Mobile sociology1

This article seeks to develop a manifesto for a sociology concerned with the diverse mobilities of peoples, objects, images, information, and wastes; and of the complex interdependencies between, and social consequences of, such diverse mobilities. A number of key concepts relevant for such a sociology are elaborated: 'gamekeeping', networks, fluids, scapes, flows, complexity and iteration. The article concludes by suggesting that a 'global civil society' might constitute the social base of a sociology of mobilities as we move into the twenty-first century.     

Recombinant Family Formation Strategies1

Abstract In contrast to the 'modernization' model of demographic change, popularized by the publications of the European Fertility Project, this paper sets the revolution in family life in an historical perspective. First, I briefly consider the creation of a distinctly north-west European system of production and reproduction; second, I discuss how this regime led to the emergence of a revolutionary solution to the population/resources squeeze in early modern England; third, I consider how it came to be severely dis-equilibrated in the period of industrialization, urbanization and improvements in life-expectation which became generalized in the age of the Industrial Revolution; and, fourth, I propose that the re-equilibration that we celebrate within the rubric of the Demographic Transition can perhaps be more effectively understood as both an innovation and an adjustment which occurred in response to the historical ruptures - demographic and economic, cultural and political - engendered by the twin processes of material change and state formation.     

We've been framed: visualising methodology1

This paper explores the reasons why video, and other visual representations have been largely ignored in sociology, whilst the possibilities of video as an empirical source have been sidelined by cultural studies. Discussions of methodology have raised doubts about notions such as objectivity and scientific knowledge, and about the power relationships involved in the research and writing processes, and techniques that one might employ in order to avoid such problems have been suggested. Yet the aims of such techniques are misguided if they serve only to further legitimate the 'truth' of the research itself. In this context I explore some of the possibilities of visual methods, such as video and photography, whilst also examining some of the ethical issues raised by them. In this respect, the paper explores the notion of a 'queer methodology'. This approach is indebted to the legacy of its predecessor, feminist methodology, but departs from this in several important ways. I will explore these differences and examine the possibility that a place for the visual within sociology is an inherently queer conception.     

The internalization of autonomous nature into society1

There is presently much theoretical discourse claiming that nature is being socially constructed or even abolished. Some authors celebrate this development and others lament it. Still others bracket nature's dynamics out of the analysis. The present paper critically assesses these theories and methodologies concerning relations between social practices and processes of nature. It then develops an alternative argument. The expansion of society into wilderness areas has brought new disturbances of nature into society. Pristine nature has been replaced by socially encompassed primal nature, which retains its capacity for independent dynamics that affect social constructions. Moreover, nature remains embedded in technology and so does its potential to escape control. These hybrids constructed by humans and nonhumans recombine processes and materials of nature. Now that this recombinant nature has been integrated into society and new primal dynamics of nature have been internalised, there is increasing reason to incorporate the forces of nature into sociological analysis.     

Morocco's Migration Experience: A Transitional Perspective1

Using a ‘transitional’ perspective on migration, which combines three theoretical approaches on dynamic development‐migration linkages, this paper interprets the evolution of migration within, from, and to Morocco over the twentieth century. Colonization and the incorporation of rural areas, along with a certain level of socio‐economic development, have spurred internal and international wage labour migration both within Morocco and from Morocco to Europe. Migration seems to be the result of development rather than the lack of development. Populations from highly marginalized regions were less likely to participate in migration than populations from the three, moderately enclosed “migration belts” which had established traditions of pre‐modern, largely circular migration. At the onset of large‐scale emigration in the 1960s, the spatial patterns of labour migration were significantly infuenced by colonial bonds with Spain and France, selective labour recruitment, and Moroccan selective passport issuance policies. However, the influence of such policies rapidly decreased due to the effects of migration‐facilitating networks. Increasingly restrictive policies coincided with a growing reliance on family migration, permanent settlement, undocumented migration, and the exploration of new migration itineraries, and had no success in reducing migration levels.Alongside patterns of decentralizing internal migration, a spatial diffusion of international out‐migration has expanded beyond the historical migration belts in response to new labour opportunities in southern Europe. Persistent demand for migrant labour, along with demographic factors and increasing aspirations, suggest that migration over formally closed borders is likely to remain high in the near future. However, in the longer term, out‐migration might decrease and Morocco could increasingly develop into a migration destination for migrants from sub‐Saharan Africa, a transition process which may already have een set in motion.     

Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society1

This article aims at proposing some elements for a grounded theory of the network society. The network society is the social structure characteristic of the Information Age, as tentatively identified by empirical, cross-cultural investigation. It permeates most societies in the world, in various cultural and institutional manifestations, as the industrial society characterized the social structure of both capitalism and statism for most of the twentieth century.
Social structures are organized around relationships of production/consumption, power, and experience, whose spatio-temporal configurations constitute cultures. They are enacted, reproduced, and ultimately transformed by social actors, rooted in the social structure, yet freely engaging in conflictive social practices, with unpredictable outcomes. A fundamental feature of social structure in the Information Age is its reliance on networks as the key feature of social morphology. While networks are old forms of social organization, they are now empowered by new information/communication technologies, so that they become able to cope at the same time with flexible decentralization, and with focused decision-making. The article examines the specific interaction between network morphology and relationships of production/consumption, power, experience, and culture, in the historical making of the emerging social structure at the turn of the Millennium.     

Housing and Property Restitution and IDP Return in Kosovo1

La création de la Direction des logements et des biens (DLB) et de la Commission des demandes de dédommagement (CDD) au Kosovo reflète un intérêt croissant de la part de la communauté internationale pour le rétablissement des droits sur les logements et les biens au lendemain du conflit. En quelque trois années de fonctionnement, ces institutions ont réussi àétablir les droits de propriété concernant la quasi-totalité des 30.000 habitations dont la propriétéétait contestée. La DLB et la CDD font aujourd'hui figure d'exemple pour de nombreuses autres régions ayant traversé une période de conflit. Si l'efficacité de ces institutions est louable, l'un des objectifs initiaux essentiels - le retour des personnes déplacées dans leur lieu d'origine - a dans une large mesure été laissé de côté. L'auteur met surtout l'accent sur deux échecs distincts de la communauté internationale concernant le fonctionnement de la DLB/CDD et de leurs effets possibles sur les retours: un manque de coordination entre les deux institutions d'une part et les autres organismes œuvrant dans le domaine des retours d'autre part, et l'isolement des décisions concernant le droit à la propriété par rapport à d'autres aspects d'une culture de respect du droit à la propriété au Kosovo.     

The Securitization of Migration: A Racial Discourse1

As we enter the informational economy, freedom of human mobility has nearly disappeared. Instead, powerful words are travelling the globe unhindered: risk and security. They are being strung together with the present “migration phenomena”, leaving migrants bound by the chain of the new security discourse: the securitization of migration. This discourse is racism's most modern form. Discursive practices, as seen through the press portrayal of 599 migrants reaching Canada's western coast, have transformed migrants into agents which threaten “human security” How discourse informs government policy is illustrated through an examination of Canada's new immigration legislation.     

Temporary Skilled Migration to Australia: Employers' Perspectives1

With the 1996 introduction of a new visa making it easier for employers to sponsor skilled foreign workers, temporary skilled migration has become a significant component of international migration flows to Australia. This paper examines employers' reasons for sponsoring skilled workers from abroad, their modes of recruitment, the occupational skills they require, and their industry profile. We also discuss issues relating to the perception of a shortage of skilled workers, the extent that sponsoring foreign workers substitutes for investing in local training, and the role of networks in recruiting overseas workers. Many employers' now have a global view of labour recruitment. While this is understandable for multinational companies with global operations, many small businesses and public sector institutions are adopting the same strategy to obtain skilled labour which they say is in short supply in Australia. With the internationalization of the Australian economy, there is also an increasing demand for people with specialized skills and knowledge that is not available in Australia's relatively small labour market. An understanding of the demand factors motivating temporary skilled migration is crucial to effectively managing Australia's migration and labour trends.     

Moving People and Knowledge: Scientific Mobility in the European Union1

This paper considers the relationship between highly skilled scientific migration (HSM) and the transfer of knowledge within the European Union (EU). To understand these processes we need to conceptualize the phenomenon and then develop appropriate operational tools. HSM engages two key concepts: (1) the concept of skill or knowledge; and (2) the concept of migration. nalysing the impact of HSM requires an understanding of who is moving (and the quality of their skills) and the nature of their migration. This might include consideration of the direction of flows; their frequency, duration, and permanency; and the propensity to return. In order to evaluate the impact of these processes on the regions concerned and develop appropriate policy responses, we need to examine the relationship between scientific mobility and the transfer of knowledge. Much existing literature focuses on the size and direction of migratory flows assuming a clear correlation between human mobility and the transfer of knowledge to identify the “winning” and “losing” regions. More recent work emphasizing “circulation”. questions these assumptions and suggests that flows may not be unidirectional, homogenous, or permanent and may be mitigated by certain “compensatory” mechanisms This article considers some of the issues raised in the literature and the ways in which the variables identified may interact to shape these relationships with important implications for sending and receiving countries and individual scientists. This article does not endeavour to present new conclusions. Drawing on a pilot project concerned with the mobility of Italian scientists, it begins to map out a research agenda capable of informing a new study of scientific migration in the context of EU enlargement that may potentially inform other research in this field.     

Health Status of Temporary Migrants in Urban Areas in Vietnam1

The rapid economic growth after economic reform, known in Viet Nam as “Doi Moi”, and the growing scope of urban migration raise specific questions for social policy, including migration and health policies. This paper compares issues of health status and its determinants as they affect temporary urban migrants versus permanent urban migrants and non‐migrants. The analyses utilize multivariate logistic regression and data from the 1997 Vietnam Migration and Health Survey. The results show that temporary migrants staying in guest houses are most vulnerable to health problems. Though most of them are initially healthier, their reported health deteriorates faster than other groups of urban residents. The findings also present important implications for the current migration and health policies in Vietnam: 1) A special attention should be given to temporary migrants in guest houses; 2) Different priorities in health policy should be applied to different groups of migrants and non‐migrants; 3) The current population management policy by registration system needs to be reviewed; 4) Providing clean water is one of the most important ways to improve health of temporary migrants; 5) Targeting educational investments and reducing unemployment would likely to improve overall health; 6) A higher priority on health policies targeting women would likely pay dividends, and; 7) Improving management and collaboration between government offices and interested partners is important to improving health status and reducing inequity.     

The managed heart revisited: health and social control1

In this paper I investigate emotional labour in the field of nursing. I show how new ideologies of health promotion have become attached to the prior agenda and already-embedded relationships which structure health provision. Beginning with an outline of health promotion principles and policies the paper goes on to trace how the radical dimensions of health promotion philosophies are subverted in practice by discussing data from a research project into nursing roles in health promotion. I present the data to show how nursing's focus on relationships and relationship skills create divisions of knowledge and information between ‘expert’ discourses located in the institutions of health provision and the everyday agenda of the populations using their services. In the final section of the paper I argue that a focus on the deployment of emotion work in specific social and institutional contexts provides a perspective on emotions as resources that are consciously drawn upon by actors in order to achieve socio-cultural and wider political ends.     

Calling for accounts: numbers, monsters and membership1

This article questions how accounts are marked. In asking why some accounts ‘pass muster’ and others fail, the analysis brings into focus the extent to which membership work helps hold the social and the technical apart. The analysis contrasts a long insistence on narrative forms of interaction as defining conditions of co‐presence with numerical regimes in which there is an implicit deletion of social contact under fashionable slogans like ‘action at a distance’. Taking numbers to act as ‘bearers of culture’, the paper contests the idea that numerical forms of accountability delete the membership work traditionally associated with narrative forms of account. Attending closely to ‘occasions’ in which it is appropriate for members to deploy numerical accounts rather than verbal accounts, the argument challenges the idea that a face to face negotiation of social order has been superceded by a pervasive use of perfonnance targets. The article begins by exploring how ‘calls to account’ are created by a reporting of adverse budget variatices within organizations. Using an extended example to consider how such ‘gaps’ affect a manager's conduct towards a spouse who is sick, the analysis shows how the use of numbers becomes crucial to sustaining one's affiliation across a range of memberships. As illustrated, the rehabilitation of numerical artefacts into conceptions of the social greatly expands possibilities for interaction beyond that anticipated by the sociological ideal of ‘co‐presence’.