Open Guest Lecture Professor David Brown, Professor of Development Sociology (Cornell University, USA) on Friday March 3oth

 Title: “Challenges in researching migration”
Time: 13.30-15.00
Place: Leeuwenborch building, room: C78

David L. Brown is professor and chair of Development Sociology, co-director of the Community & Regional Development Institute, and associate director of the Population Research and Training Program at Cornell University in Ithaca. He was awarded the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Professional Excellence in 2009, and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Rousse in Bulgaria. He is past president of the Rural Sociological Society. He has written and edited eight books on rural population and society. His most recent books include: Rural Communities in the 21st Century: Resilience and Transformation (2011), Rural Retirement Migration (2008) (with Nina Glasgow), Population Change and Rural Society (2006), and Challenges for Rural America in the 21st Century (2003).

Lecture: The traditional definition of migration is at odds with contemporary migration processes. Migration is traditionally seen as a disrupt of everyday social relationships. Brown however argues that contemporary migration is socially embedded (embedded in a social structure) and that social relations are often continued. Professor Brown’s research focuses on migration and population redistribution in the US and Europe with a particular focus on how migration affects and is affected by local community organization. His work also focuses on the production and reproduction of social and economic inequalities between regions and rural v. urban areas. In his guest lecture he talks about the conceptual and methodological challenges in researching migration.