Belonging Today Working Group is a forum for recurring conversations, inspiration and collaboration between scholars on the topic of belonging and its transformations in the contemporary world.
By belonging we mean three interconnected dynamics: 1) person’s feelings or identification with a collectivity, 2) that collectivity’s recognition of her or his belonging, and 3) the practices and material conditions which constitute belonging and exclusion or isolation.
Our focus on belonging directs the gaze to several classical problems of social sciences, including solidarity, social bonds, social integration, differentiation, domination, change and distinction. In examining contemporary forms of belonging, the Working Group sees itself as a descendent of this long intellectual lineage but it does so without reproducing the conventional and theoretically fixed ways to understand the question, originally posed as “what holds society together?”
In asking “how do people belong in the contemporary world”, and doing so from a multidisciplinary perspective, we re-address the original framing of the question by: (1) beginning with an understanding that there are multiple and coexistent forms and locations of belonging, as well as of exclusion, from those rooted in economic exchanges to those rooted in national beliefs, and from those located in the “private sphere” of intimacy, household and kinship to those located in the setting of community; (2) seeing belonging as both a political and personal question, a place of ambivalence and conflict, in which the capacity to belong, and the sense of belonging, is connected to an unequal access to both symbolic and material resources; (3) asking how contemporary belongings are formed and transformed in relation to collectivities, but also the life-projects of “individuals”, who sometimes seek forms of belonging, but other times seek to escape or disclaim them.
Understanding contemporary belonging means accounting for changes in intimacy, family structure and gender roles, the growing importance of transnational ties and communities, the decline in long term wage based employment and unionized labor, extensive migration and redefined immigration policies to mention a few.
Four foci of the Working Group include:
1) Political belonging (membership; inclusion/exclusion)
2) Economic belonging (work and organizational life)
3) Localities of belonging (from the local community and neighbourhood to the non-local or transnational)
4) Personal belonging (personally significant bonds and personal attachments).
These sub-themes are not mutually exclusive, but overlapping, coexistent and mutually informative both empirically and theoretically. Moreover, in each case we seek to examine belonging in multiple ways: as a political question; in terms of the material infrastructures (from passports to policies to technologies) that make belonging possible or restrict it; as something rooted in practices and social categories, but also agency; in terms of how it is organized; in temporal terms (including biographical but also larger historical transformations); and finally, in terms of those who do not belong or whose belonging is restricted (as for example the undocumented immigrant).
- Kaisa Ketokivi
- Post-Doctoral Researcher, Lecturer University of Helsinki, Finland
- Harel Shapira
- Postdoctoral Fellow Institute for Public Knowledge
- Craig Calhoun
- University Professor of Social Science New York University
- Sylvie Honig
- Doctoral Candidate University of Chicago
- Shamus Khan
- Assistant Professor of Sociology Columbia University
- Ann Mische
- Associate Professor of Sociology Rutgers, School of Arts and Sciences
- Harel Shapira
- Postdoctoral Fellow Institute for Public Knowledge
- Iddo Tavory
- Assistant Professor of Sociology New School for Social Research
- Nancy Foner
- Distinguished Professor of Sociology Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
- Natasha Iskander
- Assistant Professor of Public Policy Wagner School of Public Service, NYU
- Eric Klinenberg
- Professor of Sociology at NYU | Editor of Public Culture New York University
- Anne Rawls
- Professor of Sociology Bentley University
- Judith Stacey
- Professor Social and Cultural Analysis and Sociology
- Carlos Forment
- Associate Professor of Sociology The New School
- Kaisa Ketokivi
- Post-Doctoral Researcher, Lecturer University of Helsinki, Finland
- Michael McQuarrie
- Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology University of California, Davis
- Sasha Roseneil
- Professor of Sociology and Social Theory and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research University of London
- David Stark
- Arthur Lehman Professor of Sociology and International Affairs Columbia University
20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor, IPK Main Conference Room
What does it mean to belong? To belong in America? To belong to America? From an emotional state to a legal one, to one coded in our DNA, how have the conditions of belonging changed? Is belonging an ambition to embrace? A challenge to resist? How do you belong in America? As a queer. As a woman. An African-American. An immigrant. A white working class male? Please join Alondra Nelson, Darryl...
20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor, IPK Main Conference Room
Western societies are characterized by individualism, a liberalistic political philosophy in which people are viewed as “individuals” connoting characteristics, such as conscious, independent, autonomous, free and responsible. The Western notion of “the individual” can be traced back to the Roman concept of ‘person’, which although originally closer to the meaning of role came to mean the inner...
20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor Main Conference Room
Join us for "Living for the City," the inaugural public event for Belonging Today, a new Working Group at the Institute for Public Knowledge. In this discussion about ways of belonging and its opportunities, perils and transformations in New York City, we are pleased to welcome four speakers.
Eric Klinenberg from NYU will discuss "Going Solo in NYC", Nancy Foner from CUNY will ask "How...