On April 8, the newly established Research Training Group "Cross-Border Labour Markets: transnational market makers, infrastructures, institutions" RTG 2951 was officially inaugurated with a Launch Event at Bielefeld University. Speaker Ursula Mense-Petermann (Professor of Economic Sociology and Sociology of Work, Bielefeld University) and Co-speaker Karen Shire (Professor of Comparative Sociology and Japanese Society, University Duisburg-Essen) welcomed the 11 Principal Investigators from Bielefeld University, University Duisburg-Essen, and University Osnabrück, as well as the group of 11 newly appointed doctoral researchers, one Postdoc, as well as two associated researchers to the Research Training Group.
The Research Training Group investigates cross-border labour markets and the transnational organizations, infrastructures, and institutions that facilitate and stabilize such labour markets extending beyond national boundaries.
The rector of Bielefeld University, Professor Angelika Epple, congratulated the international and interdisciplinary team of PIs for their success and praised their commitment and determination in this highly innovative project.
Keynotes were given by sociologist and migration scholar Ludger Pries (Ruhr University Bochum) and by labour market economist Michele Battisti (University of Glasgow), thus representing the interdisciplinary outlook of the RTG.
Spiegel, Anna (2021): ‘Permanent provisionality: The homes of mobile managerial professionals between temporariness and permanence’, Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration, 5:2, pp. 89–108, https://doi.org/10.1386/tjtm_00034_1
This article ‐ based on ethnographic research on German and American managers conducted in China, Germany and the United States between 2011 and 2014 ‐ examins how mobile professionals make sense of the transience of their current homes and how transience is reflected in their homemaking practices. The article argues that for mobile professionals the home becomes a critical place not only because of new multilocal spatialities but also because of new transient temporalities. Due to the corporate practice of giving successive temporary contracts, the mobile managers’ everyday life is characterized by a ‘permanent provisionality’, that is, an incongruence of the initially imagined and the actual time horizons of their mobility. The article shows how this ‘permanent provisionality’ is worked into the material and social textures of expatriate homes.
On Tuesday, 22nd of June, 2021 at 12:15, Irene Skovgaard Smith (University of East Anglia, UK) will present her current research in a talk entitled “Global work, transnational life and (im)mobility in pandemic times". The talk is part of the seminar „ Mobile Professionals. Transnational labour markets, careers and occupational cultures” organized by Anna Spiegel in the summer term 2021. It will take place in English via zoom. For further information and to register for the zoom session, please contact anna.spiegel@uni-bielefeld.de
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic transformed our
globally interconnected world almost overnight as cross-border immobility was
enforced, striking at the heart of globalisation as we knew it. The coronavirus
spread along international network ties and the response across the globe was
travel bans, entry bans and border restrictions. The present study explores the
impact of this disruption on the everyday transnationalism driven by international
business, global work, career mobility and high skilled migration. The study
focuses on the lived experience of transnational professionals in global
corporations whose lives and work span geographical boundaries. 23 narrative
interviews were conducted (virtually) from May 2020 onwards. The participants
come from across Europe and beyond (Azerbaijan, Australia, Brazil, Canada,
India, Indonesia, Mexico and the US) and live in Amsterdam, Berlin, Dubai, Geneva,
Hamburg, Liechtenstein, London, Oslo, Perth, Vancouver and Singapore working
for 20 different global corporations. The study explores how the pandemic has
impacted the global work and transnational lives of these professionals and
their sense of ‘home’ and belonging.
Wir möchten Sie herzlich zum Vortrag "The Passport(s) of a Virtuoso: Transnational -- International -- Cosmopolitan Careers?"von Izabela Wagner (Collegium Civitas, Polen) einladen. Die Veranstaltung ist Teil des von Anna Spiegel angebotenen Seminars „Kunst als Arbeit. Arbeit und Beschäftigung in der Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft" im Sommersemester 2021. Sie findet am Montag, dem 21. Juni 2021 von 12 bis 14 Uhr c.t. in englischer Sprache via Zoom statt. Für weitere Informationen und zur Anmeldung zur Zoom Sitzung kontaktieren Sie anna.spiegel@uni-bielefeld.de
We would like to cordially invite you to the presentation "The Passport(s) of a Virtuoso: Transnational -- International -- Cosmopolitan Careers?" by Izabela Wagner (Collegium Civitas, Poland). The event is part of the seminars „Art as Work. Work and Employment in artistic and creative labour markets” organized by Anna Spiegel in the summer term 2021. It will take place on Monday, 22nd of June, 2021 from 12:15 to 13:45 in English via zoom. For further information and to register for the zoom session, please contact anna.spiegel@uni-bielefeld.de
Abstract:
According to the romantic idea, artists are cosmopolitans — they are
citizens of the world. This deep conviction seems to be shared by
sociologists because only recently appeared specific literature dealing
with a problem of cultural differences in art worlds. The seminar is
devoted to the analysis of the international dimension of creative
careers focusing on objective and subjective elements. I focus on the
creative careers of violin virtuoso and my work is based on the
ethnographic research conducted over 10 years in the young violin
virtuoso world.