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Biographies and the division of Europe : experience, action, and change on the 'Eastern side'
... This outlook provoked a historical and processual orientation, in particular studies of the historical period of National Socialism and its long-term effects (Kaźmierska, 2012;Rosenthal, 1998), and of the transformation of former socialist states in Eastern Europe (Breckner et al., 2000;Kaźmierska and Waniek, 2020). The diachronic orientation of biographical research gives it added value in thematic contexts, social milieus, or geographic regions where there is little written documentation -for example, in research on youth groups, informal neighborhood contexts, or in the case of lost documentation (Becker, 2020;Santos, 2010). ...
... This was particularly reflected in studies on transnational connections and migration processes (e.g. Apitzsch and Siouti, 2007;Brandhorst, 2021;Breckner, 2007;Breckner et al., 2000;Delcroix, 2013;Pape, 2020;Siouti, 2016;Tsiolis, 2012;Yi, 2021). From the perspective of biographical research, a person's life before migrating, the migration itself, and conditions in the context of arrival are all relevant with regard to migration. ...
Reconstructive biographical research is a diverse and differentiated sociological field. In this introduction, we trace its interdisciplinary and transnational historical development, consider the most important theoretical influences, and characterize central research areas. In this way, we show that reconstructive biographical research is a distinct sociological approach to social analysis. It offers a reflexive access to understanding, classifying, and explaining social processes and social challenges through the analysis of experienced and/or narrated life stories.
... Sociological concepts of biography [11][12][13][14][15] build on this perspective on identity [16], and try to avoid static or even essentialist imaginations still connected with the term identity [17]. Biographical research aims at grasping the complex interplay between different social positions, life spheres and socio-biographical processes from the life-perspective of actors who are concretely involved in timely as well as locally more or less far reaching and changing social contexts [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Biographical approaches are widely used also in migration research [26][27][28][29]. ...
... Not surprisingly, the ambivalence becomes an issue mainly during situations of crossing borders in which individuals from 'different sides' are interacting with each other. Against this background it becomes clear that paradoxes and ambivalences in we-relations are structurally 22 Collective Identities in Migration. Biographical Perspectives on Ambivalences and Paradoxes based in the relations the respective societies, milieus, groups have developed historically as well as presently. ...
... In further research, we suggest aiming at understanding the dynamics of negotiating external vs. internal factors of the identity process and designing complex methodologies that would grasp both aspects of othering in the case of ethnic minority families, or any social group experiencing stigmatization. We have demonstrated that the biographical method has great potential in this regard (Breckner et al. 2000;Chamberlayne et al. 2000; Rodríguez-Reche and Cerchiaro 2023). 3. Narrative biographic interviews have tremendous potential for uncovering implicit meaning structures. ...
This paper introduces the analysis of biographical interviews focusing on the negotiation of the day-to-day child-raising by Czech Roma mothers. We demonstrate the narrative reflection of ethnic identity, as well as coping strategies and ways out of the discursive subjugation of being marginalized by ethnic othering. We present coping strategies based on 1) vacillating between refusal and resigned acceptance of the negative discourse among the ethnic majority, 2) claiming normality through universal humanism, the submission of racialized microaggression, and the psychologizing of an aggressor, and 3) embracing family pride and social dissent. We find that primary socialization is an important element in tackling the discursive subjugation of ethnic othering. Further, we outline suggestions for the following research of othering mechanisms that seem to endure in European societies in terms of the reproduction of social inequalities.
This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .
... 3 Metodologicky jsem se inspiroval zejména v případově a biograficky designovaném výzkumu osob s migrační zkušeností (srov. Breckner, 2000), která je spojena se ztrátou existencionálního bezpečí a skrze vzpomínková vyprávění v rodinách následně rekonstruována jako "proces s otevřeným začátkem a koncem" (Breckner, 2007: 118). Tato perspektiva je inspirativní v tom smyslu, že lze sledovat narátory utvářené významy momentů jako překonávání hranic, adaptace, zakoušení vlastní cizosti, odloučení, nebo naopak narativní konstrukci spolupatřičnosti. ...
This study deals with dissonant memory processes through the example of postwar displacements of population-1) voluntary (re)emigration of Czechs from Yugoslavia, who replaced the original German population in the Czechoslovak borderlands, and immanently also 2) of those forcibly displaced "silenced Others". The text observes the practice of silencing inconvenient memories and shows, through the example of the participants in the postwar (re)emigration to Czechoslovakia, how this complex memory legacy is approached. Taking Czech families displaced from Yugoslavia as an example, the research on the generational transmission of family memory offers replies through the identification of narrative strategies which they used and which lead to their cumulative victimization. This practice demonstrates historical implications-power dynamics reflecting the complex stage of the postwar social, cultural and political development in Czechoslovakia. I believe that considering historical implications allows us to problematize the established unproductive binary oppositions and analytical categories (perpetrators vs. victims; voluntary vs. forced migration), and last but not least, it suggests possible ways of bringing the silenced memory of those forcibly displaced-the "silenced Others" to mind.
... Fruto del análisis anterior, está prevista una segunda fase cualitativa en la que se prevé la realización de historias de vida a un número adecuado de los jóvenes y grupos de discusión de jóvenes y profesionales de la educación, representantes de asociaciones, y técnicos del ámbito municipal. La realización de historias de vida y del método biográfico interpretativo (Breckner, 2000;Fischer-Rosenthal, 2000, entre otros) debe permitir tanto contextualizar su experiencia narrativa en el ámbito de la escuela como en el de las transiciones y las relaciones inter e intraculturales. En todos estos ámbitos la incidencia de las políticas, culturas y prácticas (educativas, laborales, sociales, etc.) son un elemento clave en tanto que establecen las condiciones para y de la integración. ...
... Hughes et al. (2005: 13) argue that 'the rhetoric surrounding enlargement and EU conditionality was strongly imbued by a mission civilisatrice approach of "Europeanization."' As suggested by Breckner et al. (2000), everything that was coming from the West was considered a model to be imitated in order to favour integration into the Western world. ...
During the past 50 years, European public sectors have undergone a profound process of organizational change, where managerial tools and principles from the private sector have permeated through governments and administrations of many countries. A substantial amount of academic literature has now been devoted to public management reforms. Many scholars have associated them with the diffusion of a managerialist ideology. However, the relationship between public management reforms, political ideology, and public expressions of support for these reforms by political parties has been a relatively under-explored topic within the literature and is the gap we address in this article. Using a longitudinal framework of study, our analysis shows how issues surrounding managerialist reforms have evolved across the electoral manifestos of European parties during the past 50 years. Our findings reveal that these reforms have enjoyed a growing political profile over time in many countries within Western and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, we also examine and discuss the differences and similarities of these reforms across countries.
Με αφορμή την πρόσφατη προσφυγική κρίση η ελληνική κοινωνία ήρθε σε επαφή όχι μόνο με ρατσιστικές και ξενοφοβικές λογικές αλλά και με νέες πρακτικές και εμπειρίες αλληλεγγύης. Ο ανθρωπισμός και οι πρακτικές του αποτέλεσαν το βασικό ιδεολογικό πρόταγμα διαχείρισης της προσφυγικής κρίσης από τους ειδικούς του ανθρωπισμό λειτουργώντας ως μια διορθωτική έγκληση απέναντι στις διάφορες ομάδες που κινητοποιήθηκαν με αλληλέγγυο τρόπο προς τους μετανάστες και τους πρόσφυγες που έφτασαν στην χώρα μας. Στο παρακάτω κείμενο αναμετριέμαι με δύο ερωτήματα α) τι σημαίνει πραγματικά ο ανθρωπισμός και β) πόσο μεροληπτική μπορεί είναι μια γεωγραφική ματιά που δεν έχει μια αντιρατσιστική προοπτική.
This article discusses the potential of bringing biographical and cultural sociology together in the analysis of the political lives of refugee non-citizens. Our analysis is based on empirical research conducted in two regions outside the capital areas of Austria and Czechia. The conceptual focus is on modes of political participation and if and how they shift during the migration experience. To explore the political lives of refugee non-citizens, we call upon complementary theories, on alternative forms of (non)citizenship and on the autonomy of migration and asylum as regards agency in the everyday practices of people who cross borders. The findings show that our research participants’ political lives tend to remain rather untouched by the migration experience itself.
This chapter describes the biographic narrative interpretive method (BNIM). As a qualitative research method, BNIM explores the stories or narratives from interviewees’ lives. BNIM is grounded in three interrelated concepts: the person’s whole life history or life story (biography), how the person tells it (narrative), and understanding that narratives are subject to social interpretation (interpretivism). In this chapter, we outline the brief history, concepts, and use of BNIM, provide an outline of its process, strengths and limitations, and application, and offer further readings, resources, and suggestions for student engagement activities.
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