SIXTH INTERNATIONAL METROPOLIS CONFERENCE

WORKSHOP 47: Research and Politics: Epistemological Preferences and the Plural City

Thursday, November 29, 2001
14:00 - 17:30


ORGANIZERS

Mette Andersson and Yngve Lithman
IMER Norway/Bergen, Prof. Keysersgt. 2, Bergen University
N-5007 Bergen
NORWAY
Tel: (int.line + 47 +) 55 58 97 34, 55 58 97 32,
fax: (int. line + 47 +) 55 58 97 12
e-mail: yngve.lithman@sefos.uib.no, mette.andersson@sefos.uib.no
Visiting address: Fosswinckelsgate 7, Bergen
http://www.uib.no/sefos/IMER/welcome.html

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

The research-politics interface is hugely debated. Some types of research seem to be very well adapted to, not to say generated out of, policy concerns. It even appears, that some scholarly "interpretations of reality" easily find their way into policy considerations, while others, not necessarily of lesser scholarly quality, may not. Examples here can be that some (researchers and politicians) see the emerging plural city, the Metropolis, as an expression of an ongoing destruction of ordered social life, while others see the Metropolis as a culturally vibrant expression of a space-time collapse where the burgeoisie confinement is transformed into cosmopolitan liberation. It is the convenors' of this workshop conviction that this type of divides relate to overt or hidden epistemological preferences. Such preferences are crucial to the study of things in and of the plural city, but insufficiently debated. The plural city is a 'contested reality,' manifest in choices related to topic of study and methods, and it is such choises that demonstrate epistemological preferences in the scholarly pursuit. If then certain types of epistemological choises have a priviledged relationship to the worlds of politics, this will also skew the accumulation of knowledge in certain directions.
We want to explore this topic through cases from different countries and also to provide a structured discussion of the research/policy interface as seen in epistemological preferences. In many ways, the key issue is what is under different conditions is seen as 'knowledge'.


PARTICIPANTS

- Yngve Georg Lithman, University of Bergen, Norway "When Researchers Disagree"
- Carolyne Tah, Leslie Duff, Janis Makarewich, Immigration Research and Statistics Service, Home Office, UK, "Integration research: the case for a systematic approach"
- Les Back, Goldsmiths College, London, UK, (On sources of knowledge, incl. photos)
- Mette Andersson, University of Bergen, Norway, "The Powers of Determinations: Youth Dilemmas"
- Henri Nickels, Amsterdam School of Communications Research, The Netherlands, "The Framing of the Refugee Issue at the Level of Policy".