Migration, culture contact and the complexity of coexistence: A systemic imagination

Abstract

This paper zooms in on a part of a larger qualitative and participatory study on the integration of asylum seekers and refugees in a specific Italian territory, that focuses on the embodied experience of newcomers in relation to the physical and social space, in daily interactions with others, and with the public discourse. We use Bateson’s systemic understanding of culture contact to illuminate the struggles, constraints and possibilities of coexistence and to challenge the narrow interpretation of integration as a one-sided effort of the individual. We think of culture contact as a complex, relational, and entangled process of interaction in the human and non-human world. So, our methodology in this part of the project, based on sensobiographic walks, is a way to perform and to search culture contact, by creating an unexpected narrative and dialogic encounter between newcomers, natives and researchers in the physical space, using senses to enhance a sense of connectedness and illuminate learning, hence opening possibilities not only for understanding, but for transformative experiences and unprecedented relationships.