ABSTRACT To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors ... more ABSTRACT To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote community-based management. This practice was meant to replace top-down governmental approaches. In Ghana, the water sector came under review in the 1990s. Institutions have been decentralized, and management tasks transferred to communities, associations, and private-sector entities. While assigning ownership and responsibilities to communities is feasible for rural water management, the chapter shows that policy makers and practitioners tend to ignore the historical background of existing structures and antagonisms of traditional and present management systems. Implementation strategies are therefore prone to failure. The chapter analyzes the administrative history of water governance in Ghana and related problems to date. The case study on fisheries management has its setting in the Upper East Region of Ghana, where people use reservoirs to improve their livelihoods through irrigation, cattle watering, and fisheries. In the course of rehabilitation projects, rights and responsibilities of management have been handed over to user groups or associations and village committees. Clashing traditional, governmental, and participatory management strategies overtax communities to cope with responsibilities. Conflicts, mistrust, and overexploitation are some of the consequences.
Religious institutions such as the Catholic Church are gaining in importance again in the wake of... more Religious institutions such as the Catholic Church are gaining in importance again in the wake of the economic crisis in Spain. They act as a reference point and meeting place which keep the faith community together. Tangible assistance is offered and transnational communication structures and family bonds are sustained. With its patron saints, the Catholic Church serves as a place of remembrance to produce and reproduce senses of belongings that date back to the early colonial era. Social relations of migrants are manifested in a space which symbolizes the power and glory of the former Colonial regime. Taking the example of the congregation of San Lorenzo in an immigration neighbourhood in Madrid, I discuss the role and agency of religious artefacts in re-producing collective identities and allocating social and financial resources. By focusing on the object itself, the functions and cultural meanings of the figure in different historical contexts become apparent. The religious staging around the object of the saint show spatially and chronologically comprehensive chains of interaction which reflect deep seated power relations between the immigrant and the host communities.
The study of belonging, its underlying notions, and the politics of belonging shows that social, ... more The study of belonging, its underlying notions, and the politics of belonging shows that social, political, and territorial demarcations are still based on essentialist conceptions of the collective. These are often applied and reproduced in the social sciences as a result of methodological nationalism. Space-sensitive studies of migration and globalization and a return to the material have recently challenged social constructivist lines of argumentation and have provoked a con-ceptual shift from analytical categories with inherent spatiality, territoriality, and boundary marking to concepts based on movement and flow. In this paper the analysis of belonging and the related politics of belonging in migration studies incorporates space as an analytical category that cross-cuts established categorizations such as race, class, gender, and stage in the life cycle, and integrates a material semiotic perspective more systematically into the study of social rela-tions at the intersection of the social categories mentioned. A new concept of belonging is defined which reflects the complex relations that individuals have with other people, circulating objects, artefacts, and changing social, political, and cultural landscapes, thus mirroring both the material conditions and the underlying power relations. Such an un-derstanding of belonging proceeds from social naturalizations and fixations to the multiplicity and situatedness of indi-vidual attachments, which entangle social, imagined, and sensual-material relations that are constantly re-articulated and re-negotiated by actors in their day-to-day practices. In such a reading, belonging comes into being as a result of individual life stories, versatile contexts, and situated experiences and acts. In times of constant exchange through trav-el, mass media, and communication technologies, the conceptualization of belonging questions established sociocul-tural and political demarcations, indicates the compatibility of ascribed socio-cultural difference and stresses the per-meability of borderlines. A space-sensitive theorization of social relations and belonging opens up new perspectives on the question of how social collectives are naturalized and by whom, and under which conditions they open up to new forms of belonging; it thus brings forth new findings about collectivization, social mobilization, and change
Kreative Protestformen in urbanen Räumen haben in den letzten Jahren weltweit eine Renaissance er... more Kreative Protestformen in urbanen Räumen haben in den letzten Jahren weltweit eine Renaissance erfahren. Symbolische Aneignungen durch Haus- und Platzbesetzungen, Graffiti und politische stencils (Schablonen) prägen zunehmend den öffentlichen Raum in Großstädten und stehen beispielhaft für Protest, der jenseits institutionalisierter politischer Auseinandersetzungen angesiedelt ist. Wie aber werden dadurch Bürgerrechte und diejenigen gestärkt, die sich nicht in vorgegebenen gesellschaftlichen Systemen und sozialen Strukturen bewegen? Welche Rolle spielt der urbane Raum für Vergemeinschaftungsprozesse, für die Konstituierung von Zugehörigkeit und sozialen Kollektiven? Am Beispiel des Stadtzentrums von Madrid zeigt sich im Rahmen des neoliberalen Umstrukturierungsprozesses, wie städtische Formen, die Machtbeziehungen prägen und reflektieren, und die daraus hervorgehenden soziomateriellen Beziehungen auch den Bewohner_innen in den alltäglichen Auseinandersetzungen für das ‚Recht auf Stadt‘ dienen können. Anhand des Arbeiter- und Migrantenviertels Lavapiés wird erörtert, wie einerseits durch die Etablierung kultureller Institutionen und die Neugestaltung (inklusive verstärkter Kontrolle) öffentlicher Plätze Veränderungen des Images des Stadtteils sowie der Wohn-, Miet- und Besitzverhältnisse unterstützt und provoziert worden sind, und damit auch Gentrifizierung und die Vertreibung von weniger bemittelten Bevölkerungsgruppen. Als Folge dieser sozialräumlichen Wandlungsprozesse haben sich andererseits aber auch verschiedene widerständische und kreative Praktiken herausgebildet und Lavapiés zu einem umkämpften Raum gemacht. Diese Initiativen stehen – entgegen der Kommerzialisierung, Kontrolle und Vertreibung – für eine politische Kultur, die neue Formen der Zugehörigkeit schafft, die dynamisch, situativ und fließend sind.
Creative activism and urban art are increasingly being used as an instrument to collectively re-a... more Creative activism and urban art are increasingly being used as an instrument to collectively re-appropriate the urban space and thus articulate urban belonging and citizenship from below. In cities worldwide, where different politics of place stimulate capitalist appropriation, individuals and groups use the public space as a laboratory for resistance, creative act, and as a medium for communication. As such, creative activism is a strategy for those who are widely excluded from social, political, cultural, and economic participation. Collectives are built through joint actions and experiences that are translated into the production situated forms of urban belonging. By drawing on space sensitive and situationist approaches and the power of creativity as an important moment in the analysis of action, the paper provides examples of how collective action and belonging is produced under conditions of contentious politics and exclusion that go beyond social norms, the social containment of institutions, and imposed collective identities.
To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote c... more To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote community-based management. This practice was meant to replace top-down governmental approaches. In Ghana, the water sector has come under review in the 1990s. Institutions have been decentralized, and management tasks transferred to communities, associations, and private-sector entities.
Trade in virtual water, the substitution of the use of scarce water resources for agricultural pr... more Trade in virtual water, the substitution of the use of scarce water resources for agricultural production by importing food from water-rich countries has been said to be a potential solution to water crises and water conflicts throughout water-stressed regions worldwide. While trade in foodstuffs may have helped to alleviate water stress in parts of the Middle East and Northern Africa and provides an efficient response to the periodic drought occurrences, it has to be doubted whether virtual water trade is a water governance option that can be applied in many countries of the South. As examples from the West African Volta River Basin suggest, cultural values focussing on agricultural and livestock production, socio-economic factors such as a low level of education and a strong dependency of livelihoods on subsistence agriculture, weak governments that are unable to trigger and finance large-scale reform processes, as well as dysfunctional and unfair market systems, largely limit the widespread application of virtual water trade.
As the outcome of drinking water sector reforms in Ghana, three different management options are ... more As the outcome of drinking water sector reforms in Ghana, three different management options are realized for small town water systems. Many piped systems remain centrally managed by the Ghana Water Company Limited even though a policy of community-based management is favoured. Alternatively, a management option of public private partnerships is fostered. The paper reviews and compares two of the realized options: public-private partnerships and community-based management. It asks what the outcomes of these two options are for the sustainability of small town water supply as well as whether one of the two options is preferable and should be pushed by policy. Further, the paper aims at showing some of the limits of participatory approaches in water development practice. It concludes that none of the management options offers a solution to the prevalent problem of failing water systems but both carry the potential to do so, if a system of continuous support and supervision for the managing communities would be established. Such tandem option between water administration and communities is still at its pilot stage.
To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote c... more To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote community-based management. This practice was meant to replace top-down governmental approaches. In Ghana, the water sector has come under review in the 1990s. Institutions have been decentralized, and management tasks transferred to communities, associations, and private-sector entities.
This paper examines water management policies and institutions in the Ghanaian and Burkinabe port... more This paper examines water management policies and institutions in the Ghanaian and Burkinabe portions of the Volta basin of West Africa. The paper begins with a brief historical overview of political, cultural and environmental developments in the basin since the late 19th century. Customary approaches to water management in the Volta are described next, followed by colonial and post-colonial water management developments in Ghana and Burkina Faso. The interplay between customary and national water management institutions in the watershed is then analysed so as to understand how conditions changed as a result of national-level developments. The paper also examines transboundary developments in the Volta basin, and concludes with a discussion of some of the strengths and weaknesses of the different management approaches.
Menschen mit Migrationserfahrung greifen häufi g auf Zugehörigkeitsvorstellungen zurück, die sozi... more Menschen mit Migrationserfahrung greifen häufi g auf Zugehörigkeitsvorstellungen zurück, die sozialräumlich geprägt sind und an Erinnerungen von Landschaft, Lebensformen und kulturreligiösen Prägungen geknüpft sind. Das Verlustempfi nden wird gerade dann betont und gewinnt an Bedeutung, je stärker die Herausforderungen im „Gastland“ die Einwanderer unter Druck setzen, Existenzgrundlagen gefährdet werden, Sehnsüchte nach der verloren geglaubten Heimat zunehmen. Kollektivvorstellungen werden reproduziert, die essentialistisch und von der Idee einer primordialen Herkunft geprägt sind. Die Migrationsforschung übernimmt solche „gruppistischen“ Vorstellungen häufig unhinterfragt, indem in den Methoden nationale oder ethnische Zugehörigkeiten als gegeben vorausgesetzt werden, anstatt diese als noch zu erklärende Größen zu behandeln. Die Vermeidung eines methodischen Nationalismus (Wimmer & Glick-Schiller 2002, vgl. Brubaker & Cooper 2000) oder Essentialismus kann neue Erkenntnisse zu historisch begründeten Prozessen der Vergemeinschaftung hervorbringen, die ansonsten unberücksichtigt blieben. Am Beispiel der lateinamerikanischen Einwanderer in Spanien zeigen sich Kollektivvorstellungen als Erbe der Kolonialzeit und Produkt einer Evangelisierung, in deren Verlauf eine effektive Verwaltung, Kontrolle und wirtschaftliche Nutzung der menschlichen und naturräumlichen Ressourcen durchgesetzt wurde.
ABSTRACT To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors ... more ABSTRACT To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote community-based management. This practice was meant to replace top-down governmental approaches. In Ghana, the water sector came under review in the 1990s. Institutions have been decentralized, and management tasks transferred to communities, associations, and private-sector entities. While assigning ownership and responsibilities to communities is feasible for rural water management, the chapter shows that policy makers and practitioners tend to ignore the historical background of existing structures and antagonisms of traditional and present management systems. Implementation strategies are therefore prone to failure. The chapter analyzes the administrative history of water governance in Ghana and related problems to date. The case study on fisheries management has its setting in the Upper East Region of Ghana, where people use reservoirs to improve their livelihoods through irrigation, cattle watering, and fisheries. In the course of rehabilitation projects, rights and responsibilities of management have been handed over to user groups or associations and village committees. Clashing traditional, governmental, and participatory management strategies overtax communities to cope with responsibilities. Conflicts, mistrust, and overexploitation are some of the consequences.
Religious institutions such as the Catholic Church are gaining in importance again in the wake of... more Religious institutions such as the Catholic Church are gaining in importance again in the wake of the economic crisis in Spain. They act as a reference point and meeting place which keep the faith community together. Tangible assistance is offered and transnational communication structures and family bonds are sustained. With its patron saints, the Catholic Church serves as a place of remembrance to produce and reproduce senses of belongings that date back to the early colonial era. Social relations of migrants are manifested in a space which symbolizes the power and glory of the former Colonial regime. Taking the example of the congregation of San Lorenzo in an immigration neighbourhood in Madrid, I discuss the role and agency of religious artefacts in re-producing collective identities and allocating social and financial resources. By focusing on the object itself, the functions and cultural meanings of the figure in different historical contexts become apparent. The religious staging around the object of the saint show spatially and chronologically comprehensive chains of interaction which reflect deep seated power relations between the immigrant and the host communities.
The study of belonging, its underlying notions, and the politics of belonging shows that social, ... more The study of belonging, its underlying notions, and the politics of belonging shows that social, political, and territorial demarcations are still based on essentialist conceptions of the collective. These are often applied and reproduced in the social sciences as a result of methodological nationalism. Space-sensitive studies of migration and globalization and a return to the material have recently challenged social constructivist lines of argumentation and have provoked a con-ceptual shift from analytical categories with inherent spatiality, territoriality, and boundary marking to concepts based on movement and flow. In this paper the analysis of belonging and the related politics of belonging in migration studies incorporates space as an analytical category that cross-cuts established categorizations such as race, class, gender, and stage in the life cycle, and integrates a material semiotic perspective more systematically into the study of social rela-tions at the intersection of the social categories mentioned. A new concept of belonging is defined which reflects the complex relations that individuals have with other people, circulating objects, artefacts, and changing social, political, and cultural landscapes, thus mirroring both the material conditions and the underlying power relations. Such an un-derstanding of belonging proceeds from social naturalizations and fixations to the multiplicity and situatedness of indi-vidual attachments, which entangle social, imagined, and sensual-material relations that are constantly re-articulated and re-negotiated by actors in their day-to-day practices. In such a reading, belonging comes into being as a result of individual life stories, versatile contexts, and situated experiences and acts. In times of constant exchange through trav-el, mass media, and communication technologies, the conceptualization of belonging questions established sociocul-tural and political demarcations, indicates the compatibility of ascribed socio-cultural difference and stresses the per-meability of borderlines. A space-sensitive theorization of social relations and belonging opens up new perspectives on the question of how social collectives are naturalized and by whom, and under which conditions they open up to new forms of belonging; it thus brings forth new findings about collectivization, social mobilization, and change
Kreative Protestformen in urbanen Räumen haben in den letzten Jahren weltweit eine Renaissance er... more Kreative Protestformen in urbanen Räumen haben in den letzten Jahren weltweit eine Renaissance erfahren. Symbolische Aneignungen durch Haus- und Platzbesetzungen, Graffiti und politische stencils (Schablonen) prägen zunehmend den öffentlichen Raum in Großstädten und stehen beispielhaft für Protest, der jenseits institutionalisierter politischer Auseinandersetzungen angesiedelt ist. Wie aber werden dadurch Bürgerrechte und diejenigen gestärkt, die sich nicht in vorgegebenen gesellschaftlichen Systemen und sozialen Strukturen bewegen? Welche Rolle spielt der urbane Raum für Vergemeinschaftungsprozesse, für die Konstituierung von Zugehörigkeit und sozialen Kollektiven? Am Beispiel des Stadtzentrums von Madrid zeigt sich im Rahmen des neoliberalen Umstrukturierungsprozesses, wie städtische Formen, die Machtbeziehungen prägen und reflektieren, und die daraus hervorgehenden soziomateriellen Beziehungen auch den Bewohner_innen in den alltäglichen Auseinandersetzungen für das ‚Recht auf Stadt‘ dienen können. Anhand des Arbeiter- und Migrantenviertels Lavapiés wird erörtert, wie einerseits durch die Etablierung kultureller Institutionen und die Neugestaltung (inklusive verstärkter Kontrolle) öffentlicher Plätze Veränderungen des Images des Stadtteils sowie der Wohn-, Miet- und Besitzverhältnisse unterstützt und provoziert worden sind, und damit auch Gentrifizierung und die Vertreibung von weniger bemittelten Bevölkerungsgruppen. Als Folge dieser sozialräumlichen Wandlungsprozesse haben sich andererseits aber auch verschiedene widerständische und kreative Praktiken herausgebildet und Lavapiés zu einem umkämpften Raum gemacht. Diese Initiativen stehen – entgegen der Kommerzialisierung, Kontrolle und Vertreibung – für eine politische Kultur, die neue Formen der Zugehörigkeit schafft, die dynamisch, situativ und fließend sind.
Creative activism and urban art are increasingly being used as an instrument to collectively re-a... more Creative activism and urban art are increasingly being used as an instrument to collectively re-appropriate the urban space and thus articulate urban belonging and citizenship from below. In cities worldwide, where different politics of place stimulate capitalist appropriation, individuals and groups use the public space as a laboratory for resistance, creative act, and as a medium for communication. As such, creative activism is a strategy for those who are widely excluded from social, political, cultural, and economic participation. Collectives are built through joint actions and experiences that are translated into the production situated forms of urban belonging. By drawing on space sensitive and situationist approaches and the power of creativity as an important moment in the analysis of action, the paper provides examples of how collective action and belonging is produced under conditions of contentious politics and exclusion that go beyond social norms, the social containment of institutions, and imposed collective identities.
To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote c... more To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote community-based management. This practice was meant to replace top-down governmental approaches. In Ghana, the water sector has come under review in the 1990s. Institutions have been decentralized, and management tasks transferred to communities, associations, and private-sector entities.
Trade in virtual water, the substitution of the use of scarce water resources for agricultural pr... more Trade in virtual water, the substitution of the use of scarce water resources for agricultural production by importing food from water-rich countries has been said to be a potential solution to water crises and water conflicts throughout water-stressed regions worldwide. While trade in foodstuffs may have helped to alleviate water stress in parts of the Middle East and Northern Africa and provides an efficient response to the periodic drought occurrences, it has to be doubted whether virtual water trade is a water governance option that can be applied in many countries of the South. As examples from the West African Volta River Basin suggest, cultural values focussing on agricultural and livestock production, socio-economic factors such as a low level of education and a strong dependency of livelihoods on subsistence agriculture, weak governments that are unable to trigger and finance large-scale reform processes, as well as dysfunctional and unfair market systems, largely limit the widespread application of virtual water trade.
As the outcome of drinking water sector reforms in Ghana, three different management options are ... more As the outcome of drinking water sector reforms in Ghana, three different management options are realized for small town water systems. Many piped systems remain centrally managed by the Ghana Water Company Limited even though a policy of community-based management is favoured. Alternatively, a management option of public private partnerships is fostered. The paper reviews and compares two of the realized options: public-private partnerships and community-based management. It asks what the outcomes of these two options are for the sustainability of small town water supply as well as whether one of the two options is preferable and should be pushed by policy. Further, the paper aims at showing some of the limits of participatory approaches in water development practice. It concludes that none of the management options offers a solution to the prevalent problem of failing water systems but both carry the potential to do so, if a system of continuous support and supervision for the managing communities would be established. Such tandem option between water administration and communities is still at its pilot stage.
To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote c... more To counteract low water productivity in many developing countries, international donors promote community-based management. This practice was meant to replace top-down governmental approaches. In Ghana, the water sector has come under review in the 1990s. Institutions have been decentralized, and management tasks transferred to communities, associations, and private-sector entities.
This paper examines water management policies and institutions in the Ghanaian and Burkinabe port... more This paper examines water management policies and institutions in the Ghanaian and Burkinabe portions of the Volta basin of West Africa. The paper begins with a brief historical overview of political, cultural and environmental developments in the basin since the late 19th century. Customary approaches to water management in the Volta are described next, followed by colonial and post-colonial water management developments in Ghana and Burkina Faso. The interplay between customary and national water management institutions in the watershed is then analysed so as to understand how conditions changed as a result of national-level developments. The paper also examines transboundary developments in the Volta basin, and concludes with a discussion of some of the strengths and weaknesses of the different management approaches.
Menschen mit Migrationserfahrung greifen häufi g auf Zugehörigkeitsvorstellungen zurück, die sozi... more Menschen mit Migrationserfahrung greifen häufi g auf Zugehörigkeitsvorstellungen zurück, die sozialräumlich geprägt sind und an Erinnerungen von Landschaft, Lebensformen und kulturreligiösen Prägungen geknüpft sind. Das Verlustempfi nden wird gerade dann betont und gewinnt an Bedeutung, je stärker die Herausforderungen im „Gastland“ die Einwanderer unter Druck setzen, Existenzgrundlagen gefährdet werden, Sehnsüchte nach der verloren geglaubten Heimat zunehmen. Kollektivvorstellungen werden reproduziert, die essentialistisch und von der Idee einer primordialen Herkunft geprägt sind. Die Migrationsforschung übernimmt solche „gruppistischen“ Vorstellungen häufig unhinterfragt, indem in den Methoden nationale oder ethnische Zugehörigkeiten als gegeben vorausgesetzt werden, anstatt diese als noch zu erklärende Größen zu behandeln. Die Vermeidung eines methodischen Nationalismus (Wimmer & Glick-Schiller 2002, vgl. Brubaker & Cooper 2000) oder Essentialismus kann neue Erkenntnisse zu historisch begründeten Prozessen der Vergemeinschaftung hervorbringen, die ansonsten unberücksichtigt blieben. Am Beispiel der lateinamerikanischen Einwanderer in Spanien zeigen sich Kollektivvorstellungen als Erbe der Kolonialzeit und Produkt einer Evangelisierung, in deren Verlauf eine effektive Verwaltung, Kontrolle und wirtschaftliche Nutzung der menschlichen und naturräumlichen Ressourcen durchgesetzt wurde.
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Papers by eva youkhana
Taking the example of the congregation of San Lorenzo in an immigration neighbourhood in Madrid, I discuss the role and agency of religious artefacts in re-producing collective identities and allocating social and financial resources. By focusing on the object itself, the functions and cultural meanings of the figure in different historical contexts become apparent. The religious staging around the object of the saint show spatially and chronologically comprehensive chains of interaction which reflect deep seated power relations between the immigrant and the host communities.
Strukturen bewegen? Welche Rolle spielt der urbane Raum für Vergemeinschaftungsprozesse, für die Konstituierung von Zugehörigkeit und sozialen Kollektiven?
Am Beispiel des Stadtzentrums von Madrid zeigt sich im Rahmen des neoliberalen Umstrukturierungsprozesses,
wie städtische Formen, die Machtbeziehungen prägen
und reflektieren, und die daraus hervorgehenden soziomateriellen Beziehungen auch den Bewohner_innen in den alltäglichen Auseinandersetzungen für das ‚Recht auf Stadt‘
dienen können. Anhand des Arbeiter- und Migrantenviertels Lavapiés wird erörtert, wie einerseits durch die Etablierung kultureller Institutionen und die Neugestaltung (inklusive
verstärkter Kontrolle) öffentlicher Plätze Veränderungen des Images des Stadtteils sowie der Wohn-, Miet- und Besitzverhältnisse unterstützt und provoziert worden
sind, und damit auch Gentrifizierung und die Vertreibung von weniger bemittelten Bevölkerungsgruppen. Als Folge dieser sozialräumlichen Wandlungsprozesse haben sich andererseits aber auch verschiedene widerständische und kreative Praktiken herausgebildet und Lavapiés zu einem umkämpften Raum gemacht. Diese Initiativen stehen – entgegen der Kommerzialisierung, Kontrolle und Vertreibung – für eine politische Kultur, die neue Formen der Zugehörigkeit schafft, die dynamisch, situativ und fließend sind.
stärker die Herausforderungen im „Gastland“ die Einwanderer unter Druck setzen, Existenzgrundlagen gefährdet werden, Sehnsüchte nach der verloren geglaubten Heimat zunehmen. Kollektivvorstellungen werden reproduziert, die essentialistisch und von der Idee einer primordialen Herkunft geprägt sind. Die Migrationsforschung übernimmt solche „gruppistischen“ Vorstellungen häufig unhinterfragt, indem in den Methoden nationale oder ethnische Zugehörigkeiten als gegeben vorausgesetzt werden, anstatt diese als noch zu erklärende Größen zu behandeln. Die Vermeidung eines methodischen
Nationalismus (Wimmer & Glick-Schiller 2002, vgl. Brubaker & Cooper 2000) oder Essentialismus kann neue Erkenntnisse zu historisch begründeten Prozessen der Vergemeinschaftung hervorbringen, die ansonsten unberücksichtigt blieben.
Am Beispiel der lateinamerikanischen Einwanderer in Spanien zeigen sich Kollektivvorstellungen als Erbe der Kolonialzeit und Produkt einer Evangelisierung, in deren Verlauf eine effektive Verwaltung, Kontrolle und wirtschaftliche Nutzung der menschlichen und naturräumlichen Ressourcen durchgesetzt wurde.
Taking the example of the congregation of San Lorenzo in an immigration neighbourhood in Madrid, I discuss the role and agency of religious artefacts in re-producing collective identities and allocating social and financial resources. By focusing on the object itself, the functions and cultural meanings of the figure in different historical contexts become apparent. The religious staging around the object of the saint show spatially and chronologically comprehensive chains of interaction which reflect deep seated power relations between the immigrant and the host communities.
Strukturen bewegen? Welche Rolle spielt der urbane Raum für Vergemeinschaftungsprozesse, für die Konstituierung von Zugehörigkeit und sozialen Kollektiven?
Am Beispiel des Stadtzentrums von Madrid zeigt sich im Rahmen des neoliberalen Umstrukturierungsprozesses,
wie städtische Formen, die Machtbeziehungen prägen
und reflektieren, und die daraus hervorgehenden soziomateriellen Beziehungen auch den Bewohner_innen in den alltäglichen Auseinandersetzungen für das ‚Recht auf Stadt‘
dienen können. Anhand des Arbeiter- und Migrantenviertels Lavapiés wird erörtert, wie einerseits durch die Etablierung kultureller Institutionen und die Neugestaltung (inklusive
verstärkter Kontrolle) öffentlicher Plätze Veränderungen des Images des Stadtteils sowie der Wohn-, Miet- und Besitzverhältnisse unterstützt und provoziert worden
sind, und damit auch Gentrifizierung und die Vertreibung von weniger bemittelten Bevölkerungsgruppen. Als Folge dieser sozialräumlichen Wandlungsprozesse haben sich andererseits aber auch verschiedene widerständische und kreative Praktiken herausgebildet und Lavapiés zu einem umkämpften Raum gemacht. Diese Initiativen stehen – entgegen der Kommerzialisierung, Kontrolle und Vertreibung – für eine politische Kultur, die neue Formen der Zugehörigkeit schafft, die dynamisch, situativ und fließend sind.
stärker die Herausforderungen im „Gastland“ die Einwanderer unter Druck setzen, Existenzgrundlagen gefährdet werden, Sehnsüchte nach der verloren geglaubten Heimat zunehmen. Kollektivvorstellungen werden reproduziert, die essentialistisch und von der Idee einer primordialen Herkunft geprägt sind. Die Migrationsforschung übernimmt solche „gruppistischen“ Vorstellungen häufig unhinterfragt, indem in den Methoden nationale oder ethnische Zugehörigkeiten als gegeben vorausgesetzt werden, anstatt diese als noch zu erklärende Größen zu behandeln. Die Vermeidung eines methodischen
Nationalismus (Wimmer & Glick-Schiller 2002, vgl. Brubaker & Cooper 2000) oder Essentialismus kann neue Erkenntnisse zu historisch begründeten Prozessen der Vergemeinschaftung hervorbringen, die ansonsten unberücksichtigt blieben.
Am Beispiel der lateinamerikanischen Einwanderer in Spanien zeigen sich Kollektivvorstellungen als Erbe der Kolonialzeit und Produkt einer Evangelisierung, in deren Verlauf eine effektive Verwaltung, Kontrolle und wirtschaftliche Nutzung der menschlichen und naturräumlichen Ressourcen durchgesetzt wurde.