240079 VO+UE VM3 / VM1 - Migration and Identity: Discourses of Belonging and Othering (2018W)

The course focuses on identity as a marker of communal boundaries of social inclusion and exclusion. Hence, social construction of identities will be considered in relation to the shifting boundaries of belonging to the collective, be it a nation-state, an ethnic group or a social change organization. We will examine national identity and nationalism in relation to globalization and international migration; ethnic identities in relation to minority communities, inter-ethnic conflicts and integration debates; gender and sexuality as cross-cutting axes of identity; new possibilities for social, cultural and political identities and identifications emerging from the Internet and social networks. This will help the students to deepen their understanding of processes of social construction of identities, collective production of meaning, othering, and identity-based politics, and to become acquainted with diverse research methods applied in the study of identity and belonging, from symbolic interactionism to sociolinguistics and intersectionality analysis.