Irini Siouti
Irini Siouti is professor for Qualitative Empirical Social Research and Director of the Institute of Migration Research at the Frankfurt University UAS. She is a board member of the RC 38 'Biography and Society' within the International Sociological Association (ISA) and speaker of the section 'Biographical Research' of the German Sociological Association (DGS).
Irini Siouti holds a PhD with distinction from Goethe University in Frankfurt. For her PhD thesis on transnational mobility biographies among the younger generation of Greek working migrants she received the Cornelia Goethe Award in Women´s and Gender Studies. She has worked in several international European research projects and has a long standing record of research in the field of Migration Studies and Biography Research.
Her main areas of research are: migration, transnationalism, social inequality, biography research, intercultural education, political participation of migrants, gender studies, sociology of culture, transnational social work. She is especially interested in qualitative research methodologies and methods with a focus on intercultural and transnational research contexts.
Irini Siouti holds a PhD with distinction from Goethe University in Frankfurt. For her PhD thesis on transnational mobility biographies among the younger generation of Greek working migrants she received the Cornelia Goethe Award in Women´s and Gender Studies. She has worked in several international European research projects and has a long standing record of research in the field of Migration Studies and Biography Research.
Her main areas of research are: migration, transnationalism, social inequality, biography research, intercultural education, political participation of migrants, gender studies, sociology of culture, transnational social work. She is especially interested in qualitative research methodologies and methods with a focus on intercultural and transnational research contexts.
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Books by Irini Siouti
Trotz eines weitgefächerten Pluralismus an methodischen Herangehensweisen haben die verschiedenen Ansätze qualitativer Sozialforschung der Anspruch, die soziale Wirklichkeit über die Erforschung der Perspektiven von sozialen Akteur*innen zu erschließen. Unter dem Stichwort 'Akteur*innen der Kritik' wird der Frage nachgegangen, welche Bedeutung der qualitativen Sozialforschung und vor allem den durch sie erhobenen Akteursperspektiven für die Sozial- und Gesellschaftskritik zukommt. Im Fokus der Beiträge stehen die sozialphilosophischen und methodologischen Grundlagen kritischer Sozialforschung, die unterschiedlichen methodischen Umgangsweisen mit den Akteursperspektiven, die Formen der Kritik, die sich aus diesen ergeben, und die Auswirkungen, die das institutionelle Gefüge der universitären Wissensproduktion auf unterschiedliche Formen kritischer Sozialforschung hat.
Am Beispiel der griechischen Arbeitsmigration in Deutschland geht Irini Siouti den Transmigrationsprozessen in den Biographien der jüngeren, gut ausgebildeten Generation nach. Ihre biographieanalytische Studie erweitert das grundlagentheoretische und empirische Diskursfeld der Transmigration durch eine biographietheoretische Durchdringung des Transnationalitätsphänomens.
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Papers by Irini Siouti
Research Ethics in Biographical Research: Challenges in the Field of Political Participation.
Abstract
In this article, I am dealing with ethical challenges in biographical research drawing on my research experiences in the context of a study in the field of political participation. In the first part, I discuss general ethical questions in biographical research related to the collection and the analysis of biographical narrative interviews. In the second part, I sketch specific ethical aspects and problems that arose from the research process and that challenge the premises of reconstructive biographical analysis. Among these are informed consent as a dialogical process, the anonymization of biographical data, and the reporting back of biographical data in a highly sensible field. I conclude by discussing the possibilities and limits of the research workshop setting for the reflection of ethical questions in biographical research
Trotz eines weitgefächerten Pluralismus an methodischen Herangehensweisen haben die verschiedenen Ansätze qualitativer Sozialforschung der Anspruch, die soziale Wirklichkeit über die Erforschung der Perspektiven von sozialen Akteur*innen zu erschließen. Unter dem Stichwort 'Akteur*innen der Kritik' wird der Frage nachgegangen, welche Bedeutung der qualitativen Sozialforschung und vor allem den durch sie erhobenen Akteursperspektiven für die Sozial- und Gesellschaftskritik zukommt. Im Fokus der Beiträge stehen die sozialphilosophischen und methodologischen Grundlagen kritischer Sozialforschung, die unterschiedlichen methodischen Umgangsweisen mit den Akteursperspektiven, die Formen der Kritik, die sich aus diesen ergeben, und die Auswirkungen, die das institutionelle Gefüge der universitären Wissensproduktion auf unterschiedliche Formen kritischer Sozialforschung hat.
Am Beispiel der griechischen Arbeitsmigration in Deutschland geht Irini Siouti den Transmigrationsprozessen in den Biographien der jüngeren, gut ausgebildeten Generation nach. Ihre biographieanalytische Studie erweitert das grundlagentheoretische und empirische Diskursfeld der Transmigration durch eine biographietheoretische Durchdringung des Transnationalitätsphänomens.
"
Research Ethics in Biographical Research: Challenges in the Field of Political Participation.
Abstract
In this article, I am dealing with ethical challenges in biographical research drawing on my research experiences in the context of a study in the field of political participation. In the first part, I discuss general ethical questions in biographical research related to the collection and the analysis of biographical narrative interviews. In the second part, I sketch specific ethical aspects and problems that arose from the research process and that challenge the premises of reconstructive biographical analysis. Among these are informed consent as a dialogical process, the anonymization of biographical data, and the reporting back of biographical data in a highly sensible field. I conclude by discussing the possibilities and limits of the research workshop setting for the reflection of ethical questions in biographical research
Keywords: methodological nationalism, biographical reflexivity, transnational research, biography research
For example, biographical analysis has moved beyond disciplinary borders to explore research perspectives drawn from ethnographical research, art research, and discourse analysis, just to name a few.
The increasing transnationalisation of people’s biographies has compelled biographical researchers to reflect on how constructions of “normal biographies” can no longer be embedded in a nation-state framework given the realities of many people’s lives in a globalizing world. The importance of embodiment in the construction of biographies and their visual dimensions call out for the enhancement of narrative with non-narrative methodologies. And finally, the increasing use of art, popular culture, and social media to think about people’s lives and life histories suggests that biographical researchers need to expand their methodologies in creative and unexpected directions.
In this invited panel session, several well-known advocates of new approaches to biographical analysis will provide programmatic statements about what is missing in biographical research today and how they would like to see it develop in the future. It is our intention to initiate a lively discussion with the audience.
Phil C. LANGER, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany,
Irini SIOUTI, University of Vienna, Austria
Kathy DAVIS, VU University, Netherlands
Roswitha BRECKNER, University of Vienna, Austria
Elisabeth TUIDER, University of Kassel, Germany
Hermilio SANTOS, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Die empirische Migrationsforschung hat Bildungsaufstiegsprozesse bisher weitgehend aus einer Perspektive untersucht, die um die Ankunftsnation zentriert ist. Die meisten Untersuchungen zum Thema Bildungserfolg in der Migration operieren mit einer Kategorisierung von Bildungsaufstieg, die ausschließlich auf das klassische nationalstaatliche Einwanderungsmodell gerichtet ist (Hummrich 2002; Ofner 2003; Pott 2002; Raiser 2007; Tepecik 2011; Hüttl 2011; El-Mafaalani 2012). In meinem Vortrag werde ich Bildungsaufstiegsprozesse aus einer transnationalen Forschungsperspektive in den Blick nehmen und den Erkenntnisgewinn des Transnationalisierungsansatzes für das Forschungsfeld diskutieren. Ich möchte dabei insbesondere die These zur Diskussion stellen, dass es der Nachfolgegeneration von ArbeitsmigrantInnen in Deutschland, durch die Nutzung eines transnationalen europäischen Bildungsraumes gelingt, die Ausschlussmechanismen des deutschen Bildungssystems vielfach erfolgreicher zu unterlaufen als dies durch bedingungslose Assimilation an das deutsche Bildungssystem möglich ist.
Die empirische Grundlage meines Beitrages bildet eine biographieanalytische Studie über Transmigrationsprozesse bei der Nachfolgegeneration von Arbeitsmigranten in Deutschland.
Bettina Dausien, University of Vienna ([email protected])
Irini Siouti, University of Frankfurt ([email protected])
Hiromi Tanaka, Meiji University Tokyo ([email protected])
In biography research gender is conceived not only as a social construction which is produced and reproduced in ongoing interaction processes but also as a biographically constructed and reconstructed social category. The thesis of the biographical construction of gender implies certain challenges for a reconstructive methodology in biography research: How can we “discover” gender constructions in biographical narratives without presupposing “typical” male/female attributes? The problem appears to be even more complex in transcultural research settings because gender constructions as well as patterns of biographical narratives and life courses are related to the respective societal and cultural context in which they are produced and communicated.
In particular, the notion of the constructed character of gender and biographies makes it necessary to rethink and question common methodological premises of interpretative research and leads to a reflection of contemporary research and fieldwork practices. In this session we invite contributions focusing on the methodological implications that the theoretical concept of gendered biographies implies in the field of transcultural biography research.
Tazuko Kobayashi, Hitotsubashi University Tokyo, Japan ([email protected]) and Irini Siouti, University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany ([email protected])
The session enables the presentation and discussion of methodological approaches and methods of analysis in biographical research. Participants from different theoretical and cultural backgrounds and with different methodological approaches are asked to exemplify their way of doing a biographical case study analysis using the same biographical-narrative interview provided ahead of time by the session organizers. In the session, the invited researchers will demonstrate their analysis of the case, their methodology and "technique" as a basis for comparison and discussion with each other and the audience. The format of this session has become something of a tradition at the world congresses and enjoys great interest.
Eine Vielzahl von Referent*innen setzen sich mit der Bedeutung qualitativer Sozialforschung für die Sozial- und Gesellschaftskritik auseinander.
Im Rahmen des Workshops hält Robin Celikates am 12. Dezember einen öffentlichen Abendvortrag mit dem Titel »Die Macht der Kritik. Epistemische Asymmetrien, Standpunkte und kritische Praktiken«.
Anmeldungen bis zum 1.12.2019: [email protected]