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Exploring Mobility Through Mobility: Some of the Methodological Challenges of Multi-sited Ethnography in the Study of Migration

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Abstract

With the aim of grasping “glocal” nexuses as much as different human experiences of movement (migration, tourism, aid and development) within contemporary societies, mobile approaches as multi-sited research developed, where the field was shaped by following people, kin and other social networks, economic and social remittances, political projects, etc. (Marcus in Annu Rev Anthropol 24:95–117, 1995; Hannerz 2003). Drawing on ethnographic examples, I will show how this methodological perspective is well suited to the analysis of displacement through space. Simultaneously I will consider and discuss critical challenges to such an extension of the ethnographic field. More than on Space, I will focus on Time as a crucial variable to be managed in the attempt of compensating the “centrifugal” dispersion of multi-sited explorations. I will stress the fruitful outcomes of research characterized by multiple and repeated missions able to shape a “virtual spiral” where each stage nourishes the next one.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Bruno Riccio

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  1. Bruno Riccio
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Correspondence to Bruno Riccio .

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  1. Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Ravenna Campus, Italy

    Vincenzo Matera

  2. Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Angela Biscaldi

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Riccio, B. (2021). Exploring Mobility Through Mobility: Some of the Methodological Challenges of Multi-sited Ethnography in the Study of Migration. In: Matera, V., Biscaldi, A. (eds) Ethnography. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51720-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51720-5_13

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