MMB is a Faculty Research Centre based within the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences. It is oriented around two research themes and we use these to group and profile research projects being developed by colleagues in Bristol. Our take on migration and mobilities is both innovative and capacious, connecting mainstream Migration Studies to research on movements within borders and non-human movement. This places us very much at the cutting edge of migration and mobilities scholarship.
MMB’s primary purpose is to foster and promote new thinking on migration and mobilities that is critical, creative and conceptually driven, making it distinctively a ‘Bristol’ approach. Within UoB we continue to build a strong interdisciplinary community of 200+ scholars working on all aspects of mobilities, with an emphasis on the human. MMB members are interested in a very wide range of migration and mobilities related subjects, come from different disciplinary traditions and deploy different conceptual and empirical tools. Some are migration scholars, others have researched migration from a particular disciplinary perspective as one among several areas of interest, others research mobility related topics such as bus services or glacial movement that are distinct from migration studies but benefit from theories, networks and interconnections that become apparent when brought into conversation with migration scholars.
The Bristol Approach
Conceptually driven, critical, creative
While there is no consensus of views on migration among our members, and neither does MMB seek to shape one, we have fostered the emergence of a shared approach which we strive to promote as unique to Bristol.
MMB’s shared approach is one that: recognises that borders are productive, making ‘migrants’ not only admitting and rejecting them; acknowledges that research changes our worlds and that researchers therefore have a responsibility to change it for the better; recognises that migration is connected to many other scales and forms of mobilities; explores connections including between migrants and citizens.
- Conceptually driven – Human movement is entangled in multiple mobilities (think of trade, money and non-human species). Not all human movement counts as ‘migration’.
- Critical – MMB supports all UoB research on migration, asylum, integration and related topics. It also fosters ‘migration as method’: research that connects human movement to other social challenges, including climate change, and sociodigital technologies. It works with researchers to connect migration with other social justice related issues, especially racism and nationalism.
- Creative – MMB facilitates multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research orientated to the past, present and future. It works predominantly with scholars across Arts, Law and Social Sciences , facilitating conversations between diverse perspectives and disciplines, from life sciences to English scholars, historians to management.
This approach makes for innovative connections across different Faculties and research fields, encourages intellectual exchange and collaborations and boosts research capacity. We do not simply see human movement as a problem to be solved but as a lens that discovers unexpected connections between migration and other issues including race, welfare, environment and development. From this perspective we also act as a critical friend to policymakers, lawyers, NGOs and activists. Through this innovative Bristol approach we seek to contribute to the development of the next generation of leading scholars.
This approach makes for innovative connections across different Faculties and research fields, encourages intellectual exchange and collaborations and boosts research capacity. We do not simply see human movement as a problem to be solved but as a lens that discovers unexpected connections between migration and other issues including race, welfare, environment and development. From this perspective we also act as a critical friend to policymakers, lawyers, NGOs and activists. Through this innovative Bristol approach we seek to contribute to the development of the next generation of leading scholars.