METHODS
VISION project draws on participatory approaches oriented towards planning and conducting research “with those people whose life-world and meaningful actions are under study” (Bergold and Thomas 2012, 1). By insisting on participatory character of knowledge creation, we want to contribute social science insights in a post-truth and expert-averse world, and enact reflexive and more ethical and democratic social science. Our commitment to conviviality as a methodology requires us also to remain self-reflexive towards our own positionalities in research.
Among methods used in convivial research, ethnography takes a privileged role. VISION is a multi-sited ethnography in three countries: Germany, Poland and Romania.
VISION relies on four forms of ethnographic inquiry:
We use participant observations and interviewing to understand the social and political dynamics in selected local spaces.
We adopt multi-sited ethnography as a strategy to capture mobile and multiply situated subjects. By ‘tracing’ mobile workers to their regions of origin and exploring mobility infrastructures by means of digital ethnography we shine a light on the connectivity of Europe’s ‘inner peripheries’.
VISION uses visual ethnography as a means of social inquiry and of creating societal impact. We engage with the aesthetics and emotions of everyday life.
RESEARCH SITES
Brandenburg
We aim to understand the patterns of everyday life in a region where long-term residents and mobile workers meet. We focus on Brandenburg as an example of a region in the heart of Europe which parts have been identified as the ‘inner peripheries’. Brandenburg is the fastest ageing region in Germany. This calls for addressing intergenerational solidarity as element of a convivial society. Brandenburg’s economy relies heavily on agriculture, transport/logistics, construction and food industry that are dependent on foreign labour. This creates opportunities for the region’s economic upheaval but also social tensions along ethnic, gender or age divides.
Poland and Romania
Brandenburg’s economy relies heavily on agriculture, transport/logistics, construction and food industry that are dependent on foreign labour (Mössner 2013), in particular on workers from Poland and Romania. In the tradition of multi-sited ethnography (Falzon 2009) we will embark on a journey with the mobile workers to their places of origin. We select 2-4 such regions in Poland and in
Romania. While we remain open in the selection of regions of inquiry, we plan to investigate one of the regions in Poland bordering Brandenburg, while in Romania we will cover one of five regions most affected by outgoing migration (domestic and international) and natural population decrease with traditional links to Germany (Anghel et al. 2016; Iara 2007).
