers and four of their employers have been interviewed. All of the informants were found through friendly networks and live in Ankara. The paper supports the idea of Jones that gender matters in migration at the level of ideology, discourse, policy, and in the lived realities created by the migratory experience, and adds an important aspect, that is, how we define gender matters. Culture being an important determinant in the performance of gender has to be studied further in the context of foreign domestic work as the barrier of second language changes the gender performance.

Editorial

Author(s): Klaus Roth,Jutta Lauth Bacas / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

The Invention of “Transit Migration”. Theoretical and Methodological Considerations on Illegal Migration in Europe’s Southeastern Border Region

Author(s): Sabine Hess / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

The concern with and the trope of “illegal migration” is one of the main narratives that has been dominating the public and political migration debate since the 1990s. In the following paper I develop an analytical perspective on the topic, which focuses on the political and scientific context and condition of its knowledge production, especially on the invention of the migrational figure of the “undocumented transit migrant”. Thereby I draw on the empirical findings and experiences of the research project called Transit Migration (2007). Transit Migration was an interdisciplinary research project focussing on the Europeanization of migration policies and in particular on the formation of the European border regime in Southeastern Europe, specifically in Turkey, Greece and the Balkans in general. I will show which international and local actors and discourses produce a political scenario in the European peripheries, which can be called “transit migration dispositif”. In contrast to this kind of political usable knowledge production, the ethnographic material rather demonstrates that “transit migrants” are hard to define. But the ethnographic data shows that due to the EU border regime more and more migrants are caught at the fringes of the EU, leading to the emergence of highly “precarious transit zones”.

The Impact of Common European Union Immigration Policy on Turkey

Author(s): Cavidan Soykan / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

Economic globalization, poverty, and ethnic conflicts around the world have increased the number of people fleeing persecution. Some of these migratory flows headed to Europe through illegal means such as smugglers and illegal border crossings. This made the distinction between irregular migrants and asylum seekers blurry. As European states formulated solutions for the problem of unwanted flows, the international protection provided to asylum seekers was loosened for the sake of national security. In fact, the short history of migration in the European context shows that asylum was never seen as a problem as long as it was consistent with national interests. When the European Union member states initiated a policy towards common immigration and asylum standards for Europe, control tools and prevention mechanisms were prioritized against the refugee protection. Due to abolishing the internal borders and having common external borders for Europe, attention was directed to neighbouring countries and their asylum and immigration practices. This paper will focus on the development of common immigration and asylum policy for the EU and its effects on third countries with a special emphasis on Turkey.

Intercultural Experiences of Hauzmajstor. A Case Study on Repatriate Entrepreneurship in Serbia

Author(s): Vesna Vučinić Nešković / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

This case study gives an account of the development of Hauzmajstor, a small real estate maintenance firm, founded by a Serbian repatriate in 2004. Beginning with its start up as the first daughter firm of Komon sens, the consulting and project development firm, the study follows its adaptation to the local business environment, concentrating on its organizational and business culture. The study also presents a detailed description and analysis of intercultural experiences of the Hauzmajstor insiders focussed on the perception of their first contacts and established relations with foreign (Western) clients. Conclusions deal with the mechanisms and the processes of establishing intercultural communication.

Understanding Migrants’ Experiences of Social Exclusion and Inclusion: the Case of Bulgarian Immigrants in Greece

Author(s): Dimitra Thoma / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

The present paper refers to sociological issues, namely the experiences of social exclusion and inclusion of second-generation immigrants from Bulgaria. More specifically, the paper presents the immigrants’ experiences that have been “produced” within the school environment and Greek society in general. The theoretical framework of the study approaches second-generation immigrants as social subjects whose experiences of social reality are mediated by the relationship of the parameters of ethnicity, class and gender. The paper presents the findings of a qualitative study of second-generation Bulgarian students in Athens. The research project was conducted by the Research Centre for Greek Society of the Academy of Athens between 2006 and 2007 and focussed on the relationship of the second-generation Balkan immigrants to education. The study is based on the empirical material of semi-structured interviews with immigrant pupils who attend upper secondary education. It is argued that their relationship to education is significantly determined by their parents’ cultural capital which, in its turn, refers to different social strata. The paper concludes that the cultural can be more fully understood through its relationship to class and gender, as it is shaped by them.

Impressum – Content list

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010

Adresses of authors and editors – Instructions to authors

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2010