"Family Life in the Age of Migration and Mobility: Theory, Policy and Practice"

International Research Conference
Norrköping (Sweden), 16-20/09/2013
About this conference:

In an age of migration and mobility not only do many facets of contemporary family life take place against the backdrop of intensified movement in its various forms, but the practices of families themselves are deeply embedded in such movements.
This conference seeks to ‘make sense’ of the challenges this poses for families and for academic, empirical and policy understandings of family life in Europe and beyond.
The conference adopts the concept of ‘mobilities’ as its central analytical frame.
By examining a wide range of topics and drawing on several disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, sociology, socio-legal studies and social/public policy, the conference seeks to ‘stretch’ the application of the mobilities lens into new areas of family life. 

Three key themes frame the conference:
(I)    multi-local family lives in national and transnational contexts, 
(II)   the globalization of reproduction and social reproduction across the family-life cycle, and 
(III)  national, supranational and transnational policies and laws relating to family life in an age of migration and mobility.
The aim is to generate original insights for the fields of family and migration studies, as well as for the mobilities paradigm per se. In a period in which issues around family life, migration and mobilities are high on the political agenda in Europe and elsewhere, the intention is also to draw on the insights gained from theoretical and empirical analyses to address deficits in the policy framing of those issues.