HOPEFUL ENGAGEMENTS IN TURBULENT TIMES: KNOWLEDGE, ART AND ACTION IN MIGRATION RESEARCH

ETMU Conference 2024, 7-8 November
Pre-Conference, 6 November
Tampere University, City centre campus, Linna building, Tampere, Finland

At the time of writing, there are over 100 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. Such displacements, in many cases, are rooted in political conflicts, war, and natural disasters caused by eco-crises. It is predicted that these figures will continue to rise in the coming years. These conditions have catalysed instability for many – or what we term ‘global turbulence’. This turbulence creates unsafety and influences how people experience a sense belonging in old and new spaces. 

During turbulent times, societal structures that produce inequality become more pronounced locally, nationally, and globally due to economic, social, political, and ecological upheavals. These processes intensify conflicts particularly when they are weaponised by far right and anti-immigration movements that have strengthened across Europe. 

The ETMU 2024 conference reflects on what happens in these ‘storms’, especially from the perspectives of migration and minoritized groups. The contributions may consider, for example, how nationalism and populism have affected human migration and associated meanings, or how human mobility shapes global mobility hierarchies. We aim to explore what hopeful engagements in turbulent times are and could be through the entanglement of knowledge, art, and action. Together these contribute to building alternative futures.