The project aims to work out a critical analysis of contemporary sociological and anthropological discourses which explore how the cultural dynamics of global migration effects the reconstruction of local symbolic boundaries. The research strategy aims to achieve a systematic analysis of categories, cognitive scripts, frames and forms of argumentation which are integral elements of discourses constructing knowledge about the reconstruction of symbolic boundaries. The methodological principles of critical discourse analysis will be applied to analyze three particular discourses. Firstly, the analysis will deal with the discourse of diaspora that investigates cultural effects of immigration on local symbolic boundaries. Secondly, it will focus on the discourse of deterritorialization that outlines the displacement of local cultures by transnational flows of cultural objects and subjects. Thirdly, it will turn to the discourse of dealing with the social inclusion of immigrants by means of institutional mechanisms of the modern nation-state. The discourse analysis will try to uncover how in the course of constructing expert knowledge of the reconstruction of symbolic borders discourses of sociology and anthropology themselves reproduce and legitimize symbolic boundaries.

Publications