Towards a Critique of Methodological Presentism in Migration Research

A Focus on Denmark
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-00011-4
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

Reihe: Routledge Approaches to History

This book investigates the benefits of integrating history, sociology, and ethnography to better understand migration and its consequences, using Denmark’s history of migration as a case study.

Although migration research is an interdisciplinary field, much research on migration still occurs in disciplinary containers. The field is not least affected by a methodological presentism: a scholarly and societal tendency to understand social phenomena within a limited contemporary framework, neglecting possible effects and similarities embedded in and established through human history. This book builds upon previous research underscoring the importance of examining migration from a longer, diachronic, and genealogical viewpoint, and it is among the first to advocate for a more profound methodological discussion regarding how, why, and when this should be addressed. The book’s analysis draws on empirical examples from Denmark, a Northern European country where the impact of migration is currently hotly debated, yet the history of migration is frequently overlooked. Specific themes examined in the book range from demography/immigrant statistics to the understanding of “the ghetto,” the implications of discussions around “Danishness,” and how migration has influenced and molded a particular neighborhood in Copenhagen (Nørrebro) over time.

This volume is innovative and pertinent for an international audience of researchers and students interested in the genealogies of migration and eager to explore new pathways for pursuing this research interest.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Schmidt, Garbi

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Historiographie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Why should we critically engage with methodological presentism in migration research? 2. Demography 3. The Insider and the Outsider: Debates over Islam and Muslims in Denmark 4. Danishness and Un-Danishness 5. Dangerous Places: A History of Danish Ghettos 6. Making sense of Nørrebro: An immigrant neighborhood in Copenhagen 7. Beyond methodological presentism? Some learning points

Über Autor(innen)

Garbi Schmidt is a professor of Cultural Encounters at Roskilde University, Denmark. Her research interests include immigration to Denmark and Muslim minorities in Europe and the US. Her publications include Islam in Urban America: Sunni Muslims in Chicago (2004) and Going beyond methodological presentism: Examples from a Copenhagen neighborhood 1885–2010 (2017).