Research Agenda

The interdisciplinary research group MeDiMi examines the conditions, forms, and consequences of the humanrightization of discursive practices in migration-related conflicts. It analyzes the manifold references to human rights made in legal, political, and other socio-cultural contexts of contemporary migration societies. On this empirical basis, MeDiMi develops a practice theory of human rights that is centered on the concept of humanrightization.

The theory of humanrightization enables a better understanding of struggles over the inclusion and exclusion of migrants. In such conflicts, actors frequently refer to human rights to influence migration society structures in their favor, while other actors deploy counter-discourses. This is typically an iterative process in which actors both interact with each other and respond to changing structural conditions. MeDiMi is primarily interested in practices of actors who advocate for the inclusion of migrants and, explicitly or implicitly, mobilize human rights as a normative resource: as a legal argument, a moral-political claim, or a maxim of (professional) ethics. MeDiMi conducts a second-order examination of these discursive practices without presupposing a “correct” interpretation of human rights or assuming that framing exclusionary practices as “human rights violations” is the only possible approach. MeDiMi’s research agenda promises (self-)reflection on social practices in which actors in migration societies attribute meaning to human rights norms and potentially make them relevant.

MeDiMi is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It comprises ten research projects and one coordination unit with more than 30 researchers from law, social sciences, and cultural studies. The projects are based at Justus Liebig University Giessen, Philipps University Marburg, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Goethe University Frankfurt, University of Applied Sciences Jena, and the University of Münster.

You can find the detailed MeDiMi research agenda here. The current state of MeDiMi’s theory development can be found here.