Introduction: from time to timespace and forward to time again in migration studies

Abstract

This chapter argues that (despite some important exceptions) time, timing and temporality remain under-analysed in migration studies. It suggests that filling this gap is not just a question of rounding out the academic field, but that a focus on time has particular merits for developing distinctive insights into migrants’ own understandings of their own experiences. The chapter sets out the aim of the book, which is to critically assess the value of analysing international migration through a framework of time, space and timespace. It traces a journey from a focus on time to a focus on timespace, and on to a focus on time again. It argues that the critique of a hierarchy of separated time and space (which was at the centre of the emergence of the concept of timespace) has now been largely internalized so that, at this point, there is merit in reflecting on the differences between time and space through a plurality of conceptual frameworks. Keywords: time, timespace, temporality, space, international migration, migration studies

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