Sensing Urban Diversity – theoretical and empirical reflections on the role of the senses for migration, belonging, and the (re-)production of race/whiteness

• Applicant: Dr. Christine Barwick-Gross
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 560641548

The proposed network seeks to gather a group of internationally recognized scholars whose works engage with the theoretical potential and methodological challenges of sensory aspects for the study of migration, race, belonging, and urban diversity in an interdisciplinary perspective. Following increasing calls to de-center the common Western focus on the visual and the body-as-text, the network addresses increasingly prominent debates in the English-speaking world on the sensorial and body turn, and the social dynamics of post-migrant societies, which in Germany have so far only been addressed by a few individuals and thematically unconnected or disconnected from the international discourse. Our network draws on the works of sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, and historians who have argued that the normative judgement of sensorial experiences, including smell and sound, has always been used to draw boundaries between (in- and outgroups of) people. Thereby, how people experience and give meanings to sensory inputs depends on individual physical capacities, biographical trajectories and cultural embeddedness. In our network, we focus on four main themes related to the sensory: First, we address the role of the senses for the creation of boundaries and hierarchies between groups. Sensory experiences such as smells and sounds are transgressive, meaning that they immediately affect the personal space/private sphere. They are difficult to evade and often leave traces on the body that foster memories and feelings. Because of their transgressive nature, they can evoke strong reactions of affection as well as animosity - a reason for their relevance for processes of boundary drawings. Based on previous literature, we seek to explore in-depth the role of the senses for the (re-)production of race, including whiteness. Second, we will inquire about the role of the senses for processes and practices of migration and belonging. Scholars have started to pay more attention to how smells, sounds, and foods are used to re-create a sense of home in a new place (country) of residence. Beyond the focus on home-making, we also seek to explore the role of the senses for belonging, which is always multi-scalar and stretches from the local to the transnational. Our third thematic focuses centers more specifically on the urban, addressing how sensory experiences relate to urban materialities and how boundary drawings and crossings we find in highly diverse urban spaces. Lastly, the network also aims to discuss and advance sensory methodologies, reflecting and proposing new methods of knowledge production and knowledge transfer, inspired by performative social research. The network should result in two joint publications, and in its institutionalization, in the form of a work group in a Section of the German Sociological Association (DGS) as well as a research network within the European Sociological Association.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks