THE AUSTRO-ARAB ENCOUNTER

The Austro-Arab Encounter aims to investigate the relationship between Arab Austrians, including both the established Arab population in Austria and the newly arrived refugees, and non-Arab Austrians. It substitutes the common narrow foci on community studies and integration for a broader focus on the encounter between different worldviews and on the way this encounter connects Austria, Europe, and the Arab Middle East. The Austro-Arab encounter is here thus conceived both in terms of mutual representations and worldviews, and in terms of social relations. This way, this research proposes conceptualizing the broad panorama of the Austro-Arab encounter by: a) answering how both Arabs in Austria and non-Arab Austrians mobilize ideas such as nationhood, ethnicity, and religion to engage with one another, how they represent each other, and what they expect from the other; and b) by evaluating how relatively important is this encounter for each of these groups. Ethnographic research will be conducted especially around civil society institutions representing Arabs in Austria (composed by Arabs and/or non-Arabs), but also around less politically engaged subjects. After the so-called Summer of Migration, when refugees particularly from the Middle East arrived in Europe departing from the summer of 2015, many projects proposed to research refugees in Europe. Projects about Islam and Arabs also gained traction, as they were mobilized by a newly found necessity to probe into these groups capacity to adapt to the European environment. Most of them, thus, have been in a way or another about integration. This concept, having emerged from policy, departs from assumptions about the European-Arab encounter that work in detriment of academic research. For example, it normalizes the asymmetry of power present in the encounter between the two groups; it assumes that one specific part must fit the other and never the other way around; it qualifies this integration in terms of success or failure; it obscures life trajectories and social relations outside of the host country. Studying integration is still important, but my hypothesis is that a more anthropological frame can achieve a deeper understanding of the social situation analyzed. Centered in the encounter as opposed to integration, this project aims to create a broad understanding of representations, social interactions, social organization, and worldviews as they actually are, as opposed to how they would ideally be. This innovative perspective will generate results research results that then can answer questions related to integration in greater depth, but also allow for a more comprehensive understanding of the social situation analyzed, which in turn can shed light, for example, on the subjects themselves, new prospects for the Arab Middle East, and other anthropological questions about how communities (ethnic, religious, or national) are formed and maintained.

The project was very successful in providing a platform for developing an innovative theoretical-methodological approach to studying complex social situations involving multiple actors and their different perspectives, as well as for understanding the Austro-Arab encounter at large, both in its contemporary and historical complexities. It resulted in dozens of publications and many of its multiple theoretical and empirical components were presented in international academic venues and events. In addition, the project led to another, more ambitious project currently being drafted by the P.I.