This research challenge explores the relationships between migration and other non-human mobilities such as the movement of goods, data and living beings. These relationships can be direct, indirect and metaphorical. It examines how broadening our approach and making connections with other forms of mobility and with the non-human that moves we can better understand how human movement impacts on and reflects eco-systems, socio-economic relations and technological change.
This research challenge traces movements of the human and non-human and the connections between them to help develop a systemic understanding of migration. For example, one of the primary drivers of the movement of people has been the search for markets, for land and for work; the movement of the COVID-19 virus has been enabled by human movement and has had an impact on human mobilities; the movement of data has both facilitated and restricted border crossings. We explore the materiality of mobilities to make connections and better understand the impact of policy and activist interventions.
Key research questions include:
- How are these movements, and our understandings of them, gendered?
- When is migrant labour an object and when is it a determinant of capital’s mobility?
- What role do cities, sub-national territorial formations and regional arrangements play in capitalism(s) and what does this mean for understanding flows of people?
- How does anxiety about climate change and its consequences affect attitudes to human movement?
Latest blogs related to this challenge:
- Across the waters: Caribbean mobilities, itineraries, historiesBy Orlando Deavila Pertuz and Bethan Fisk. What stories are told about the Caribbean? What do these narratives exclude? How can we broaden the story? And how can we teach a wider vision… Read more: Across the waters: Caribbean mobilities, itineraries, histories
- ‘We’ll double your change!’ The materiality and mobility of cash in contemporary ArgentinaBy Juan Luis Bradley. In January 2024, the Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) announced that two new, higher denomination banknotes (ARS10,000 and ARS20,000) would be placed into circulation by the summer. The rift… Read more: ‘We’ll double your change!’ The materiality and mobility of cash in contemporary Argentina
- Bodies, things, capital – intersections in our research themesBy Juan Zhang. As co-ordinator of the MMB Research Challenge ‘Bodies, Things, Capital’ I have been reading our recent blogs under this theme and am struck by the range and depth of the… Read more: Bodies, things, capital – intersections in our research themes
Linked projects:
Current:
- ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures
- Hidden Narratives of Transnational Organised Crime in West Africa
- Protecting the Rights of Migrant Workers in Hungary through Public Procurement
- Migrants and Systemic Resilience (Mig-Res-Hub) – A Global COVID19 Research and Policy Hub
Previous:
- (de)Bordering: Creative research exploring the politics of immigration and the
environment through planting - Re-visiting Child Sex Tourism, Re-thinking Business Responses
- Globalising Luxuries
- Migration, Development and Global Transformations (MDGT)
- Transnational Organised Crime at Sea: New evidence for better responses