Migration seems to be the current challenge par excellence for existing disciplines: migration stands for displacement, change, transition; for historical phases, connections, places and spaces. These are all themes that cannot be adequately theorised within individual disciplines, whether in anthropology or sociology, human geography, gender studies or political science. As a field of research, migration is necessarily interdisciplinary given global empirical realities. According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), there were one billion people moving in 2011, which amounts to 7% of the entire global population. Estimates foresee this number doubling by the end of the century. The numbers fail to capture the extent of the effects of migration – its transformative influence on the very principles, and on the concrete constitution of politics, culture, economy and society. Through debates seeking to contribute to discipline-specific expertise and strengthening of interdiscplinary networks, the summer school engages the central challenges these social developments pose for research. The aim is to further an understanding of the ‚bigger picture‘, i.e. the geographic, climatic, political and social dimensions of migration, while also placing the very subjects of migration at the center, precisely because it is the social groups, subjectivities, identities and belonging that shape this bigger picture. Read more…