Resumen

SCHAFFHAUSER MIZZI, Philippe. Observing Mobility in Mexico: Two Methodological Problems in Migratory Studies. Relac. Estud. hist. soc. [online]. 2017, vol.38, n.151, pp.231-261. ISSN 2448-7554.  https://doi.org/10.24901/rehs.v38i151.335.

This article presents a critical constructivist contribution to reflections on the theoretical-methodological practices of researchers who study migration. It sets out from the following premise: abstaining from questioning the objectivity of their object of study generates a fiction in the researcher’s mind concerning the socio-anthropological reality of human mobilities. This derives in two methodological problems: 1) as, intrinsically, a topic that involves circulation, mobility and displacement from one geographical point to another, migrations present scholars with the methodological challenge of the, necessarily, multi-situated nature of observation, which spans the places of origin, transit and destination; and 2) the phenomenological transit between migratory intentions and experiences and/or the analytical separation between action and value in migratory studies and their problematization as objects of theoretical research constitute a blind spot in ethical reflections in this field. The article suggests we must begin to confront both of these problems.

Palabras llave : migration studies; action and value; multi-situated observation; mobility; critical constructivism.