Get to know the (Des)arraigos project
The (Des)arraigos [(Up)rootings] research project started in 2023 and is carried out at Carlos III University of Madrid. Its main aim is to analyze and understand the emotions that contribute to transforming emigrants’ sense of belonging.
Our research has a special focus on three affective phenomena:
Nostalgia.
Migratory grief.
Hope.
Project’s objectives
1
To offer a philosophical analysis, based on empirical case studies, of some of the transformations that relocation brings about in migrants’ sense of belonging and the roles that nostalgia, migratory grief and hope play in them.
2
To introduce the “phenomenological interview” in the philosophy and phenomenology of emotions and social philosophy as a new and powerful method to advance philosophical research.
3
To contribute to increasing our understanding of how migration affects the lives and experiences of those who relocate to a foreign country.
A novel method: the phenomenological interview
In order to achieve these objectives, the research team is analysing the experiences of a sample of Spaniards living in EU countries by employing a novel methodology: the “phenomenological interview”, which combines qualitative ethnographic research with philosophical analysis.
The phenomenological interview, as proposed by Høffding and Martiny (2016), is a semi-structured interview designed by philosophers and inspired by ethnographic methods. This type of interview is geared at generating empirical data that can allow philosophers to contribute new perspectives to current debates in phenomenology, philosophy of mind and cognitive science.
Funding and duration
The project was launched thanks to the funding granted by the Regional Government of Madrid to the proposal “Belonging Reconfigured: a phenomenological study of migrant emotions and social identity change in a sample of Spanish expats” (2022-T1/HUM-23931), submitted by Principal Investigator Alba Montes Sánchez, in the framework of the Research Talent Attraction programme, 2022 call. The project started in July 2023 and is scheduled to end in August 2028.