Transnational Body and Movement Cultures From a Gender Perspective
13 – 15 November 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark
The term ‘transnational’ refers to “sustained ties of persons, networks and organizations across the borders, across multiple nation-states ranging from little to highly institutionalized forms” (Faist, 2000, 189). This perspective includes economic and cultural relations as well as networks and organizations that are not formed by states. This is especially true of sport, which has by definition a transnational orientation and is embedded in transnational networks of relations.
A key question that must be posed in this context concerns the inequalities – with regard to gender, social background and ethnicity – that are related to transnational migrations and influences. A good example of this is the migration connected with football. Migrant football players, both male and female, often only have a limited residence permit for their respective host country and must adapt to the conditions prevailing there. What levels of acceptance, of inclusion and exclusion, of discrimination do they encounter? During the Women’s World Football Championship in 2011, for example, Fatmire “Lira” Bajramaj (whose family had migrated permanently from Serbia to Germany) was hailed by the German press as a model of integration – not least, undoubtedly, because she conformed well to Western ideals of the body and femininity. By contrast, the outstanding achievements of the black football player, Genoveva Anonma, a transnational migrant from Africa, were disputed since she was suspected of being a man.
Migration research is increasingly placing its focus on transnational phenomena and wants to make clear that migration/immigration is not a straightforward, linear process culminating in integration and assimilation into another nation state as the “host” society. On the contrary, migrant life-styles are characterized by translocality and transculturality, by bi- and multilingualism, by ambi- or polyvalent loyalties, as well as by more than one home and more than one identity (Bröskamp 2006). This kind of transnationality is also reflected in sports as well as in different body and movement cultures. In the course of the dvs gender meeting translocalities and transculturalities will be discussed from a gender perspective.
In addition, contributions are welcome which deal with the current state of gender research in different contexts (whether competitive or recreational sports, whether schools or clubs) and which take intersectionalities into account.
For information about submission, registration, etc., please visit the conference homepage.
