DFG, 2012 – 2015
Dr. Elisa Bertuzzo

Circular Migration and Habitat: The city-country relation in an era of global urbanisation

Since the hypothesis of "modernity at large" (Appadurai 1996), talks of a thoroughly mobile and de-territorialised world have become common. Aside from more critical approaches, such as the "new mobilities paradigm" (Sheller/Urry 2006), the implications of the mobilisation for the future of settlements are still poorly reflected. An increasing fluctuation of people across rural and urban regions has been recorded also in South Asia (Kundu 2011, Deshingkar/Farrington 2009). This provides the context for that this project aims to use to derive clues around the issue.

How do translocal livelihoods impact habitat? Which is the relationship between circular migration and the fragmented growth processes recorded in the suburbs of megacities, secondary cities and census towns? How does translocalisation affect individuals' representations and practices of homing, inhabiting and production-reproduction?

Answers to these questions were developed via a documentation of circular migrants' livelihoods in Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Kerala. It could be shown how movement – which in these cases are mostly linked to temporary, seasonal, under-regulated labour –  stands in a cause / consequence relationship with urbanisation. On the basis of the observations of new types of settlements and emerging modes of production, the project attempts to reflect on South Asia's own moving urbanisation.

The project is funded by German Research Fundation (DFG).