Exciting new from the Standing Committee "Reflexivities in Migration Studies"!
The Special Issue "Towards reflexivity in the study of mobility and diversity: Theories, positionality, and the political economy of knowledge production", published in the journal Migration Studies, is complete and now out and ready to read! Edited by Iva Dodevska and Maissam Nimer , both members of the governing board of the Standing Comittee "Reflexivities in Migration Studies", this Special Issue represents a significant contribution to the ongoing reflexive turn in migration studies,emphasising the need to integrate reflexivity in the epistemological stance when researching migration and related topics. The volume brings together voices that have been working to transform how we produce, circulate, and engage with knowledge about migration and diversity. With this, it repreents a collection that bridges theoretical innovation, methodological experimentation, and critical analysis of the structural conditions shaping migration research. The collection examines migration knowledge production through three interconnected lenses:
- The Political Economy of Knowledge Production: How do material conditions, institutional structures, and funding mechanisms shape what gets researched and by whom? Contributions explore EU science-for-policy paradigms, the development of refugee studies in Turkey, and the moral economies of reflexive migration scholarship.
- Theoretical Rethinking: Moving beyond policy vocabularies and integrating migration into broader critical social studies. Papers challenge dominant epistemological frameworks and propose historical and genealogical approaches to understanding migration.
- Reflexive Methodologies: Practical tools for conducting non-extractive, justiceoriented research. Contributors share insights on participatory filmmaking, ethics of care, intimacy as method, and navigating researcher positionality.
The Special Issue raises important questions about the boundaries and possibilities of reflexive scholarship, the institutionalization of critical approaches, and the relationship between migration research and social justice struggles. You find the Special Issue here and a contextual note by co-editor Massaim Nimer here.
