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Mobility and Mentalities

"Mobility and Mentalities. Contributions to Regional and Migration Research"

Subject Conference of the Institute for Regional and Migration Research - Trier

from July 5th to 6th, 2001 in the Study Center of the Karl Marx House

by Thomas Geisen

Honored guests and respected colleagues,

I would very cordially like to welcome you in the name of the Institute for Regional and Migration Research (IRM) to the conference "Mobility and Mentalities". With this conference an institute, which was only recently established officially on June 22nd after a six month preparation phase, emerges into public view. The founders of the new institute are a group of social scientists and economists, who have set for themselves the goal of investigating the causes, conditions and consequences of migratory processes (Migration Research) and the related economic and social developments in a regional context (Regional Research).

The development and carrying through of research activities shall be at the center of the activities of the institute. Very closely aligned with this is the wish to make a contribution to the promotion of communication and cooperation between researchers in different disciplines, not the least of which is between scientific and non-scientific institutions as well as between the sciences and the interested public. While the discussions represent an important condition for qualitatively good research within the sciences, the discussions between scientific and non-scientific institutions, as well as between the sciences and the interested public, above all else foster knowledge transfer. This, however, does not merely consist of making scientific knowledge accessible, but also has the requirement that it must prove itself in debate. Only in this context can the question be answered whether the knowledge attained makes an important contribution to better understanding and, furthermore, whether there is a profit in such knowledge in a critical sense, in other words, a knowledge profit relevant in practical terms and capable of changing current practice in an emancipatory way.

Such debates and discussions are of enormous importance to the practical research activity of the institute. Because it is here that suggestions are given, new research questions raised, deficiencies realized, and previous results subjected to a critical analysis, by which they can be looked at and judged from different perspectives. In equal measure it is through such debates, by which the research institute, within its local and regional connection, most visibly presents and represents itself; by the simple fact of its local presence the discussion can be concretely directed and an on-going dialogue sought. It is a result of this orientation, therefore, that our gratitude is owed to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Study Center of the Karl Marx House in a special way, because, with the provision of a room in this place for this event, we have found an extremely fitting place for our conference.

The connection of knowledge transfer outlined here shall not be reflected in conferences and meetings alone but also in our research practice. This means that regional and migration research, like that envisaged by our institute, should refer primarily, but not exclusively, to the immediate region of Trier and the larger region, Saar-Lor-Lux-RLP-Belgium. Though our research places such specific focus on the local and regional levels, an examination of the social and economic processes occurring in the international arena (globalization) should not be lost. Rather the investigation of regional connections must be considered and placed in relationship to the world society.

With the conference "Mobilty and Mentalities" we have therefore quite consciously chosen to put a discussion forum at the beginning of the activities of our institute. Here not only finished results shall be presented, but also research questions shall be newly raised, developed, and discussed. From this, approaches shall arise leading to coherent research programs in the end. So that different perspectives and posititions are represented, we have, therefore, sought to construct the discussion so that it meets both the criteria for inter-disciplinary research while, at the same time, doing justice to internationality. This is because an enormous variety of meanings and effects can be recognized by social scientific research, but only through contrast, comparison, relationship, judgment and/or provocative analysis between one's own and a different frame of reference.

By focussing this conference with regard to content upon the concepts "Mobility and Mentalities" it is likewise important for us to inquire with reference to certain science traditions. In connection with this, above all, those in the context of the critical theory developed through the social-psychological and research approaches of the "Historikerschule der Annales" must be noted. And - if a small allusion to the place of conference is permitted to me - it should not remain unmentioned, that here, both explicitly or implicitly, Marx developed the idea of the "objective thought form".

The use of the two themes for the conference has been discussed controversially in the context of the institute, primarily the idea of "mentality". Criticism has been aimed at its unclarity, primarily addressing its very indeterminant environment of meaning. Both concepts seem useful to us, however, exactly because of this very openness to interpretation. So the idea of "mobility", e.g. the movements and migrations of people, can thus be systematized and summarized in the greatest diversity of its forms. Thereby "mobility" describes a general form of a way of social existence. The social ability for mobility becomes the basis for migratory processes.

The idea of "mentality" presents similar difficulties, described by "complex emotional dispositions, emotional inclinations and intellectual-spiritual attitudes" (Vester 1996, p. 11). In the science histories it becomes primarily linked with the "Historikerschule der Annales", which had set for itself the goal of working out the "forms of thinking and feeling". Still the concept had yet another tradition, which is, and is not, used only in its open version, but also its restrictive, stigmatized and exclusive version. It is in this regard, primarily, that such structures of thinking and feeling are seen as, and devalued as, unchanging features. From these processses of "Rassierens", as Robert Miles has termed this special form of negative meaning attribution, the concept of mentality also remains not exempt and has already appeared in the last two decades as spreading cultural racism as a new form of racism, which has intensified. Though, it must be said, concepts which try to include collective features are always exposed to the danger of a "Rassisierung".

But, at least, here the difficulties of the concept of "mentalities" shall become better delineated. Certainly, as a place for research, it remains for our new institute to persevere in its inquiries. To avoid racial and stereotypical attributions we must concentrate on the alternatives, including and excluding, developing or renewing ideas and then unifying them into theoretical concepts. Also, directing our view increasingly at the political level, with thoroughgoing knowledge about the social meaning of migratory movements, lends to such a plan a particular socio-political meaning.

(...)

With this I would like to close my opening words. I wish all of us a worthwhile and interesting conference with exciting lectures and interesting discussions.

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