Summer School, 23–27 June 2014, Frankfurt am Main
Multiple Inequalities in the Age of Transnationalization: Implications for Concepts and Methods
Goethe University Frankfurt, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Sociology
Organizers: Anna Amelina, Helma Lutz, Kira Kosnick
Jointly organized with the “Migration and Ethnic Minorities” section of the
German Sociological Association
In recent years, transnational social inequalities have become one of the most debated subjects in many disciplines, including gender studies, the sociology of social inequality and migration studies. Concepts such as transnational capitalist class, cosmopolitan and transnational elites, global care chains, transnational gender orders, transnational care regimes and queer transnationalism situate inequality analysis in the context of cross-border relations and practices, emphasizing that it is necessary to better understand the impacts of global and transnational relations on the production and reproduction of inequality.
The aim of the Summer School will be to intensify the dialogue between researchers who work on intersectionality and transnationality. Intersectionality, one of the most important approaches to emerge from the study of multidimensional inequalities, provides a highly valuable conceptual tool for the analysis of the processes (e.g., subordination) and patterns (e.g., hierarchies) involved in the production of inequality. It allows researchers to examine various forms of multiple inequalities in relation to aspects such as gender, ethnicity/race, class, age, disability and sexuality, as well as the interrelations between them. Concepts such as transnational migration and transnational social spaces emphasize that multi-locality has become the dominant mode of life organization for many mobile individuals and their non-mobile significant others. Consequently, the transnational lens suggests that subordination and resistance are organized multi-locally, meaning that the study of the power of definition and symbolic violence, both of which produce multiple inequalities, must go beyond the narrow focus of methodological nationalism.
To promote the dialogue between those who study multiple inequalities and researchers who work on transnationalization, mobility and cross-border migration, the Summer School will focus on the following key questions:
How are multiple inequalities (in terms of gender, ethncity/race, class, age, disability, sexuality, etc.) produced and reproduced in the process of transnationalization and cross-border mobility?
How can the multiple discriminations (sexism, racism, ethnicism, classism, ageism, etc.) which often emerge in the form of intersections and in mutual constituency be
analysed, conceptualized and theorized in the context of transnational mobility and cross-border relations?
What forms of (symbolic) violence are inherent in the processes of multiple
hierarchization which extend across national borders?
