Professor Andrew Dawson

Professor Andrew Dawson
(University of Melbourne)

Identity, Home and Movement

Abstract:

Based on an analysis of Bosnian narratives of displacement, trafficking, resettlement and return, this paper deconstructs the sedentarist biases within conventional identity theory and in the study of migration. It posits home, “where one knows oneself best”, as an analytical category more apposite for conceptualizing identities in an increasingly mobile world. Moreover, it argues that the ubiquity of mobility renders increasingly problematic the sociological and inter-disciplinary field of migration studies. In their place the paper argues for the development of “movement studies”. At one level this would involve a reconfiguration of the investigation of migration, from a focus on processes of departure and resettlement to processes of mobility. At another level it would involve a broadening of the object of study to investigation of the structural and experiential similarities and differences between the myriad forms of mobility, of which migration is only one.

Biographical note:

Andrew Dawson is Professor of Anthropology and Director of Development Studies at the University of Melbourne. His publications include, 'After Writing Culture' (with A. James & J. Hockey), 'Migrants of Identity' (with N. Rapport) and 'Local Impacts of International Migration' (with G. Craig).

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