| Abstrakt: |
This paper launches and develops the notion of belonging-work to understand how crucial bonds and boundaries are made, and how certain boundaries need to be crossed in the process of belonging. In the literature on belonging, belonging has been viewed as two-fold, firstly concerning how people feel sense of belonging, feel at home (or not) and secondly, how the politics of belonging produce inclusion and exclusion that structure people's possibilities to belong. In this paper we suggest it as central to understand "the middle ground" of relations and the process of how belonging happens. While some bonds need to be made to belong, certain boundaries have to be crossed. Some affiliations can be combined, while others cannot be reconciled. Some people belong almost automatically, while others have to work immensely in order to belong. Our notion of belonging-work addresses the action and work that various actors do in the process of belonging - either for their own sake, or for others'. In this paper, we develop the concept of belonging-work in light of the literature on belonging, in relation to the related concepts of emotion-work and boundary-work, and the Arendtian notion of vita activa. Our theoretical motivation stems from on-going empirical studies on urban bonds and belonging in progressive gentrified neighborhoods of Helsinki, NYC (Brooklyn) and Madrid, and on the struggle of unemployed Finns to belong after displacement from long-term jobs no longer available in their industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
