Fields of research

Education is understood as the transformative, active, and autonomous engagement of subjects with the world. Education and learning processes are initiated when – among other things, migration-related – experiences of crisis and foreignness call existing self- and world relations into question.

In the research field "education", the ZFM deals in theoretical and empirical research with questions about the form and success of education (processes) in the context of (power) relations in the migration society. Projects in this research field focus, for example, on the study of Holocaust education in the migration society, educational offers and processes in central accommodation centers for refugees, or the interconnections of migration, sexuality, and gender in sexual education for refugees. The research field includes studies at the intersection of critical migration and flight research, education and educational science, and (educational) sociology.

Camps are “tools“ of migration governance practices, as they establish order and regulation. There are camps worldwide in which people are housed voluntarily or involuntarily. Camps are social places on the margins of society and are associated with limited possibilities of action for their inmates. At the same time, people are never mere objects of government and control policies, but they have freedom and agency even under restrictive conditions.

This research field includes research that examines migration movements in terms of mobility theory and in the context of central accommodation. Mobility-theoretical perspectives focus not only on spatial movements but also on social mobility. From this perspective, the research projects in the field analyze the power relations and practices that mobilize people.
We assume a dialectic of mobility and immobility as well as mobilization and immobilization. In this way, we can understand how the European migration regime, on the one hand, promotes mobility (e.g., that of skilled and qualified labor migration) and, on the other hand, attempts to prevent it (e.g., asylum migration). The projects in this research field deal with the tense relationship between control and agency.

The media are powerful designers of public communication. In digitally networked public spheres, journalists and other communicators from politics and civil society have a lasting impact on social discourses and, thus, on opinion-forming processes - including those on (forced) migration.

The research field Media and Public Spheres stands for projects at the interface of (forced) migration research, communication studies, and (media) ethics. It deals with the causes, the form, and the consequences of pluralizing and polarizing communication processes in a digital migration society. Projects with this focus address, among other things, questions of media representation, participation, and discrimination of people with migration experiences. They direct their attention to journalistic responsibility in public negotiation processes and the role of media use for the development and change of defensive and xenophobic attitudes in the so-called receiving society.

Flight and migration are socio-political areas of conflict. Questions of admission, protection, participation and belonging are subject to constant socio-political negotiation processes. Flight and migration movements are met with both defensive attitudes among the population but also solidarity and support. In our research, we analyze in particular the role of civil society beyond legally constituted state institutions and market-based activities. Being a sphere of civic engagement, it ideally serves as a critical corrective on the one hand and has also democracy-building functions. On the other hand, in the course of welfare state transformations, however, it is losing its socio-critical mediating role between private life and institutionalized social policy. Instead, civic engagement is threatened with social policy appropriation by the state.

Research in this field not only deals with the ambivalent role of civil society, e.g. in the commitment for refugees in municipalities, but also asks questions regarding the preconditions for successful solidarity and participation in conflictive fields of action such as church asylum.

Memories are social practices that are individually or collectively constructed and produced through interactions and communication of social groups. They are always subject to productive and performative (re)negotiations. They are affected by social change and their visibility depends on the agency and power of social groups and (their) resources. In the ZFM’s research, pasts and memories are understood historically and examined from a sociological and educational perspective.

The research field “Pasts and Memories” addresses questions of what and how is remembered in the migration society; it negotiates questions of power relations and social positioning inscribed in pasts and memories. Research projects in this field look, for example, at historical-political (adult) education on National Socialism and the Holocaust, processes of constructing and transmitting (family) narratives, and at Eichstätt’s local history of the former Displaced Persons Camp.