Call for Participation for IUR´s workshop on “evictability” is now open
The research workshop “EVICTABILITY: Understanding the nexus of migration and urban displacements”, will take place at Malmö University on the 2nd and 3rd of June 2022. The organizers, IUR affiliated researchers Valeria Raimondi and Maria Persdotter (Linköping University), together with Mauricio Rogat (Gothenburg University), are now calling for participants. Read the call below:
Workshop theme:
Recently, scholars have brought attention to urban forms of displacement that affect differently politicized subjects beyond the general division of “migrants” and “citizens” (Darling, 2017; De Genova et al., 2021). Migrants, and some who are formally citizens, are increasingly affected by various forms of internal and urban displacements, such as evictions and homelessness (cf. Soederberg, 2018).
This workshop addresses practices of displacement at different scales, interpreted through the concept of “evictability” (van Baar, 2017). While eviction refers to the organized removal of people through forfeiture, confiscation or destruction of property, “evictability” (analogous to “deportability”) refers to the state of constantly being threatened by such practices. Defined as “the possibility of being removed from a sheltering space” (van Baar, 2017, 214), “evictability” has been introduced to highlight the role of urban displacements in the governance of “unwanted” migrants and citizens alike – and in an effort to de-nationalise the concepts and methods of migration and border studies.
Here, we want to elaborate on the concept of evictability by testing it empirically at the urban scale while also considering multifarious experiences in different geographical contexts.
The workshop has two interconnected aims. First, by inviting scholars, practitioners, and activists from various parts of Europe and beyond, we will create an empirical ground to discuss the applicability and limits of the term. Second, by connecting researchers and activists, we aim to create a fertile ground for future research collaborations. The idea is to produce scholarly knowledge and create alliances across disciplines, which could result in exhibitions, talks, and production of audiovisual materials.
We welcome contributions on the following topics and beyond:
- The interplay between migration policies and housing policies in cities, including migrant reception and accommodation policy, and the role of evictions and housing insecurity in this context.
- Evictions of makeshift migrant camps and seasonal workers accommodation.
- The role of non-state actors, including both corporate and grassroots actors, in effecting and challenging evictability (e.g. how far-right vigilante groups as well as pro-migrant activists relate to and act with regards to makeshift shelters and squats).
- Embodied evictabilities – how living under the threat of eviction impacts the everyday lives of people.
- Theoretical and methodological elaboration on evictability and its relation to similar concepts such as expulsion, displacement, and un-homing.
Keynote speakers:
Huub van Baar is Professor of Politics at Leuven International and European Studies at the Faculty of Social Science of KU Leuven, Belgium. Van Baar’s research focuses on the securitization of migration and on the position and protection of vulnerable migrant and minority groups in Europe. Van Baar coined the term “evictability” in a 2017 Antipode article on the governance of Roma mobilities in Europe and continues to work on the concept.
Michele Lancione is Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the DiST, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, and Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at the Urban Institute, in Sheffield, UK. Lancione’s work focuses on radical forms of inhabitation and housing struggles, and the politics of life at the margins in the contemporary urban. In recent years, he conducted extensive research in Bucharest (Romania) around evictions, housing activism and racialised urbanism.
Submission and funding:
Please send abstracts of maximum 300 words and a brief academic bionote to the conveners (maria.persdotter@liu.se; mauricio.rogat@gu.se; vfraimondi@gmail.com) no later than February 20 (accepted formats: doc, docx, pdf).
Notifications of accepted paper presentations will be sent out by the beginning of March.
We have some funding to help with travel and accommodation costs. Please let us know if you need this. Priority will be given to individuals with limited access to other sources of funding, such as activists and independent scholars.
We encourage participants to submit any draft papers by May 15.
Please note that we are organizing a follow-up session at the Nordic Migration Research Conference, Re:Migration in Copenhagen (DK) 17-19 August, 2022. A call for paper will soon be available on the conference website:
https://amis.ku.dk/calendar/2022/21st-nordic-migration-research-conference-remigration/.
Tentative program:
The workshop will take place over two days, beginning in the afternoon on June 2 and ending in the late afternoon on June 3.
Day one, there will be a public keynote lecture followed by dinner. Day two, there will be an opening keynote lecture followed by a number of workshop-sessions where participants will present their ongoing work. We are also planning to set aside time to talk about a possible shared project/publication.
We are really hoping to have the workshop in person in Malmö but are open to moving the event online if necessary due to pandemic-related restrictions.
Conveners:
Maria Persdotter, PhD in Urban studies.
Postdoc in Welfare Law, Linköping university, Department for Culture and Society. Affiliated researcher with the Malmö University Institute for Urban Research
Email: maria.persdotter@liu.se, Phone: +46707575373
Mauricio Rogat, PhD candidate, Gothenburg University, School of Global Studies
Email: mauricio.rogat@gu.se
Valeria Raimondi, PhD in Urban Studies.
Affiliated researcher with the Malmö University Institute for Urban Research.
Email: vfraimondi@gmail.com
The workshop is being organised with support from the Malmö University Institute for Urban Research and Stiftelsen för främjandet av Malmö universitets utveckling.
Works cited:
Darling, Jonathan (2017) “Forced migration and the city: Irregularity, informality, and the politics of presence”. Progress in Human Geography 41(2). 178–198
De Genova, Nicholas, Tazzioli, Martina, Ardau, Claudia, Bhandar, Brenda…(2021) “Minor keywords of political theory: Migration as a critical standpoint A collaborative project of collective writing.” Environment and Planning. C, Politics and Space. 1–95
Soedeberg, Susanne (2018) “The rental housing question: Exploitation, eviction and erasures.” Geoforum 89, 114–123
Van Baar, Huub (2017) “Evictability and the biopolitical bordering of Europe”. Antipode, 49(1), 212–230
IMAGE: “Eviction Refugees Camp Berlin” by Libertinus is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
