Iepke M. Rijcken wird für ihr Dissertationsvorhaben Conviviality and Infrastructures of Mobility: Cross-border Commuting in the Polish-German Border Region ausgezeichnet.
Iepke M. Rijcken’s dissertation, preliminary titled “Conviviality and Infrastructures of Mobility: Cross-border commuting in the Polish-German border region,” explores how everyday life in the Polish-German border region is shaped by the transnational regime of mobile work. Grounded in mobility studies, border studies, sociology, and human geography, the research focuses on how shift work — particularly in lower segments of the labor market such as distribution centers and automotive production — shapes the lives of highly mobile workers.
Drawing on mobile ethnography, patchwork fieldwork, and visual and sensory research methods, the dissertation provides rich empirical insights into the physical, emotional, infrastructural, and intersectional dimensions of cross-border commuting. It highlights how intersecting lifeworlds shape the border region, using visual and multimodal methods to capture the complexities of these interactions. The research also examines the bodily and sensory experiences of mobile workers, such as exhaustion, to reveal the physical and emotional toll of their labor. Furthermore, it investigates how formal and informal infrastructures, including transport networks and car-sharing practices, enable and constrain commuting, while exploring how commuters navigate insecurity and precarity, shaped by intersectional factors.
Together, this dissertation reflects on the notion of conviviality in the context of transnational mobile labor, showing how moments of solidarity and interaction emerge — or remain absent — in shared spaces, such as workplaces, transport hubs, and during commutes. These fleeting yet meaningful encounters challenge traditional, spatially bound notions of conviviality, offering a more fluid and fragmented perspective on social belonging. By addressing these aspects, the research does not only advance academic debates on contemporary intra-European labor mobility but also contributes to discussions on regional cooperation and social integration. Ultimately, the dissertation reflects on how Europe can foster more inclusive communities in its borderlands, where economic asymmetries and mobility regimes continue to shape everyday life.
Iepke M. Rijcken is a Ph.D. researcher at the Department of Sociology and Social Geography, University of Salzburg. Her doctoral research is anchored in the VISION project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Supervised by Prof. Kyoko Shinozaki and Prof. Bianca Szytniewski, Rijcken uses ethnographic and visual research methods to gain a deeper understanding of people’s transnational lifeworlds and cross-border commuting experiences in the Polish-German border region. From November 2023 to February 2025, she was a Visiting Fellow at the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM Institute) in Berlin. Rijcken completed a bachelor’s program in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences and a master’s program in Cultural Anthropology, both at the University of Utrecht.
