Multiple Belonging

To date, research has primarily used a singular identity framework for investigating how social identity shapes behavior. Thus, research has also largely ignored the role that having multiple, simultaneous identities may play in our lives. This paper reviews work that pushes that singular identity framework beyond either/or binary constructs of identity. Specifically, through exploring racial identity flexibility for biracial populations and activating a flexible, multiple identity mindset more broadly outside of racial domains, these results demonstrate the potential impact of multifaceted self-views on flexible behaviors. Related work concerning other multiply belonging individuals are also discussed in line with a call for needed research to pinpoint new models and mechanisms for understanding the multiplicity of belonging.

Berlin Duvarı 1961’de yükseldi. Doğu Berlin’den günübirlik çalışmaya gelen emekçilerin önü birdenbire kesildi. Böylece Türkiye’den göçmenlerin ‘ek’ işgücü olarak çağrılmasıyla sıra dışı bir serüven başladı. Emek göçünün failleriydi onlar. Savaş yorgunu, enkaz halindeki Almanya’yı yeniden canlandırabilmek için, yaşamlarını, ailelerini, anılarını, ‘ev’lerini, geride, anavatanda bırakarak, gelecekleri ve aileleri için, umut içinde ama biraz da tedirginlik ve korkuyla, yepyeni bir yaşama doğru yola koyuldular. Sirkeci Garı’ndan davul zurna ile yolcu edilip, Almanya‘da coşkuyla karşılandılar.  Misafir işçilerdi onlar: bugün orada, yarın anavatanlarında. Oysa zaman içinde yabancı işçi ve göç kökenli vatandaş oldular. Çoğunun geri dönüş planları, ertelendikçe ertelendi, değişti ve günbegün kalıcılaştılar. Eş, çocuklar, torunlar, yeni nesiller…  Derken, bugün Almanya’da dördüncü nesle ulaştılar. Kalıcılaşmayla birlikte, çocukların eğitim sorunları gün yüzüne çıktı. Bunun yanında kimlik, aidiyet ve entegrasyon sorunları da. ‘Arada kalmış’, ‘dejenere olmuş’, ‘kayıp kuşak’, ‘gurbetçi’, ‘Almancı’, ‘parçalanmış kimlikler’, ‘kimlik krizi yaşayanlar’, ‘tutunamayanlar’ olarak nitelendirildiler. Kimlik bunalımı yaşayan, problemli bireyler olarak etiketlendiler/etiketlenmek istendiler. Acaba gerçekten böyle mi? Yoksa onlar diasporik kimlikleri sayesinde çok zengin bir kültüre mi sahipler? Akşam evde Türkiye’yi, sabah okulda Almanya’yı yaşayan öğrencilerin okulda gördükleri tarih, coğrafya ve vatandaşlık eğitimi dersleri onların yaşamları için nasıl çözümler üretiyor ya da gerilim alanları yaratıyor?  Almanya’da Kimlik, Aidiyet ve Türkiye Kökenli Öğrenciler kitabı zengin bir kültürel alaşıma ve dinamik, kendilerine özgü bir kimliğe sahip Türkiye kökenli öğrencilerin kimlik inşalarına ve aidiyet gelişimlerine, vatandaşlık eğitimi temelli derslerin katkılarının neler olduğunu belirlemek üzere yazıldı. Bu kitap, bu sürecin nasıl olduğunu, deneyim pratiklerini Almanya’da yine özne olarak Türkiye kökenlilere sorarak ortaya koyuyor. 
İrem Pamuk bu kitabın, günümüzde göçmen kökenli tüm bireylerin yaşadığı kimlik problemlerine de farklı bakış açıları katmasını umut ediyor.

Globalization via the digital age is upon us, demanding a new ethics and an intercultural awareness while the dialectics of globalism and cyberspace mandate a committed reflection on what the synthesis between the digital realm and global citizenship entails. In many ways, the borders that previously separated us as citizens physically and culturally have begun to dissipate, replaced by a call for an intercultural accountability and a form of global citizenship that, on one hand, surpasses borders, patriotism, and nationalism alike, but while on the other, demands an understanding and respect for the cultural idiosyncrasies among us, acknowledging the unique existential paradox of universal citizenship that posits each of us as both stranger and citizen on a commonly shared globe.

What is cosmopolitan in the digital age? Is a global digital citizen the same as merely a digital citizen? While talk of digital citizenship has increased in recent years, usually centered on a capitalist drive, encouraging a full electronic participation in society and a responsibility to digital commerce, many questions remain unanswered.  Is the netizen the citizen of a democratic state, and of digital democracy? As a citizen of the world interacting online, how will one’s “rights” and “duties” be determined? And are these “rights” universal, and in such a case, what does “universal” mean? What are the legal parameters of netizenship, and what will they be as globalization further takes hold? Is democracy critical to citizenship, or is it not? What are the political landscapes of global citizenship in the digital age? And last of all, is the concept of digital citizenship even tangible? Is it real?

The aim of this study is to find out the contributions of geography courses to the spatial belonging development and identity construction of Turkish-origin students from different types of schools located in North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen) state in Germany. In this study, one of the qualitative research designs, namely phenomenology, will be employed. Phenomenology is the most suitable methodological tool for this study, as it enables us to focus on experiences, livings, thoughts, sense, and feelings of individuals. The study group was determined in accordance with purposive sampling. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed with the "MAXQDA 11" qualitative data analysis software and categories were formed. According to the research results, Turkish-origin students are aware of the important role that geography courses take firstly in familiarizing with Germany, the country they live in. It was revealed that geography courses

This article examines qualitative data from a two family case study in New South Wales. Both families are from South America and have recently moved to Australia. This study demonstrates that an understanding of the ways that the families are becoming literate in Australia necessitates moving beyond linguistic analyses of the changes that are occurring. The changes that are addressed constitute a politics of immigration, whereby the internal hopes and desires of the family make up an affective plane that transforms language learning. Such writing exemplifies the use of Deleuzian theory in the analysis of the literacy learning of the families, and shows how this rests on notions of the will to power, affect and the multiple nature of the self. The paper will use Masny’s (2006) multiple literacies theory (MLT) to reconcile the politics of becoming involved with the immigration of the families and variant modes of expression.

Preoccupations with migrant accommodation reveal a predominantly groupist orientation.1 The public and also the academic debates on migration abound in collectivising generalisations when speaking of ‘ethnic groups’, of ‘parallel societies’, of ‘migrants’, or ‘people of migrant background’. Single ‘ethnic or religious groups’, ‘Muslim women’, or ‘Turkish young men’ are often taken as neat units of inquiry. This tendency has recently been the object of a pronounced critique that questions the collectivising a priori assumptions so omnipresent in social science (Brubaker, 2002). Scholars also critically address the issue of units and levels of observation see especially the critique of methodological nationalism as well as methodological ethnicisation (Wimmer and Glick Schiller, 2002; Glick Schiller, 2007; Gellner, 2012). Proposed in the place of conventional approaches is the concept of ‘ethnic boundary making’ (Wimmer, 2013) that helps us not to take bounded collective units for gra...

O artigo propõe um quadro teórico fenomenológico e semiótico para a inteligibilidade do sentido do pertencimento, um dos conceitos mais fundamentais nas culturas e sociedades atuais. Depois de definir o pertencimento como uma enunciação espacial que traz 1) as fronteiras de um espaço de pertencimento; 2) a oposição consequente entre um ambiente de pertencimento e um de não-pertencimento, e 3) a relação entre, por um lado, o sujeito da enunciação, e, por outro lado, a oposição / ambiente do pertencimento / versus / ambiente de não-pertencimento /, o artigo articula uma tipologia de “figuras de atravessamento”, em que o pertencimento se manifesta através da dialética narrativa entre colocação e deslocação. No quadro teórico da fenomenologia e da semiótica tensiva, quatro macro-regimes de pertencimento são apontados: “alienação sedentária”, “pertencimento nômade”, “alienação nômade”, e “pertencimento sedentário”. Além disso, quatro caminhos semânticos dinamicamente representando a transição entre estes regimes são identificados: “exílio / invasão”, “cosmopolitismo / curiosidade”, “aclimatação / tolerância”, e “alienação / suspeita”. Na conclusão, o quadro teórico desenvolvido pelo artigo é proposto como instrumento para a análise das “retóricas do pertencimento” nas culturas e sociedades atuais.

Young  people  who  live  in  or  attend  school  in  Vienna  grow  up  in  multicultural environments,  as  immigration  has  shaped  the  Austrian  society  over  the  last decades. In public debates, migrants and their descendants are repeatedly called on to “integrate”, while their feelings of belonging to Austria are questioned. Drawing from  discussions  on  hybrid  and  multiple  identities, this study  explores  the  spatial dimension of identity constructions of students in Vienna aged between 14 and 19 years. Quantitative data from a comprehensive online survey and qualitative data from  group discussions reveal  that multiple  spatial  belongings  on  different  scales are  the  rule  and  not  the  exception  among  young  Viennese.  Furthermore,  on  a national  level,  participants  identify  with  Austria  to  a  much  larger  extent  than  with
any  other  country.  Findings  emphasise  the  need  for  a  mixed-methods  approach when researching questions of identity constructions. Fieldwork experiences furthermore  show  that  young  people  are  highly  interested  in discussing  the  topic, as they are confronted with these issues on a daily basis.

En partant de l’impensé que révèle la double invisibilité des élites transnationales de culture musulmane, je propose ici une réflexion sur les catégories qui sous-tendent le débat public helvétique sur l’immigration, l’intégration et la présence musulmane, afin de mettre en lumière ce que ces catégories disent, ce qu’elles sous-entendent, et ce que par conséquent elles rendent (in)visible. Mon postulat est que ces débats reproduisent et entérinent une vision culturalisante  des migrants, et négligent de prendre en considération des aspects structurels comme la stratification sociale au sein de l’immigration, le statut migratoire ou la situation sur le marché du travail. Pour pallier cette lacune, je mettrai d’abord en évidence la manière dont le débat sur l’immigration repose sur une distinction implicite entre migrants « désirables » et « indésirables » basée sur des critères d’utilité économique, pour souligner ensuite que le « musulman » a été construit comme la figure emblématique du migrant indésirable. Dans un second temps, je relèverai l’apport des théories critiques du racisme dans notre compréhension des processus de racialisation, de leurs dimensions historiques et structurelles, et des modalités selon lesquelles ils opèrent. Enfin, je reviendrai sur la manière dont le tournant néolibéral a affecté ces processus dans nos sociétés contemporaines, notamment en masquant la question des inégalités sous le vocable de la différence culturelle et de la responsabilité individuelle. Mon objectif est ici de montrer que des élites transnationales de culture musulmane ne sont pas touchées par les phénomènes de racialisation de la même manière que les travailleurs ou réfugiés musulmans, et que la classe sociale  est donc un paramètre fondamental desdits phénomènes, au-delà de l’origine, l’appartenance religieuse ou la couleur de peau.

Crisis can be considered a context in the modern European narrative, as economy, mass-migrations and environmental factors create a superdiverse, ever shifting social and cultural pavement. Set in Ostia, a suburban area of Rome, under the spotlight due to the influence of organized crime and the raising conflicts between socio political realities, this paper investigate how solidarity and belonging are created in a superdiverse liquid modern context.  It follows Angela, an Italian woman that has been living and protecting a squat hosting more than 150 migrants for more than 25 years. It uses a biographic approach to social navigation and visual research methods to examine past and present conflicts and social fields, focusing on her role as a cultural entrepreneur, a mediator and as an agent of change.

This book examines the ways in which the need to belong manifests itself in the post 9/11 world, from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Using queer Turkish women in Berlin as its subjects, the book shows how individuals with seemingly contradictory belongings develop strategies of emotional survival in the face of conflict, which Yorukoglu terms “acts of belonging”. It studies the impact of populist discourses on minorities, exploring concepts such as security, integration, sexual tolerance and cohesion within a causal relationship. Questioning this assumed relationship, the book proposes an alternative approach to study belonging. Acts Of Belonging in Modern Societies supports the empirical research behind the argument that cohesion is not a "sine qua non" of belonging. These acts allow the individual to claim belonging in spite of possible differences. The book provides evocative case studies to reveal the affective, dynamic, complex nature of human connectedness.

Lecture at the 19th consultation of Societas Oecumenica: Just Do It? Recognition and Reception in Ecumenical Relations, Helsinki, 30 August 2016.
It analyses the dualities: the holy – the not holy, the catholic – the sectarian, the apostolic – the rootless within ourselves and our various ecclesial homes. Making use of Paul Ricoeur's disstinctions between the three stages: the first naivety, the pre-critical stage, which is dominated by the immediacy of belief, in this case, where the church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic is to be found;  the breaking and disorienting stage, where, with the difficult spiritual and ecclesial experiences the time of reason comes back, the impact of the divisions of the church finally hits home, and various non-recognitions have to be encountered, existentially, theologically, spiritually; and the third stage, called by Ricoeur the “second naivety” is a post-critical equivalent of the pre-critical immediacy of meaning, an unfinished stage, as long as we live. The paper tracks how the post-critical return of the Church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic affects ecumenical relations, criticizes notions of supra-ecclesiality; and responds to the  challenge of multiple belonging. In the conclusion the nature of a connection between non-possession and hospitality is explored, and it is asked in which sense we can see this connection as central for  an ongoing recognition of others.