Abstract
In this webinar, Marzia Bona (Eurac Research) and Ida Motteran (University of Milan- Bicocca) present and critically reflect on a methodology originally developed for rural social economy research and subsequently adapted to a case study in migration research.
Drawing on the Horizon Europe SERIGO project, they share emerging results from the application of a methodology for empirical research grounded in intersectionality and critical systems thinking. The approach was initially designed to analyse how social economy actors contribute to inclusive rural development. In the webinar, Bona and Motteran demonstrate how it can be meaningfully transferred to migration studies. The methodology consists of a set of practical and visual tools, each supporting a specific analytical dimension. Combined, these tools allow us to capture a richer and more relational picture of interactions among local actors, institutions, people labelled as “vulnerable,” and resources within specific territorial contexts. We illustrate the application of this toolkit through a case study conducted in the Eisack Valley (South Tyrol, Italy), focusing on migrants’ access to housing and their experiences of precarity and exclusion in a rural Alpine setting.
Applying this methodology to migration research enables us to move beyond individualised accounts of vulnerability and instead foreground relational dynamics, solidarities, institutional arrangements, and governance gaps that structure access to housing. In doing so, we generate more situated and reflexive knowledge about how labour market segmentation, local welfare regimes, informal brokerage, and social work mediation intersect in shaping migrant housing trajectories.
At the same time, we critically reflect on the methodological transfer itself. What are the tensions and limits of co-creation processes when working with structurally precarious groups? How do procedural and ethical requirements need to be adapted to the realities of fieldwork with populations routinely framed as “vulnerable”? We discuss both the enabling potential and the constraints encountered in attempts to actively engage migrants in knowledge production.
The webinar is part of the online series “Diversity Matters” hosted by the Center for Migration and Societal Change of Eurac Research.