Up from the archive: Conceptualising the Ambivalence and Complexity of Migrant Belonging. Natalie Calleja thinks with

In this article I reflect on the salient theoretical contribution Greg Noble made to the field of sociology in his 2013 paper entitled ‘“It is home but it is not home”: Habitus, field and the migrant’. I reflect on the pertinence of Noble's commitment to grappling with conceptual tensions to capture migrants’ social experiences in the multifaceted social worlds they belong to through his development of Bourdieu's notion of habitus and reconceptualisation of the notion of field . I examine the theoretical complexity Noble's paper extends to conceptualising migrant belonging as ambivalent, pedagogical, and contingent on the plurality of social worlds they inhabit. Thinking with Noble and drawing on theoretical threads from my doctoral project that are attentive to the politics of belonging and complexity of place, I reflect on the importance of developing place-attentive conceptual frames to capture varying and disparate modes of (non-)belonging experienced by bodies in place.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of sociology
Published
2025-12-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833251391827
Primary Topic
Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Up from the archive: Conceptualising the Ambivalence and Complexity of Migrant Belonging. Natalie Calleja thinks with

Natalie Calleja
Journal of sociology
Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
article

Up from the archive: Conceptualising the Ambivalence and Complexity of Migrant Belonging. Natalie Calleja thinks with

Natalie Calleja
article en

Abstract

In this article I reflect on the salient theoretical contribution Greg Noble made to the field of sociology in his 2013 paper entitled ‘“It is home but it is not home”: Habitus, field and the migrant’. I reflect on the pertinence of Noble's commitment to grappling with conceptual tensions to capture migrants’ social experiences in the multifaceted social worlds they belong to through his development of Bourdieu's notion of habitus and reconceptualisation of the notion of field . I examine the theoretical complexity Noble's paper extends to conceptualising migrant belonging as ambivalent, pedagogical, and contingent on the plurality of social worlds they inhabit. Thinking with Noble and drawing on theoretical threads from my doctoral project that are attentive to the politics of belonging and complexity of place, I reflect on the importance of developing place-attentive conceptual frames to capture varying and disparate modes of (non-)belonging experienced by bodies in place.

Journal of sociologyVol. 61(4)
The University of Melbourne (AU)
Openalex Percentile: Top 39%
Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
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