I work at the intersection of migration studies and urban studies. My empirical research asks for the ways in which international migrants establish senses of belonging to urban places despite frequently changing locations. Especially in focus are high-skilled and low-skilled migrants, that is those who – presumably – migrate voluntarily and those who migrate for the sake of survival. Special attention is on the role of (material) objects for the creation of senses of belonging and attachment to places. For the analysis of my qualitative research data, I thus gain additional insights from the social studies of space, material culture studies and works on globalization.
Additional research circles around the interrelation of materiality and sociality in contemporary societies, that is on the mutual interdependencies of architecture and society. Here, I am very much influenced by contemporary sociology of space and science and technology studies. This focus is part of my general and long-lasting research interest in contemporary urban development.
Innstr. 40
D-94032 Passau
- Migrationsforschung
- Qualitative Forschungsmethoden
- Sozialgeographie
- Stadtforschung
Thematische Arbeitsgebiete
- Deutschland
- Nordamerika
- Westeuropa