Towards reflexivity in the study of mobility and diversity: Theories, positionality, and the political economy of knowledge production. Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract The “reflexive turn” brought forth a focus on power imbalances in producing knowledge on migration that successfully raised awareness among migration researchers of their possible complicity with oppressive migration regimes. While it raised crucial questions and brought migration research into dialogue with critical traditions such as postcolonial, feminist, and race critical studies, the potential of reflexivity remains far from fully exploited as migration studies continue to closely co-develop with policy agendas. In this Special Issue, we take an inward gaze by exploring how migration knowledge is constructed at the intersection of institutions, theories, and methods. We bring together three facets of migration knowledge production usually explored in isolation. First, we explore the material and structural conditions enabling and constraining migration research, or the political economy of knowledge production. Second, we try to unsettle the ontological, philosophical, and theoretical underpinnings of migration studies by bringing in insights from wider critical social research. Last, we focus on the epistemic practices translating theory into the field, by foregrounding reflexive methodologies that center on the situatedness of knowledge and address the discomfort of researching marginalized and over-researched “subjects” in order to advance a non-harmful and emancipatory migration research. We privilege marginal voices—scholars located in precarious and/or peripheral contexts, calling for research that is aligned with social justice and epistemic plurality struggles.