Navigating tensions between ethnoracial Othering and belonging in the urban space of Brno
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2025 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | In this study, we respond to the recent call for using place as an entry point for the study of migration (SLAPE et al., 2023). We aim to provide a nuanced, place-specific perspective on how immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Sub-Saharan Africa who currently reside in Czechia navigate the tensions between experiences of ethnoracial Othering and an emergent sense of belonging to the city and Czech society at large. We propose that these tensions can be productively explored through the concept of place attachment, which has the potential to capture the different and sometimes contradictory meanings people attach to the places they encounter in their everyday lives. We situate the study in the city of Brno, a secondary city in Czechia that has been recently experiencing a surge in its population of foreign-born residents. Although people with origins in the MENA and Sub-Saharan African regions represent an important part of the city’s growing ethnoracial diversity, as a population they remain comparatively small, highly visible, and exposed to different forms of ethnoracial Othering. Combining the methods of comprehensive interviews (Ferreira, 2014) with go-along interviews (Kusenbach, 2003) conducted in the public space of Brno, we focus on identifying distinct forms of place attachments that variously enable or impede an emergent sense of belonging. More specifically, we explore how research participants establish familiarity, avoid exclusion and danger, and navigate between convenient anonymity and a sense of sticking-out in public. We also discuss how a specific place attachment is formed not only through direct experience with urban spaces but also through intersubjectively shared meanings and narratives about them. In this regard, we shed light on the formation of relationships with place, which can consequently strengthen or undermine a broader sense of belonging to the city and Czech society at large. |
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