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Introduction
Coastal and island regions as well as transnational mobilities and migrations have been at the center of my research since 2013. The question of what happens when new actors arrive in coastal areas has been an overlapping research theme that connects my various research projects. I currently work on governance practices in the context of harmful algae bloom in Mexico.
Please also visit me here: www.laura-otto.com
Current institution
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April 2019 - present
Publications
Publications (33)
Sea turtles play a significant role in the ecosystem in Akumal Bay, Mexico. Often seen as charismatic, they play an integral part in balancing the preservation of the local ecology and maintaining the town's tourism economy. Tensions between conservation and commercialization are prevalent in Akumal. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the region, t...
The term multi-species ethnography (MSE) stands for a comparatively new research approach in the cultural and social sciences. It questions views that place humans at the center of understanding the world and instead focuses attention on the joint interaction, entanglements and cooperation or conflict among different species. MSE is based on the ba...
Humans have always lived with and around algae. At times, algae enable life, and at others, render life difficult. This article examines two sites suffering from atypical—and potentially harmful—algae blooms: Lake Erie in Ohio (USA) and the Riviera Maya (Mexico). Referring to ethnographic fieldwork, as well as to newspaper articles, policy papers,...
Ratcliffe et al. (2024, JEP 93, Art. 102199) raise concern about the exclusion of purely qualitative research from JEP, as proposed by Schultz and McCunn's editorial stance published in 2022. We support Ratcliffe et al.’s call for equal recognition of qualitative work alongside quantitative work in environmental psychology. Our article aims to cont...
The article explores the emergence of coastal ethics in the Anthropocene, focusing on the Riviera Maya in Mexico. In response to escalating challenges such as coastal degradation and Sargassum impact, the study shifts the focus from blame to the practices of marine biologists engaged in repairing ecosystems, particularly seagrasses. The concept of...
Kollaboratives Forschen quer zu hegemonialen Wissensordnungen gilt als wichtiger Baustein dekolonialer Wissenspraxis. Gemeinsame Schreibprozesse von Wissenschaftler*innen und ihren nicht-wissenschaftlichen Forschungspartner*innen sind allerdings selten und eine methodologische und forschungspraktische Reflexion fehlt. Die Beiträger*innen widmen sic...
“T’áalk’u’ Iknalítico: Omniausencias, Omnipresencias y Ubicuidades Mayas” es un libro que ilustra varios aspectos del pensamiento maya y su interconexión con el iknal, asociación clave para promover la difusión de la cultura maya y el pensamiento filosófico maya. La obra reúne valiosos aportes de reconocidos pensadores e investigadores de la UIMQRo...
Official categorization systems classify some states, including island-states, as small. Malta, located in the Mediterranean Sea, is one of six European microstates and the European Union’s smallest member state. Smallness, however, refers to more than fixed geographic scales. The understanding of smallness developed in this article, in contrast, m...
Mit dem Beginn der COVID-19 Pandemie mussten Forscher:innen in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften weltweit ihre Forschungsvorhaben unterbrechen, neu konzeptionieren und ihre qualitativen methodischen Vorgänge überdenken. COVID-19 und die damit einhergehenden Maßnahmen intervenieren in lang etablierte und für ‚normal‘ empfundene Praktiken der Fel...
In dieser Einleitung zur 83. Ausgabe der Kulturanthropologie Notizen stellen wir das Konzept der Intervention ins Zentrum und betonen wie Forscher:innen und ihre Felder immer aufeinander bezogen sind. Während wir grundsätzlich davon ausgehen, dass ethnographische Studien per se als interventionistisch verstanden werden können, diskutieren wir ‚doin...
Die Erfahrungen von Frauen* und Mädchen* sind in den Debatten um Flucht und Migration unterbeleuchtet. Der Beitrag greift diese Lücke auf, indem er nach Perspektiven und Erfahrungen junger, weiblich gelesener Geflüchteter somalischer Herkunft fragt, die in der Europäischen Union auf Malta ankamen. Anhand von gemeinsam gelesenen und interpretierten...
Immer mehr junge Menschen fliehen nach Europa. Nach ihrer Ankunft findet in der Regel ein Altersfeststellungsverfahren statt. Die Mitgliedstaaten der EU versuchen in den Asylverfahren das Alter der Ankommenden eindeutig zu bestimmen, denn an die Minder- und Volljährigkeit sind Aufnahmebedingungen geknüpft. Entlang von Migrationsbewegungen junger Ge...
What do people think about unauthorised migrants reaching their shores? This article examines ethnographically what and how Maltese citizens think about recent migrant arrivals from northern Africa. This case study adds to research on public opinion formation in migrant-receiving societies in the European Union, offering perspectives from a small s...
It is May 2007. Twenty-seven migrants who have departed Libya on a rickety boat find themselves in distress in the Mediterranean Sea. In their anguish, they manage to grab hold of a tuna pen after their boat has sunk. Fishermen who operate commercial fishing in the area pass by and notify Maltese and Italian authorities about the situation. Yet the...
International and national legal frameworks clearly define who an ‘unaccompanied minor’ or ‘separated child’ is in the context of forced migration: a young person under eighteen years of age without the presence of a legal guardian. The category of the ‘unaccompanied minor’ is inextricably linked with vulnerability, suggesting that young refugees a...
Even though the relational turn within Island Studies has long evoked the equation of islands with insularity, disconnectedness and backwardness, these ascriptions are still often deterministically attributed to islands, mainly by non-island scholars. Thereby these designations are not only reproduced, but connections dynamics, different forms of e...
Since Malta joined the EU in 2004, almost 20,000 refugees have reached its shores. Obliged to remain on the island state, they are required to integrate, despite an absence of governmental integration processes. With Malta being an EU member, its government is, however, obliged to conform to EU policies covering reception procedures. In this chapte...
Historically, crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted politicians to break up dead-locked structures and implement far-reaching reforms. Path dependencies can be interrupted in times of crisis. This volume examines the social impact of the current pandemic as well as both the long-term challenges it poses and the potential it offers from...
Young male refugees are denoted, represented and grouped, both in public discourse and in social work, in socially constructed categories. To avoid the reproduction of these ascriptions, we engage in “shared reading” of ethnographic data in an intersectional manner. This approach helps to highlight ambiguities and practices of the production of dif...
Die geografische Kleinheit Maltas ist ein bedeutender Bestandteil aktueller Flucht_Migrationsdiskurse. Bootsmigration wird diskursiv als bedrohliches und überlastendes Phänomen für das lokale Asylsystem sowie die Inselgesellschaft dargestellt. Die Kleinheit wird als wirkmächtige Bezugsgröße zur Legitimation restriktiver Migrations- und Asylmaßnahme...
The stories and lived experiences of Iraqi refugees residing in Germany remain broadly overlooked in academic and public debates. Finding themselves in various situations and personal desires between settlement and return, this chapter focuses on three stories told by Iraqi refugees on how they give meaning to their very personal experiences. The c...
Ganz gleich, wo und mit wem wir uns in den letzten Jahren, spätestens seit dem „langen Sommer der Migration” 2015 (Hess et al. 2017), zu den Themen Flucht, Asyl, europäische Außengrenze, Solidarität oder auch Grenzmanagement unterhalten haben, haben wir nicht selten von unserem Gegenüber gehört, dass er*sie auch gerne ‚irgendwas mit Flüchtlingen‘ m...
In a state care facility in Malta, young refugees classified as unaccompanied minors and staff charged with their supervision and administration interact daily. Within these interactions, the young refugees and the staff negotiate interests, which I examine ethnographically. These interactions were contentious, because young refugees’ and care staf...
This paper offers some behind-the-scenes insights drawn from the collective fieldwork experiences of the contributors to this Special Issue. These include reflections on: how decisions about modes of accessing research participants fundamentally shape the research process and outcomes; the pitfalls of only focusing on young people's migratory exper...
Kernfragen in Bezug auf Kontextualisierung, Repräsentation, Verantwortung und Beziehung zu Geflüchteten sowohl in Forschungs- als auch in Arbeitsfeldern sind in Flucht-Migrationsforschungen bisher wenig thematisiert. Die Autorinnen und Autoren widmen sich diesen Reflexionslücken sowie grundlegenden Repräsentations- und Ethikfragen. Die breit aufges...
