Christopher Smith gives a working paper on 'Roman Kingship and concepts of power'

This paper is an introduction to a three year project (funded by the Leverhulme Trust) to study the archaic Roman kings (mid-8^th to late 6^th century BC).  The intentions of the paper are:

1.   To lay out the specific methodological problem of dealing with this evidence

2.   To propose three distinct ways of working with the evidence

3.    To give an example of how this might work in practice

4.  To encourage a discussion as to the extent to which the study of archaic Roman kingship can contribute to broader conversations about the nature of power and specifically sovereignty.

As such the paper is an overview more than a final statement of any specific part of the project, but I hope may elicit a conversation about method and the potential specific relevance of archaic Italy to more current questions

Tanja Visic presents a working paper on ' “It’s time to move on”: Theoretical and conceptual framing of research on gendered aspects of contemporary female labor migration from the Former Yugoslavia to Germany'

 Framed as an outline of theoretical and methodological chapter of my dissertation this colloquium paper aims to to take an angle on what has been written so far and to situate my dissertation project in the broader literature on gender and migration studies whilst opening the door for qualitative research on gendered aspects of “labouring mobilities” of women from the Former Yugoslavia countries in Germany. The first aim of the paper is to take a chronological perspective, tracing the development of gender and migration studies in order to show how female migration is brought out of the shadow in many disciplines and how feminist academic critique affected main migration theories and paradigms creating a firm ground for interdisciplinary discussion in studies of migration. The second aim of the paper is to provide theoretical and conceptual framework for ethnographic research on domestic and care work from ex-Yugoslavia countries. As this is the first study discussing the relationship between gender and female migration from post-Yugoslavian societies to Germany, this paper seeks to address issues of geographical contextualization of female labor migration in order to challenge dominant concepts in the field of research while taking into account a historical background and problems of production of knowledge which contributes to understanding and explaining female migration for the last several decades. The theoretical framework will be used for researching and understanding how the citizenship, modes of employment and recruitment strategies informs life experiences and life biographies of women workers and and how contradictory migration policies allow to laboring subjects to combine irregular and regular aspects of employment – which will be the main focus of the following colloquium paper.

Stella Rehbein gives a working paper on 'Romanticism in times of decreasing resonance. -An inequality and Gender sociological study of love between ritual and routine'

In the first part of this paper I outine the theoretical background of my project, my research interest and how I want to proceed empirically. In the second part I want to discuss theoretically and methodologically the meaning of class within my research project, arguing that my field of research is bound to be conducted in a class-sensitive way. The sample I aim at in researching romantic rituals and practices of emotional and physical care, intimacy and relating consists of people who are positioned (more or less) at the bottom of social space. My conceptualization of social inequalities draws on Bourdieusian thinking and his notion of capitals, especially economic and cultural capital. What goes hand in hand with this theoretical framework is an understanding of inequalities that considers itself relational and has therefore a direct impact on my research practice. For my research it brings the necessity to reflect on the relation and the class-dimension of the relationship between research subject and research object. Taking into account that science is a middle class practice asks for a critical reflection on the ideal of an objective, neutral (meaning class- and genderneutral) researching subject. The aim is not to negate class and its prevalence in science and within research practices but to spell this dimension out. So with the anticipated class difference between research object and research subject arise not only methodic question – as implicated in the differences of the dominant medium of expression in different social environments or ‘milieus’1 – but also ethical questions: as how to avoid symbolic violence (Bourdieu) or classrelated distinctions that cause humiliation (Neckel). The aim is to theorize beyond middle class norms. One strategy is to objectify
my own position in social space and the classed perspective that derives from it; my taken-for-granted categories and my conceptions of normalcy will be treated as part of my research object. Some questions leading this selfreflexive work are: Where do I conduct practices of distinction, of producing hierarchical differences? What norms and normalcies guide my personal and scientific interest (and how do they coincide with my position in social space?)?