Pooya Ghoddousi is planning to continue his nomadic studies as a PhD research. Here you can see his research plan and abstract proposal. For a seven page proposal, View or Download "research_proposal_6.pdf" at the bottom of this page.
Research Plan
Global Nomads or Temporary Citizens
Transnational Mobility of ‘Middling’[1] Iranians
The aim of this PhD is to show that the concept of nomadism as a way of life is not dated or limited to traditional nomadic societies but can be used as a concept to explain aspects of modern societies today. Young, well-educated, middle-class Iranian transmigrants will be the main focus of this study. Most studies about transnational migration miss this group because they either focus on highly mobile transmigrants between rich countries (North-North migration) or less mobile migrants from poor countries to rich (South-North migration).The
areas of focus I have identified as a foundation for this study include transnational migration/citizenship
(Sassen, Faist, Conradson and Latham), nomadism (Barfield, Deleuze and
Guattari, Ibn Khaldun), transhistorical analytical concept (AlSayyad and Roy),
network capital and mobility (Urry), dimorphic structure/societies (Rowton),
strategic relational approach (Jessop). These will serve as the foundation upon
which to build my thesis (please refer to abstract proposal for an explanation
of this foundation).
The
results will be communicated through a multi-media presentation either in the
form of a documentary or a website along with an approximately 30,000 word
essay.
[1] The term ‘middling’ is borrowed from Conradson and Latham’s study on young transmigrants from New Zealand: ‘They are often, but not always, well educated. They may come from wealthy families, but more often than not they appear to be simply middle class. In terms of the societies they come from and those they are traveling to, they are very much of the middle’ (2005, 229).