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Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies


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Foggy Social Structures in a Knowledge-based Society (FOGSOC)

Prof. Dr. Michael Bommes, Dr. Holger Kolb

The main aim of the project "Foggy social structures in a knowledge-based society - irregular migration, informal economy and the political system" will be the analysis of the relationships between the growth and emergence of the informal economy, patterns of irregular migration and the social conditions of knowledge production - what in this proposal is labelled as "foggy social structures". The internal structural developments of the informal economy, irregular migration processes and the modes of knowledge control and production by the state are closely inter-related. FOGSOC will produce deeper knowledge about the links between informal economies and irregular migrations as regular social contexts producing social fog and the knowledge and control structures of tmodern society.
In this project the relationships between the emergence of foggy social structures as a regular element of society, the specific constitutive social structures and modes of operation of informal economies and irregular migrations - fields that are both at the same time regular and deviant from normative social expectations - and the modes of coping with these structures through the development of knowledge and control production (states and supranational organizations including welfare administrations, statistical offices, police, border control units, and population registration offices) are analysed.

Project partners in 27 research institutes in 9 countries, i.e.

Prof. Dr. Guiseppe Sciortino, University of Trento
Prof. Dr. Godfried Engbersen, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Prof. Dr. Heinz Fassmann, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Prof. Dr. Friedrich Schneider, University of Linz
Prof. Dr. Maria Baganha, University of Coimbra
Prof. Dr. Philip Muss, IMER Malmö
Prof. Dr. Andrew Geddes, University of Sheffield
Dr. Christina Boswell, Hamburg Institute of International Economics
Prof. Dr. Ayse Caglar, European University Institute Budapest

Publication:

Michael Bommes/Giuseppe Sciortino (eds.), Foggy Social Structures: Irregular Migration, European Labour Markets and the Welfare State (Imiscoe Research), Amsterdam University Press 2011.