B N Jaworsky
Biographic Data
| ID | 51886 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B N Jaworsky |
| GIVEN NAMES | B N |
| FAMILY NAME | Jaworsky |
| SIGNATURE | JAWORSKY B N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Masaryk University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0049-5627 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 580 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
“Rasa? Radši ne”/“Race? Rather not” – the absent presence of race in Czechia
In this article, we seek to bring the study of race, racialisation, and racial formations to the forefront in Czech society, where Czechness is imagined as monolingual, culturally homogeneous, and racially unmarked as “white”, implicitly and sometimes also quite explicitly. “Non-white” Czechs disrupt this imagined continuity, and that is why race must play an important role in sociopolitical analyses of the country. We demonstrate how racialisati…
‘I’d Never Thought I Would Live in the Czech Republic’
In this article, we examine how sub-Saharan African migrants navigate geopolitical imaginaries when making sense of migration to Czechia as an unlikely destination. We employ theories of everyday geopolitics to unpack how migrants from the Global South actively produce European geopolitical space. Drawing on 16 semi-structured and go-along interviews conducted in Brno, we show that immigrants’ pre-migratory imaginaries position Czechia as a vague…
“Sticking out” as ethnoracial others
In this article, our aim is to advance critical discussion about the analytical utility of the concept of “visible minorities” across demographic and socio-political contexts in which “non-whites” have a small numerical presence. Our analysis is based on 22 in-depth interviews and 10 go-alongs with migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East/North Africa, whose presence in the Czech city of Brno represents a relatively new phenomenon. To…
You Can't Take it to Heart
This study explores how immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and sub-Saharan Africa living in Czechia, a new immigrant destination in Central Europe, make sense of their experiences with ethnoracial Othering. Building on comprehensive interviews with 23 research participants and utilizing the interpretive meaning-centered approach of cultural sociology, we explore how they make sense of their experiences in the light of their i…
‘I always felt I have something I must do in my life’
This article discusses the potential of bringing biographical and cultural sociology together in the analysis of the political lives of refugee non-citizens. Our analysis is based on empirical research conducted in two regions outside the capital areas of Austria and Czechia. The conceptual focus is on modes of political participation and if and how they shift during the migration experience. To explore the political lives of refugee non-citizens…
‘What do we see when we look at people on the move’? A visual intervention into civil sphere and symbolic boundary theory
Photographs of migrants can evoke powerful reactions. Since the ‘migration crisis’ of 2015–16, politicians, media, and the public have all expressed strong opinions about people who cross borders. Within the civil spheres of Western democracies, debates about who belongs as a ‘good citizen’, and who should be excluded as an ‘anticivil’ outsider, result in consequences for migrants and locals alike. In this article, we engage in a visual intervent…
The Legitimacy of European Union Migration and Asylum Policy among the Czech Public
In this study, we contribute to scholarly work on European Union (EU) legitimacy with regard to migration and asylum policy. We do so through an in-depth exploration of the relationship between attitudes towards the EU and migration among the Czech public. Even though there is a body of literature focusing on this topic, there is a gap when it comes to understanding its complexities, especially concerning ‘pro-immigrant’ and ‘pro-European’ positi…
Foreigner, migrant, or refugee? How laypeople label those who cross borders
In this article, we seek to exercise reflexivity in migration research by looking at the symbolic boundary work that sustains laypeople’s understanding and use of specific labels. We do so through a qualitative, cultural sociological investigation of migration attitudes in Czechia. We explore the labels foreigner, migrant, and refugee, commonly used labels in Czech migration discourse. In short, we argue that research participants rely on differe…
Thematic issue of Romani Studies 34.1/2024
The Ukrainian Refugee “Crisis” and the (Re)production of Whiteness in Austrian and Czech Public Politics
This text brings into analytical focus the workings of whiteness within the politics regarding Ukrainian refugees in two neighboring countries, Austria and Czechia. This comparison aims to contextualize various racial hierarchies in which Ukrainian refugees are embedded, and to connect public discourses translated by mass media and critically accepted by scholars and experts with the personal experience of refugees and those recruited to help the…
A brother is more than a neighbour’
Since 2015, the latest so-called migration crisis has become a major discursive topic in the EU, even in countries like Czechia, which have not received many migrants, refugees, or asylum seekers. While researchers have looked at anti-migration discourses in the country, highlighting the ways in which symbolic boundaries around migrants are brightened, there exists a gap in looking at the other side, namely, how migrant rights advocates legitimat…
Everything’s going according to Plan(demic)
Shifting categories, changing attitudes
Considerable research exists that examines attitudes toward migrants. Most studies are quantitative, relying on surveys or survey experiments, but a growing body of literature explores such attitudes from a qualitative perspective. At the same time, the study of symbolic boundaries and how people use cultural repertoires of meanings to draw distinctions between “us” and “them” is increasing. This review looks at research, both quantitative and qu…
It's (not) who we are
Ideas about nation and national identity continue to be highly important, for both individuals and collectivities. In this article, I provide a cultural‐sociological reconstruction of the meanings of national identity conveyed in US and Canadian newspaper coverage of refugees entering, or potentially entering, the country. I engage Billig's theory of ‘banal nationalism’ and Anderson's idea of ‘imagined comEties’. In Canada, there is a single narr…
The Politics of Blaming
The American Passport in Turkey
The Politics of Selectivity
While scholarly work on Europe’s latest “refugee crisis” has blossomed, less attention has focused on the United States and Canada. My research centers on newspaper coverage of refugees entering these two countries, before and after the Paris terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015. I conduct a comparative, cultural sociological analysis of 318 online news articles, reconstructing a system of meaning I call the Politics of Selectivity, in which re…
Solidarity in Practice
Refugees as icons
The September 2015 photograph of Alan Kurdi, a 3‐year‐old Syrian boy, lying facedown and dead on a Turkish beach, quickly became an iconic representation of Europe's “refugee crisis.” Even though images of distant suffering of refugees have become ubiquitous, only a few become iconic. It is this cultural process of iconization that often bedevils sociologists interested in visuality. How does an image gain the necessary currency to sway public op…
The Facticity of Symbols
The Boundaries of Belonging
This book addresses an issue currently making political headlines in the United States – immigration. Immigrants have long engendered debates about the boundaries of belonging, with some singing their praises and others warning of their dangers. In particular, the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country provoke heated disagreements, with issues of legality and morality at the forefront. Increasingly, such debates take place online, by o…
Mobilising for Immigrant Rights Online
Increasingly, social movement organisations (SMOs) within the immigrant rights movement mobilise online. Although this seems an unlikely tactic for a movement whose constituents are often on the wrong side of the digital divide, the increasingly frequent use of various communications technologies works to enable communication with other activists and raise awareness among the general public. Utilising a cultural sociological perspective, this art…
Terrorists at the Gates? Unauthorized Migrants and Discourses of Danger
This letter looks at public discourses about the 'dark side' of migration—its association with terror and danger. To understand these ‘discourses of danger’ and the ways in which unauthorized migrants respond, I utilize qualitative data collected over four years of research in a small U.S. city that has recently received a large influx of foreign-born residents. I examine the ways in which unauthorized migrants—individually and collectively—frame…
Immigrants, Aliens and Americans
Religious Dimensions of Contexts of Reception
We compare how religion is present in Portland, Maine and Danbury, Connecticut and how it influences the ways organizations provide social services to recently arrived immigrants. We find that a range of municipal, civic, and religious organizations shape contexts of reception in each city. In Portland, municipal organizations provide most of the services for the large refugee population. Religious organizations are more central in Danbury, and p…
Transnational Migration Studies
The past two decades have witnessed a sea change in migration scholarship. Most scholars now recognize that many contemporary migrants and their predecessors maintain various kinds of ties to their homelands at the same time that they are incorporated into the countries that receive them. Increasingly, social life takes place across borders, even as the political and cultural salience of nation-state boundaries remains strong. Transnational migra…
The Politics of Blaming
New Perspectives on Immigrant Contexts of Reception
We argue that important, overlooked differences in what we call the 'cultural armature' of Portland, Maine, and Danbury, Connecticut help explain the variation in how each city received new immigrants in recent years. Portland has a long history of contact with the outside world and used its cosmopolitan character to promote urban redevelopment and welcome immigrants from a range of countries of origin. Danbury's small-town, insular outlook, and …
Immigrants, Aliens and Americans
Religious Dimensions of Contexts of Reception
We compare how religion is present in Portland, Maine and Danbury, Connecticut and how it influences the ways organizations provide social services to recently arrived immigrants. We find that a range of municipal, civic, and religious organizations shape contexts of reception in each city. In Portland, municipal organizations provide most of the services for the large refugee population. Religious organizations are more central in Danbury, and p…
Foreigner, migrant, or refugee? How laypeople label those who cross borders
In this article, we seek to exercise reflexivity in migration research by looking at the symbolic boundary work that sustains laypeople’s understanding and use of specific labels. We do so through a qualitative, cultural sociological investigation of migration attitudes in Czechia. We explore the labels foreigner, migrant, and refugee, commonly used labels in Czech migration discourse. In short, we argue that research participants rely on differe…
The Ukrainian Refugee “Crisis” and the (Re)production of Whiteness in Austrian and Czech Public Politics
This text brings into analytical focus the workings of whiteness within the politics regarding Ukrainian refugees in two neighboring countries, Austria and Czechia. This comparison aims to contextualize various racial hierarchies in which Ukrainian refugees are embedded, and to connect public discourses translated by mass media and critically accepted by scholars and experts with the personal experience of refugees and those recruited to help the…
Shifting categories, changing attitudes
Considerable research exists that examines attitudes toward migrants. Most studies are quantitative, relying on surveys or survey experiments, but a growing body of literature explores such attitudes from a qualitative perspective. At the same time, the study of symbolic boundaries and how people use cultural repertoires of meanings to draw distinctions between “us” and “them” is increasing. This review looks at research, both quantitative and qu…
Refugees as icons
The September 2015 photograph of Alan Kurdi, a 3‐year‐old Syrian boy, lying facedown and dead on a Turkish beach, quickly became an iconic representation of Europe's “refugee crisis.” Even though images of distant suffering of refugees have become ubiquitous, only a few become iconic. It is this cultural process of iconization that often bedevils sociologists interested in visuality. How does an image gain the necessary currency to sway public op…
The Politics of Selectivity
While scholarly work on Europe’s latest “refugee crisis” has blossomed, less attention has focused on the United States and Canada. My research centers on newspaper coverage of refugees entering these two countries, before and after the Paris terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015. I conduct a comparative, cultural sociological analysis of 318 online news articles, reconstructing a system of meaning I call the Politics of Selectivity, in which re…
It's (not) who we are
Ideas about nation and national identity continue to be highly important, for both individuals and collectivities. In this article, I provide a cultural‐sociological reconstruction of the meanings of national identity conveyed in US and Canadian newspaper coverage of refugees entering, or potentially entering, the country. I engage Billig's theory of ‘banal nationalism’ and Anderson's idea of ‘imagined comEties’. In Canada, there is a single narr…
Mobilising for Immigrant Rights Online
Increasingly, social movement organisations (SMOs) within the immigrant rights movement mobilise online. Although this seems an unlikely tactic for a movement whose constituents are often on the wrong side of the digital divide, the increasingly frequent use of various communications technologies works to enable communication with other activists and raise awareness among the general public. Utilising a cultural sociological perspective, this art…
You Can't Take it to Heart
This study explores how immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and sub-Saharan Africa living in Czechia, a new immigrant destination in Central Europe, make sense of their experiences with ethnoracial Othering. Building on comprehensive interviews with 23 research participants and utilizing the interpretive meaning-centered approach of cultural sociology, we explore how they make sense of their experiences in the light of their i…
The Legitimacy of European Union Migration and Asylum Policy among the Czech Public
In this study, we contribute to scholarly work on European Union (EU) legitimacy with regard to migration and asylum policy. We do so through an in-depth exploration of the relationship between attitudes towards the EU and migration among the Czech public. Even though there is a body of literature focusing on this topic, there is a gap when it comes to understanding its complexities, especially concerning ‘pro-immigrant’ and ‘pro-European’ positi…
A brother is more than a neighbour’
Since 2015, the latest so-called migration crisis has become a major discursive topic in the EU, even in countries like Czechia, which have not received many migrants, refugees, or asylum seekers. While researchers have looked at anti-migration discourses in the country, highlighting the ways in which symbolic boundaries around migrants are brightened, there exists a gap in looking at the other side, namely, how migrant rights advocates legitimat…
Everything’s going according to Plan(demic)
Immigrant Faiths
Transnational Migration Studies
The past two decades have witnessed a sea change in migration scholarship. Most scholars now recognize that many contemporary migrants and their predecessors maintain various kinds of ties to their homelands at the same time that they are incorporated into the countries that receive them. Increasingly, social life takes place across borders, even as the political and cultural salience of nation-state boundaries remains strong. Transnational migra…
New Perspectives on Immigrant Contexts of Reception
We argue that important, overlooked differences in what we call the 'cultural armature' of Portland, Maine, and Danbury, Connecticut help explain the variation in how each city received new immigrants in recent years. Portland has a long history of contact with the outside world and used its cosmopolitan character to promote urban redevelopment and welcome immigrants from a range of countries of origin. Danbury's small-town, insular outlook, and …
Immigrants, Aliens and Americans
Religious Dimensions of Contexts of Reception
We compare how religion is present in Portland, Maine and Danbury, Connecticut and how it influences the ways organizations provide social services to recently arrived immigrants. We find that a range of municipal, civic, and religious organizations shape contexts of reception in each city. In Portland, municipal organizations provide most of the services for the large refugee population. Religious organizations are more central in Danbury, and p…
Terrorists at the Gates? Unauthorized Migrants and Discourses of Danger
This letter looks at public discourses about the 'dark side' of migration—its association with terror and danger. To understand these ‘discourses of danger’ and the ways in which unauthorized migrants respond, I utilize qualitative data collected over four years of research in a small U.S. city that has recently received a large influx of foreign-born residents. I examine the ways in which unauthorized migrants—individually and collectively—frame…
Mobilising for Immigrant Rights Online
Increasingly, social movement organisations (SMOs) within the immigrant rights movement mobilise online. Although this seems an unlikely tactic for a movement whose constituents are often on the wrong side of the digital divide, the increasingly frequent use of various communications technologies works to enable communication with other activists and raise awareness among the general public. Utilising a cultural sociological perspective, this art…
The Boundaries of Belonging
This book addresses an issue currently making political headlines in the United States – immigration. Immigrants have long engendered debates about the boundaries of belonging, with some singing their praises and others warning of their dangers. In particular, the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country provoke heated disagreements, with issues of legality and morality at the forefront. Increasingly, such debates take place online, by o…
The Facticity of Symbols
Refugees as icons
The September 2015 photograph of Alan Kurdi, a 3‐year‐old Syrian boy, lying facedown and dead on a Turkish beach, quickly became an iconic representation of Europe's “refugee crisis.” Even though images of distant suffering of refugees have become ubiquitous, only a few become iconic. It is this cultural process of iconization that often bedevils sociologists interested in visuality. How does an image gain the necessary currency to sway public op…
The Politics of Selectivity
While scholarly work on Europe’s latest “refugee crisis” has blossomed, less attention has focused on the United States and Canada. My research centers on newspaper coverage of refugees entering these two countries, before and after the Paris terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015. I conduct a comparative, cultural sociological analysis of 318 online news articles, reconstructing a system of meaning I call the Politics of Selectivity, in which re…
Solidarity in Practice
A brother is more than a neighbour’
Since 2015, the latest so-called migration crisis has become a major discursive topic in the EU, even in countries like Czechia, which have not received many migrants, refugees, or asylum seekers. While researchers have looked at anti-migration discourses in the country, highlighting the ways in which symbolic boundaries around migrants are brightened, there exists a gap in looking at the other side, namely, how migrant rights advocates legitimat…
Everything’s going according to Plan(demic)
Shifting categories, changing attitudes
Considerable research exists that examines attitudes toward migrants. Most studies are quantitative, relying on surveys or survey experiments, but a growing body of literature explores such attitudes from a qualitative perspective. At the same time, the study of symbolic boundaries and how people use cultural repertoires of meanings to draw distinctions between “us” and “them” is increasing. This review looks at research, both quantitative and qu…
It's (not) who we are
Ideas about nation and national identity continue to be highly important, for both individuals and collectivities. In this article, I provide a cultural‐sociological reconstruction of the meanings of national identity conveyed in US and Canadian newspaper coverage of refugees entering, or potentially entering, the country. I engage Billig's theory of ‘banal nationalism’ and Anderson's idea of ‘imagined comEties’. In Canada, there is a single narr…
The Politics of Blaming
The American Passport in Turkey
Foreigner, migrant, or refugee? How laypeople label those who cross borders
In this article, we seek to exercise reflexivity in migration research by looking at the symbolic boundary work that sustains laypeople’s understanding and use of specific labels. We do so through a qualitative, cultural sociological investigation of migration attitudes in Czechia. We explore the labels foreigner, migrant, and refugee, commonly used labels in Czech migration discourse. In short, we argue that research participants rely on differe…
Thematic issue of Romani Studies 34.1/2024
The Ukrainian Refugee “Crisis” and the (Re)production of Whiteness in Austrian and Czech Public Politics
This text brings into analytical focus the workings of whiteness within the politics regarding Ukrainian refugees in two neighboring countries, Austria and Czechia. This comparison aims to contextualize various racial hierarchies in which Ukrainian refugees are embedded, and to connect public discourses translated by mass media and critically accepted by scholars and experts with the personal experience of refugees and those recruited to help the…
‘What do we see when we look at people on the move’? A visual intervention into civil sphere and symbolic boundary theory
Photographs of migrants can evoke powerful reactions. Since the ‘migration crisis’ of 2015–16, politicians, media, and the public have all expressed strong opinions about people who cross borders. Within the civil spheres of Western democracies, debates about who belongs as a ‘good citizen’, and who should be excluded as an ‘anticivil’ outsider, result in consequences for migrants and locals alike. In this article, we engage in a visual intervent…
The Legitimacy of European Union Migration and Asylum Policy among the Czech Public
In this study, we contribute to scholarly work on European Union (EU) legitimacy with regard to migration and asylum policy. We do so through an in-depth exploration of the relationship between attitudes towards the EU and migration among the Czech public. Even though there is a body of literature focusing on this topic, there is a gap when it comes to understanding its complexities, especially concerning ‘pro-immigrant’ and ‘pro-European’ positi…
‘I always felt I have something I must do in my life’
This article discusses the potential of bringing biographical and cultural sociology together in the analysis of the political lives of refugee non-citizens. Our analysis is based on empirical research conducted in two regions outside the capital areas of Austria and Czechia. The conceptual focus is on modes of political participation and if and how they shift during the migration experience. To explore the political lives of refugee non-citizens…
You Can't Take it to Heart
This study explores how immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and sub-Saharan Africa living in Czechia, a new immigrant destination in Central Europe, make sense of their experiences with ethnoracial Othering. Building on comprehensive interviews with 23 research participants and utilizing the interpretive meaning-centered approach of cultural sociology, we explore how they make sense of their experiences in the light of their i…
Sociology (20 works) · Political science (19 works) · Law (18 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (16 works) · Politics (16 works) · Gender Studies (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Immigration (9 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Media studies (8 works)