Associate Doctoral Candidate Corinna Land
Faculty for Social Science
The Negotiation of Displacement and Emplacement at Contested Agrarian Frontiers: (Im)mobility, Resistance and Acquiescence in Paraguay
The project asks how Paraguayan peasants defend their livelihoods and negotiate collective visions of a better future while facing a dual crisis. On the one hand, an increasing concentration of land under the control of export-oriented agribusinesses and the reduction of state support are leading to a crisis of small-scale agriculture. While a part of the rural population remains in place, adapts to shrinking possibilities of social and economic reproduction, resists, or waits, others seek their future in regional centres and neighbouring countries, in Europe and especially Argentina. Here, however, the lives of Paraguayan migrants are shaken by a second crisis. Ever worsening exchange rates prevent remittances and rising inflation calls into question the security and hope of the new "home". Displaced by economic crisis and discrimination, many migrants return to their communities of origin.
A multi sited field research explores the translocal lifeworlds that stretch out between three rural communities and three urban destinations in Paraguay and Argentina, reconstructing how peasants and migrants cope with contemporary crisis and attempt to shape social change. The analysis shows that they are continuously torn between leaving and staying, renegotiating their aspirations and hopes in face of new fears and periods of uncertain waiting. As they navigate between alternative places and strategies, they weave together mobile and seemingly immobile courses of action. This dissertation uses the conceptual pair of displacement and emplacement, first, to describe the gradual, cumulative process of displacement in rural areas and urban destinations (displacement) and, second, to explore how actors use and expand their room for manoeuvre to create places to which they can attach their hopes for a better life (emplacement).
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Eva Gerharz (RUB) & Prof. Dr. Heike Greschke (TU Dresden)
About Corinna Land
- Development sociology and transnational migration
- Land conflicts and displacement
- Emplacement, hope and the (un)making of homes
- Resistance, protest, peasant and labor movements
- Regional focus: Latin America
| Since 01/2021 | Research associate at the Doctoral Research Centre Social Sciences, Fulda University of Applied Sciences |
| Since 09/2017 | PhD student at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Faculty of Social Science |
| 11/2016 – 03/2020 | Teaching assignments at the Faculty of Social Science, Ruhr University Bochum |
| 11/2016 – 08/2017 | Research associate at the chair “Sociology of Organization, Migration, Participation” at the Ruhr University Bochum |
| 10/2009 – 09/2016 | Bachelor's and Master's degree in social science at the Ruhr University Bochum including field research stays in Nicaragua, Mexico and the USA |
(2021) “Desperate Aspirations among Paraguayan Youths: The Renegotiation of Migration and Rural Futures”. In: Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies 11 (2), https://doi.org/10.3167/TRANS.2021.110203.
(2019): “Peripherie-Stichwort: Akkumulation durch Enteignung”. In: Peripherie 39(154/155): 292-295, DOI 10.3224/peripherie.v39i2.08.
(2019): "Produktivkraft Partizipation: Neue Potenziale durch Beteiligung erschließen", Literaturstudie im Auftrag der IG BCE.
(2017): “Uprooted Belonging: The Formation of a ‘Jumma Diaspora’ in New York City”, with Eva Gerharz. In: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2017.1373594.
(2015): „Akteurskonstellationen in Ressourcenkonflikten“, with Nina-Kathrin Wienkoop. Conference Report in: Wissenschaft und Frieden 2015 (4): 49-50.
“The (un)making of rural homes in times of neoliberal development”: lecture at the symposium “Making Home, Doing Belonging: Mobilities and Immobilities in Experience, Theory and Policy” of MIDEX (University of Central Lancashire) and HOMinG (University of Trento), 23-24 June 2021
“Coping with Displacement: Hope, Despair and (Im)mobility in Translocal Lifeworlds”, presentation at the IV ISA Forum of Sociology, 23-28 February 2021.
“Dealing with Displacement: Mobile Livelihoods at Contested Agrarian Frontiers”, poster presentation, 7th PhD Conference on International Development, Ruhr University Bochum, 8-9 November 2018.
“Belonging Uprooted: The Formation of a ‘Jumma Diaspora’ in New York City”, paper presentation (with Prof. Eva Gerharz), 24th European Conference on South Asian Studies, University of Warsaw, 29 July 2016.
04/2022 Organisation of the workshop “Struggles for Hope: Negotiating the Future in Times of Global Crises” at the Fulda Graduate Centre of Social Sciences FGCSS (with Anja Habersang).
11/2021 Organisation of the first Fulda International Autumn School “Global Inequalities and Human Rights” at the Fulda Graduate Centre of Social Sciences FGCSS.
11/2019 Organization of the international conference “Forced Migration in Transition: Perspectives from Social Science and Law” (with Benedikt Behlert, UK Mong Marma, and Robin Ramsahye).
07/2015 Organization of the workshop “The State and Beyond: Actor Constellations in Resource Conflicts” of the AK Natur-Ressourcen-Konflikte (with Nina-Katrin Wienkoop and Annegret Kuhn).
| Since 03/2020 | Associated PhD student at the Doctoral Research Centre Social Sciences, Fulda University of Applied Sciences |
| Since 11/2019 | Associated PhD student at the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy |
| Since 09/2017 | Fellow of the Sylff Mikrokolleg „Forced Migration“ |
| 07/2017 – 11/2020 | PhD Grant of the Tokyo Foundation as fellow of the Sylff-Mirokolleg “Forced Migration” |
| 01/2019 – 04/2019 | Sylff Research Abroad grant for field research in Repatriación, Paraguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. |
| 11/2017 | RUB Student Award for the best thesis at the Faculty of Social Science in 2017 |
| 04/2011 – 09/2016 | Scholarship of the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation, including grants for field research in Nicaragua (3 months) and the USA (3 months) |
| 02/2014 – 04/2014 | PROMOS research grant (DAAD) for a research internship at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla in Puebla, Mexico |
| Winter term 2020/21 | B.A. seminar: „Migration and Development”, Fulda University of Applied Sciences |
| Writeshop for doctoral students: “Peer-Workshop: Writing a Dissertation“, Fulda University of Applied Sciences | |
| M.A. seminar: „Beyond the Nation State? Introduction to the sociology of transnationalization“, Ruhr-University Bochum | |
| Winter term 2019/20 | B.A. seminar: „Globalization and Social Inequality” (with Anja Habersang), Fulda University of Applied Sciences |
| Winter term 2017/18 | M.A. seminar “Migration and Development in the Americas”, Ruhr University Bochum |
| Summer term 2017 | M.A. seminar “Trade Unions as Organizations – Global Challenges and Strategic Change in International Comparison”, Ruhr University Bochum |
| Winter term 2016/17 | Research training for M.A. students “Civil Society and Municipalities”, Ruhr University Bochum |