This paper addresses cultures of knowledge production on the topic of migration using citation analysis and bibliometrics. We observe the development of migration and migration-related diversity as a "field" of study by analysing citation networks from a large body of literature on migration. We situate this analysis in three theoretical discussions, namely: (1) Internationalization: Has knowledge production on migration moved beyond “methodological nationalism” (Wimmer & Glick Schiller, 2002)?; (2) Interdisciplinarity: To what extent does migration research “talk across disciplines” (Brettell & Hollifield, 2000), and to what extent has it emerged as its own “field” separate to broader, more traditional disciplines?; (3) Periodization: Many paradigmatic turns have been theorized in migration studies, such as “the local turn” (Zapata-Barrero, Caponio, & Scholten, 2017) and the “diversity turn” (Meissner, 2015; Vertovec, 2011). Using the concept of “citation classics” and their life cycle (Cano & Lind, 1991), what have been the turning points in scholarly innovation in migration studies? This paper aims to contribute to broader discussions on the institutionalization of migration as a research field and the ontological implications of this development. In addition to this, it speaks to the complex relationship of research and policy (Boswell & Smith, 2017), and the role of national science organisations and, increasingly, European institutions in mobilising and funding such research. The paper is situated in the broader context of a PhD project investigating research-policy dialogues, and infrastructures for knowledge production and utilisation, on migration. The PhD project emerges from the H2020 project, CrossMigration, in which we are building a Migration Research Hub in order to facilitate systematic knowledge accumulation on migration.
Co-authors
Dr. Asya Pisarevskaya
Prof.dr. Peter W.A. Scholten
(the form would not allow me to add their email address, but they have expressed permission for me to present this paper)
