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Rethinking hospitality, resistance and the calling: Explorations of decolonial research strategies

Kaia Schultz Rønsdal

What is hospitality, what is its content? Through explorations of decolonial research strategies this article has its starting point in a narrative from Northern . I discuss conceptualisations of hospitality from theological and phenomenological perspectives, and as something that may entail resistance from and for those involved. I present the Artic North as a very specific geo- graphical, historical and cultural space. Certain events took place in these borderlands during the so-called refugee crisis that set in motion encounters and narratives that were worth investigat- ing. In the explorations of hospitality, I include the perspective of lived space and the phenome- nological concept of prereflexivity, which are prerequisites for a discussion of the calling and hospitality.

Introduction Dr. Kaia S. Rønsdal is a researcher affiliated with The Fac- ulty of Theology, University of Oslo. Her discipline is the This article explores decolonial research strategies, field of professional ethics and Christian social practice. connecting to the ways in which voices, bodies and Her research interests are in the lived practices in civil practices make up critical counter-power, and where society, addressing issues such as marginality, migration, this counter-power is rooted. Hospitality, as well as borders and peripheries, from perspectives including the response to the call of another human being, in spatial theory, urbanity, phenomenology and theological ethics. Her research also includes methodological explo- this context are interpreted within a theological rations within these perspectives and fields. She is in- framework as practices of resistance and counter-­ volved with several projects allowing for further explora- conduct. tions on the concept of hospitality in the context of Through a narrative from , I migration. explore the concepts of hospitality and calling from theological and phenomenological perspectives as something that may entail resistance from and for those involved. The Artic North is the starting point ing. Postcolonial critique, in the tradition of Edward as certain events took place there in 2015 that set in Said (Said 1979) points to the complete objectifying motion encounters and narratives that were worth of the oriental, non-white other, where this other has investigating. been observed, administrated and controlled with- The research relates to decolonial thinking both out the freedom or power to participate, negotiate, indirectly, as the issue of migration, border-crossing, or decide. Traditional research methods are often and the reason for these are to a large extend linked critiqued due to the objectification of the research to varying remnants of colonialism and systemic subjects or matters, reflecting this postcolonial racism and marginality based in colonial logics. Im- thinking. Starting with Spivak’s warning of hege- plicitly, the research as well as the text itself, relate to monizing the other, decolonial methodology focuses research strategies that are tied to decolonial think- on how we learn “from below, from the subaltern,

Valburga Schmiedt Streck, Júlio Cézar Adam, Cláudio 50 Carvalhaes, eds. 2021. (De)coloniality and religious practices: liberating hope. IAPT.CS 2: 50–58 Doi: 10.25785/iapt.cs.v2i0.204 ORCID-ID: 0000-0003-2059-9199 IAPT – 2/2021 typoscript [FP] – 09.06.2021 – Seite 51 – 2. Satzlauf

Rethinking hospitality, resistance and the calling: Explorations of decolonial research strategies rather than only study him(her)” (Spivak 2005, 482). Refugees in the North1 In their endeavors, researchers often collaborate with individuals who are not researchers, and the In 2015, almost one and a half million people crossed goal is to avoid reducing their life, experiences and the borders into Europe. They were refugees and mi- practices to data. A research approach characterized grants searching for any possible route into a Euro- by collaboration focused on subject-to-subject rela- pean country. tionships between the researcher subject and re- Norway has a 196-kilometre border with Russia. search field may be understood as a decolonial re- Only one road crosses the border, with one border search strategy (cf. Wyller and Lid, Forthcoming station, called Storskog. It is illegal to make the 2021). Furthermore, new knowledge developed from crossing on foot, but a bicycle is considered a vehi- new spaces with other perspectives may lead to new cle. At the beginning of the 21st century, an average grounds for resistance and counter-conduct (Wyller of five asylum-seekers crossed this border annually.2 and Lid, Forthcoming 2021). Also when we research In 2015, 5,465 asylum-seekers found this way into with people who are not necessarily subaltern in Norway, most having been granted once-through ­Spivak’s understanding, it is a question of letting the visas in Russia. As early as March 2015, a few asy- people and practices speak, and, in an attentive and lum-seekers crossed this border; in August 100 peo- embodied sense, participate and share. ple crossed. By October, 50 to 60 people were cross- To let the counter-conductive spaces, practices ing daily. According to Norwegian law, asylum and bodies speak, the presentation of the geograph- applications can be processed either at the border or ical and historical context and the narrative of con- inside the territory. Because it was impossible to dif- tacting and speaking with the research subjects be- ferentiate between asylum-seekers and others, as comes important, and may not follow the traditional well as handling the large number of people, the composition of academic writing. I will attempt to border authorities simply decided to let every third comprehensibly weave the elements together. country national enter. In the explorations of hospitality, I include the The local police, politicians, and population mo- perspective of lived space and the phenomenologi- bilized. The transit reception center, the refugee re- cal concept of prereflexivity, which are prerequisites ceptions centers, and all the hotels in the area filled for a discussion of calling and hospitality. These per- up. The local politicians and news station reported spectives also relate to encountering and affected- on the situation but were unable to catch the atten- ness, and not reducing the research subject “to the tion of the national authorities. International media, empirical alone” (Spivak 2005, 480), but to sharing however, was attentive, and once they started broad- experiences and knowledge production, as situated casting from Storskog, the Norwegian media and bodies. In other words, the research does not pres- government realized that this had become an inter- ent a “general body”, as in trying to say something national event. about general tendencies regarding hospitality; but Furthermore, it became both a national and an rather, it regards concrete present bodies, sharing, international political issue. The refugees heading to also within the framework of research. Norway were crowding the two Russian cities clos- After presenting the context of the research, and est to Storskog: and Zapoljarnyj. Russian bor- some of the presently relevant history, I will recount der authorities and Norwegian police agreed to a the narrative of the encounters with the two re- daily maximum of 200 border crossings. search subjects. All these elements, related to con- Once the Norwegian government had realized text, history and shared encounter are part of the the severity of the situation, they mobilized to find information that forms the discussion. Thus, the means of stopping the increasing flow of migrants narrative will, in line with the methodology, include into Norway. The law had to be changed, and a leg- a present researcher subject. As it is not only the islative amendment was enacted within ten days. words spoken in the interviews that inform the dis- The locals were alarmed, as it was now late Novem- cussion, the balance between information given in ber and the climate was aggravating the situation. the interviews and ‘other’ information may be awry compared to traditional ethnographic and empiri- cally developed writing. 1 Some of the narrative is also published in Rønsdal 2019. 2 The following account builds on local, national, and in- ternational reports from 2015 and 2016.

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Kaia Schultz Rønsdal

The government remained unaffected and increased county, which means that the county has an estab- the offensive. The lack of clear agreements with Rus- lished center with a specific capacity in personell sia led to migrants being sent back and forth within and beds for reception. the border zone several times. In the end, Russia drew a line so that none of those deported from Norway were permitted to re-enter Russia. The Shared borderland encounters amendment allowed the apprehending of people who were likely to be denied asylum, which led to If you can reach Murmansk, you can get to Zapol- several asylum-seekers exploring the options of jarnyj, a city with a population of 15,000, 53. 3 kilo- church asylum. meters from Storskog and the Norwegian border. Between Zapoljarnyj and Storskog, there is only wil- derness. It is very dark, and there is little passing The Artic borderlands traffic. This area is as far East as Istanbul, and once you cross into Norway, you jump two time zones. The frontier between Norway and Russia was first 13 kilometers from Storskog, across the border, staked out in 1863. Since then, the borders between in the county of Sør-Varanger is , a town Russia and Finland have been re-drawn and fought with 3,500 inhabitants. The locals travel ‘next door’ over many times. People have inhabited the area for to do their shopping. Many go to Russia once a week more than 10,000 years, regardless and irrespective to fill up their cars’ gas tanks, as the price on gas and of these frontiers, and people on all sides are con- diesel is considerably lower than in Norway. Locals nected to each other through family bonds and have “grenseboerbevis” (a local border traffic per- friendships. Until around 200 years ago, the popula- mit) and may cross the border without visas. tion was predominantly Sami. The region played an Some say that there is something called North- important role in the Nordics’ history as colonizers. ern Norwegian hospitality. If it exists, does it relate As the Sami population was threatening to outgrow to the geographical, historical and social context of the whites in the early 1800s, the government being a borderland? The context of the borderlands changed policies to repopulate the region with white was a starting point for exploring hospitality, and and “loyal” Norwegians. In the county of Sør-Va- one of the dimensions of hospitality became the ranger, industry, as well as national and internation- concept of calling and, eventually, that led to find- al politics have thus been the decisive forces of ing practices and voices of resistance and count- change, influencing who settled and made up the er-conduct. population. Refugees have crossed these borders I read about two people, Lars and Maria in many times before, mainly due to wars, unrest and countless news articles. Two ordinary people who persecution in Russia and Finland. took action when ‘the refugees came’ to Norway. Throughout the Second World War around Through a friend and colleague in Kirkenes, I man- 160,000 German soldiers were based in this county, aged to get the phone numbers to these two people. with a population of around 7000. Many stayed in I booked flights to Kirkenes, booked a hotel, and people’s homes, sometimes while the families were planned to contact Lars and Maria to arrange inter- still living there. Additionally, 65,000 Soviet war views. I had a reminder in my calendar every day for prisoners were held in the many camps in the area. two months, “call Kirkenes”, but I kept hesitating. It Locals fled or were evacuated by force, and the area felt insignificant to be a researcher and to talk to was destroyed.3 Children were sent to Sweden when people three years afterwards, to interpret and think the war ended, for nourishment and healing, after about what they did. years of food deprivation and sickness. During the I travelled there, just to be there, as a situated body. 90s, there was a direct route from Sarajevo4 to It is a place that calls to be experienced, lived and felt. Sør-Varanger, as the county is a so-called reception The people, culture and history needs to be experi- enced there. Three days after my arrival, I still had not called, really struggling with the question of why it 3 Kirkenes endured 328 bombardments, and in October 1944, it was burned to the ground, leaving only 39 hous- was important to talk to them. On the fourth day, I es. could not procrastinate anymore, and I called Lars, 4 There are different reports of origin city; Skopje, Pristi- fully prepared for him to say that he had no time to na, Sarajevo, and Kosovo. talk to me. “Hello, it’s Lars!” came the response.

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Rethinking hospitality, resistance and the calling: Explorations of decolonial research strategies

I introduced myself, and explained why I had ter to church asylum. Maria paid her fine. Lars re- called, and told him that my friend had recom- fused and spent three years getting exonerated from mended I talked to him about “the refugees” and the sentence. Both said that their lives would never that he had given me his number. He replied that it be the same again. When we talked about hospitali- was nice to hear that the other man thought he was ty, they both claimed the refugees as most hospita- someone interesting to talk to. I told him that I knew ble. That they had never received so much hospitality it was short notice, but I hoped he had the chance to as when the refugees came. talk to me about his experiences. “Yes, sure, I’d like that. How about tomorrow? Where can we meet?” I met Lars in the hotel lobby. We talked for 2.5 Hospitality and calling hours. He talked about those months in 2015/16, about everything that happened, and all the things The question of hospitality is in some instances one that had happened in his life because of those expe- of life or death. It can therefore not be a question of riences. I asked about Maria, who I had learned was courtesy or civility, and in this discussion, it is not a moving from Kirkenes. He told me she was still political question. On the human level, what is ulti- around, and that I should call her. At the end of our mately at stake is tied to ethics. Hospitality is con- conversation, I asked him for a hug. ceptually linked to theology, and ultimately appears Lars, who is a man in his late forties, told me how as an ethical demand in one form or another, as an he is one of the many locals who goes to Russia for “ethics-as-hospitality” (Dikeç, Clark and Barnett cheap gas. During the fall of 2015, he met families 2009, 9). “When it is the ethical challenge of the oth- wandering the desolate road between Zapoljarnyj er that is central, and this is confronted in action, and Storskog. More and more people and many then a theologically relevant practice takes place” small children, walking or bicycling. People who (Wyller 2008). The Danish philosopher and theolo- were not dressed for the harsh climate here. He, a gian Knud Løgstrup’s most famous work is The Eth- man who used to be an adamant adversary of immi- ical Demand (Løgstrup 2000 [1956]). In this work on gration, an “unknowing sceptic” as he calls himself, relational ethics, he stated that you can never engage was moved to action. with another human without holding pieces of her When I got to my room, I called Maria. “Hello, life in your hand. This demand is also part of Løg- it’s Maria?” I went through the introduction again. strup’s work on vocation. Vocation is when humans “I can meet you tomorrow, no problem!” She told see themselves called by God to certain actions, me her story of those months when the refugees ways of life or professions. Over the last half of the came. We talked about Kirkenes as a historic place 1900s, theological thinkers like Løgstrup developed of hospitality. She told me of doors that are always a theology and philosophy that included specific open in Kirkenes. People will enter each other’s ideas of vocation. Central here is that in the calling, homes and get a cup of coffee, even when there is no the term I will use, we are called by the other, by our one home. She thinks this has to do with the war neighbor. This is not a religious concept, but instead (WWII). As the Germans occupied people’s homes a universal concept that every human being is called for their own use, families would move into other to heed this other life and take care of and protect it. families’ homes. Maria’s grandparents had told her This should mean that when refugees come to our how they lived several families together in one door, they are the life placed in our hand to care for, home, and that this was part of people’s narratives, to show hospitality. thus shaping them as perhaps more welcoming and Lars and Maria both stated that hospitality was open. something that came with the refugees. If that is the Maria, a nurse with two grown children, told me case, it turns the concept on its head. If hospitality how she was watching the news, seeing the families comes with the other, the concept of calling from who were walking or bicycling in the nothingness traditional thinkers such as Løgstrup is contested between Zapoljarnyj and Storskog. She saw small and challenged. In an attempt to explore what this children and their exhausted parents. Almost invis- may mean, it is fitting to reflect on the Nordic -em ible bodies in the Arctic darkness. She saw people in phasis on traditional ideas of calling, as they can danger and was moved to action. been used to say something about hospitality. Both told me about how they were arrested for helping transport refugees from the reception cen-

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Kaia Schultz Rønsdal

Embodied spatial calling fore unavoidably live at the expense of other life- forms, and repeatedly do so at the expense of oth- The theoretical premise is spatial thinking, primar- ers” (Gregersen, Uggla and Wyller 2017, 21). ily in the tradition of the French sociologist Henri This is a theology that is “particularly interested Lefebvre, and his production of space (Lefebvre in thinking of reality as a radically open concept, 2003 [1970]; 2007 [1974]; 2008 [1961]). The very short which leaves space to think otherness and change- introductory version of Lefebvre’s theory on the ability for the world. Such extensions into discourse production of space, in this context is that space is to are open for discussion, not holy laws to be either be understood in an active sense as an intricate web condoned or condemned” (Heimbrock and Meyer of relationships that is continuously produced and 2010, 1999). It is a normative, philosophical, life-in- reproduced. Spaces are formative. Space is to be un- terpreting approach towards God, life, humans, and derstood less as something that is, but as something the world. The so-called Scandinavian creation the- we do, or in the interpretation of Kirsten Simonsen, ology “stands and falls with the claim that there are space is a verb rather than a noun (Simonsen 2010, shared aspects of human life that offer room for 45). open-minded discussions of how to live the human I will draw on prior explorations on the concept condition alongside people of other faiths, and with of calling, which emphasizes the fact that individu- people of no professed faith at all. [It] leaves ample als are placed in the sometimes disruptive calling re- room for common sense and common commit- lationship as equals – the actions taken in the en- ments, even where worldviews differ or even drift counter determine the meaning for those involved apart. Everyday life constitutes a third realm be- (Rønsdal 2018). The theological premise for this tween a purely political realm, and a purely religious particular understanding of calling is the tradition domain” (Uggla, Wyller and Gregersen 2017, 8). sometimes referred to as Scandinavian creation the- These two lines of thought regarding human life ology, where Løgstrup was a central figure. are distinctive to this theological interpretation. The One starting point of this position is that life is first is the understanding of creation, meaning in- created and given to us. We did not create it our- terpreting the world as “already God’s creation, a selves. This life is continuously created, in thehere reality which should be cared for and enjoyed for its and now (Wingren 1995, 35–36; 39–40). Our rela- own sake, by believers and non-believers alike” (Ug- tionships and encounters with other people thus gla, Wyller and Gregersen 2017, 11). Humans par- shape our world (Løgstrup 2000, 39). There are, ac- take in continuous creation, a condition shared by cording to Løgstrup, phenomena and aspects of hu- all. man life that are not subject to our power, that be- The other distinction is the profession of a divine long to life itself (Løgstrup 2000, 30; 35, 38–39). presence also outside religious or sacred spaces – in Løgstrup rejected making the question of compas- the everyday. This is also true in the everyday lives, sion and care a religious one. Rather, he made them practices and spaces of people who do not necessar- a universal challenge, in a reciprocal interdepen- ily think of themselves as being religious. This gives dence regardless of faith or creed (Løgstrup 2000, a sacredness to everyday life and to everyday spaces 34). As we are created (by God), life is expressed as that are open to theological interpretations of prac- care for and reception of the other. Løgstrup’s view tices and locations of life traditionally not thought of creation is that it is universal, and that it is char- of as sacred. The other human being, the one who is acterized by motion, change, and life. That the world fundamentally other to myself, is also a part of this and other humans are not our creations is decisive shared condition of living in a world that is contin- in how we think about and act toward them. uously created. The Other has always been an important figure and phenomenon for theology; part of “the task of perceiving the other” (Heimbrock and Meyer 2010, Bodies and prereflexivity 1999). This emphasis links to phenomenology, where the fact that we share a [created] life, reality, and The Norwegian professor of the science of nursing, world makes us part of the same lifeworld [with di- Kari Martinsen, claims that in the confrontation vine presence]: “A human is inherently related to with another body, there is an embodied reaction to others, to nature, culture and society” (Wyller 2010, this body, even before one begins to think about 190). Furthermore, we “share the same planet, there- who this person is (Martinsen 2014 [2000], 19–23).

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Rethinking hospitality, resistance and the calling: Explorations of decolonial research strategies

She refers to this embodied reaction as prereflexivi- off or ignore empathy or solidarity demands con- ty, meaning something that occurs before conscious sciousness, not pathos. consideration. Bodies are aware of and respond to In the moment of encounter, in the disruption, other bodies. there is a prereflexive moment of equality, where the Prereflexivity is significant in my interpretation calling and the pathos may be pointed out. This of the calling. I argue that the significant moment is changes the space of encounter momentarily – and when encountering bodies respond to each other thus changes the production of space. Space and momentarily, before all conscious considerations prereflexivity are thus closely connected. and assessments of the situation can occur. These The body and being bodies in a common life- moments are significant because in the prereflexive, world – sensing and physically feeling with the en- the encountering bodies are equal; they are just tire body – is something common to us all regard- equal bodies without predefined positions. In the less of our religious position. Being aware of our calling and in the encounter, in the prereflexive, it is sensing the other in our encounters is related to be- not as obvious who these vulnerable bodies are ing affected by the other, which also relates to ethics. (Rønsdal 2018). Even a small event, explicitly tied to embodied There are several phenomenologists contribut- affectedness, prereflexive response, and equal bod- ing to the concept of prereflexivity (cf. Løgstrup ies in lived space, has implications for how we inter- 2000; Martinsen 2014 [2000]; Merleau-Ponty 1962), pret and understand calling. Because the bodies among them Bernard Waldenfels, placing prere- share the same circumstances – in the moment of flexivity in the body. “The domain of our body -in encounter, in the shared lived space – these individ- cludes all that really has to do with me without be- uals are the same, equal bodies as bodies. The body ing done by me” (Waldenfels 2007, 75). Waldenfels does not stop to consider whether this is someone also emphasizes the encounter. He uses the concept that it wants to aid: It simply responds. of pathos, noting that they are “those events which are not at our disposal, as if merely waiting for a prompt or command, but rather happen to us, over- Spaces and calling come, stir, surprise, attack us,” (Waldenfels 2011, 26). They are events that happen to us and do not I have established certain aspects with respect to belong to a “first-person perspective as an act I per- calling: it applies to us all, equal individuals en- form, nor to the third-person perspective as an ob- counter each other in the calling, and we are all sit- jective process registered or effected from the out- uated, sensing bodies in the world. There is an ex- side” (Waldenfels 2007, 74). He states, “In sum, plicitly embodied calling, happening inside a space everything that appears to us has to be described produced by the people there. It is an ethically nor- not simply as something which receives a sense, but mative notion – one may become affected. To return as something which provokes sense without being to phenomenology, the affectedness and pathos be- meaningful itself yet still as something by which we long with those who experience it. are touched, affected, stimulated, surprised and to Calling has to do with embodied and spatial some extend violated. I call this happening pathos, practices and socialities (Rønsdal 2018). This take Widerfahrnis or af-fect, marked by a hyphen in or- on calling also has implications for how we may un- der to suggest that something is done to us” derstand the concept of hospitality. By emphasizing (Waldenfels 2007, 74). lived space, we may learn more about calling. The This prereflexivity as pathos is a central feature calling is not only a disruption or an encounter or in how I interpret calling. It places the prereflexive sensuousness; it also takes place in lived spaces. The in an ethical discourse, as being in the world is in calling is also in the nonspaces, those not included itself ethically and morally significant. It is human in churches or ecclesial notions on calling. Border- to encounter others with empathy and pathos, but it lands or borderspaces may be such nonspaces. Such is not necessarily something we decide ourselves. In nonspaces may be counterspaces, in that they, his contemplations on vocation, the Swedish theolo- through their very differences, direct criticism to- gian Gustaf Wingren claimed that solidarity, which ward society, threatening general discourse and is linked to empathy and hospitality, is something challenging ethical discourse (Foucault 1984). Mi- we have to “endeavour to shake off” (Wingren 1995 chel Foucault called these heterotopic spaces, and [1974], 39), in encounters with suffering. To shake they are rich and socially complex. Who calls and

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Kaia Schultz Rønsdal who responds in these spaces is not something de- ward, being produced – the world is moved forward cided beforehand. Nor are the spaces themselves. by contrasts, contradictions, and tensions (Lefebvre Lars and Maria’s experience of having met great 2007 [1974], 42). hospitality when encountering the refugees may in- There is an inherent, embodied reciprocity in the dicate something similar in terms of the undecided. calling. The calling is not something someone comes The premise isnot that if you do not believe in a god to another with; rather, those involved meet each you are not in a reciprocal commitment toward fel- other as equals with and in the calling with pathos. low human beings (Rønsdal 2018). Our bodies are The prerequisite is that we produce and share lived called, and they meet and respond in pathos when space, which is why it is spatial. The other prerequi- undisturbed by thought. The action, in accordance site is the body: The body is attuned to the other with Wingren, is latent, lying in wait, rooted in hu- body, sensing it and acting on it, prereflexively. man existence, something that can be executed to Even someone who seemingly has nothing to exemplary perfection by anyone, regardless of give, nothing to offer a guest, may offer hospitality knowledge or education (Wingren 1995 [1974], 101– unlike anything experienced before. Subjectivity is 102). created when the offer is acknowledged, accepted and shared. Becoming the subject is resistance. It is an absolutely radical transformation of the calling, Fluid hospitality and an extension of hospitality.

The reason for taking the perspective of calling, and thus hospitality, is that it may also become a means Concluding remarks for exploring resistance. Lars, Maria and I talked about a lot of things, but A fluid hospitality takes the concept of calling and I am not going to analyze their actions, thoughts, makes it universal, becoming an interesting and ideas, and conceptualizations about what happened fruitful extension of both concepts in decolonial de- in 2015. Rather, the narrative with them, their con- velopment. Traditional notions of both hospitality text, our experiences, and the one little sentence and the concept of calling may become passive, about hospitality gives means to discuss certain while fluid hospitality may be pinpointed as a prere- theological and phenomenological concepts that flexive, or even subreflexive, action. “The foreigner, lets me explore aspects of hospitality. The one state- indeed, does not pose the question – he/she/it is the ment on hospitality as something they experienced question – a question that begs my response and my may point out something. responsibility” (Dufourmantelle 2013, 21). The events took place so close to the border where In this embodied calling – in the pathos – we are someone who was not supposed to come came. They all equally vulnerable and exposed, and it is unclear had nothing, and that is the reason they had noth- who calls and who responds – there is a potential for ing to give, and no one on either side had the time to a rupture or breach that transgresses prior power make up an opinion. Certain circumstances fell to- status and knowledge. In the embodied spatial call- gether in a way that made certain encounters possi- ing, every body is an otherbody; no body is in com- ble. This is the point where bodies can express needs mand, and no body is defined beforehand. and where other bodies can respond in pathos. The same could be claimed for hospitality. Hos- In the often hostile border situations in border- pitality does not belong to any one, completely and lands, there are also openings. There may be creative always, it is continuously changing. The one who potential, human encounter and connectedness, comes has our lives in their hands. What is given, in-betweenness and rupture, all opening up for shown and shared in human relationships, for short- change, counter-action and thus resistance. We live er or longer time periods, is just that – shared. It in a world where there is little time or sympathy for concerns much more than the question of who is detours and delays – hospitality and calling are in guest and who is host, who deserves what and who themselves counter to this. However, it is the de- is to receive: thus challenging traditional binaries tours and delays that disturb, break, and open for used to maintain destructive power structures. the potential, the creative, and the resistance. In the In the power play that Lars and Maria have en- perspective of Henri Lefebvre space is constantly in tered into by taking action, by their specific disrup- motion, always different, always being moved for- tive encounters, there is another production of space

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Rethinking hospitality, resistance and the calling: Explorations of decolonial research strategies going on at the same time. Maybe the fluid hospital- rope. Challenging Borders, Creating Mobile Com- ity they experience in this lived space opens up new mons.” In Routledge Handbook of Radical Politics, edited subjectivities, thus pointing to counter-spaces of re- by Ruth Kinna and Uri Gordon, 194–210. Oxford: Rout- sistance. ledge. Foucault, Michel. 1984. “Of Other Spaces (1967), Heteroto- Presuming fluid hospitality, like calling, entails pias.” In Architecture/Mouvement/Continuité, Oct. equal bodies encountering each other in pathos, 1984, 1–9. https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1. there is a glimpse of universal better life, of equality, pdf. reciprocity, and human interconnectedness. It is Gregersen, Niels Henrik, Trygve Wyller, and Bengt Kris- immaterial, a transcendent, sensing, and embodied tensson Uggla (eds). 2017. Reformation Theology for a hospitality. In the fluid hospitality the encountering Post-Secular Age: Løgstrup, Prenter, Wingren, and the bodies surrender, or even entrust themselves to each Future of Scandinavian Creation Theology. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. other, holding pieces of each other’s lives in their Haraway, Donna J. 1988. “Situated Knowledges: The Science hands, transcending the usual conceptions of (the Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Per- boundaries of) hospitality. spective.” Feminist Studies, Autumn, 14 (3): 575–599. This spatial, embodied exploration and subse- Heimbrock, Hans-Günter and Peter Meyer. 2010. “Theolo- quent reflection on prereflexivity was actualized by gy as Model for Perceiving the Other.” In Perceiving the the methodology founded in decolonial thinking. In Other. Case Studies and Theories of Respectful Action, the venture of the decolonizing of academic milieus, edited by Trygve Wyller and Hans-Günter Heimbrock, this may also reflect on fundamental methodologi- 192–201. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Isin, Engin. 2012. Citizens without Frontiers. NY/London: cal issues. Research related to various forms of mar- Bloomsbury. ginality, such as migration, often involve delegating Lefebvre, Henri. 2003 [1970]. The Urban Revolution. Minne- “the voice and agency of migrants to legitimised ac- apolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. tors or native activists, mostly in the name of their Lefebvre, Henri. 2007 [1974]. The Production of Space. Mal- status” (English, Grazioli and Martignoni 2019, 204), den, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. once again leaving other voices and narratives out. Lefebvre, Henri. 2008 [1961]. Critique of Everyday Life Vol. Multisensory, embodied methodology, experiencing II. Foundations for a Sociology of the Everyday. Malden, with those we research with may enable emerging MA: Verso Books. Lid, Inger Marie and Trygve Wyller (eds.). 2017. Rom og into fields where many voices can speak, in multiple etikk: Fortellinger om ambivalens. Oslo: Cappelen ways. Donna Haraway claims that “[T]here is a pre- Damm Akademinsk. mium on establishing the capacity to see from the Lid, Inger Marie and Trygve Wyller (eds.). Forthcoming peripheries and the depth” (Haraway 1988, 583). She 2020. Motstand og Motmakt. Oslo: Cappelen Damm goes on to warn of the dangers of romanticizing the Akademinsk. visions of those marginalized through the claim of Løgstrup, Knud E. 1997. The Ethical Demand. Indiana: Uni- seeing from their perspective. The methodology I versity of Notre Dame Pess. Løgstrup, Knud E. 2000 [1956]. Den etiske fordring. Oslo: am arguing for here, however, does not have as its Cappelen. claim that it sees from the positions of the others. It Machado, Daisy L., Bryan S. Turner, and Trygve E. Wyller. does, rather, attempt to discover new perspectives 2018. “Traces of a Theo-Borderland.” In Borderland Re- when research is based on the shared experience we ligion: Ambiguous Practices of Difference, Hope and Be- have with the people we research with. yond, edited by Daisy .L Machado, Bryan S. Turner, and Trygve E. Wyller, 4–14. Oxford: Routledge. Martinsen, Kari. 2014 [2000]. Øyet og kallet. Bergen: Fag- References bokforlaget. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1962. Phenomenology of Percep- Dikeç, Mustafa, Nigel Clark, and Clive Barnett. 2009. “Ex- tion. London: Routledge. tending Hospitality: Giving Space, Taking Time.” Para- Rønsdal, Kaia S. 2018. Calling Bodies in Lived Space: Spatial graph 32 (1): 1–14. Explorations on the Concept of Calling in a Public Urban Dufourmantelle, Anne. 2013. “Hospitality – Under Com- Space. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. passion and Violence.” In The Conditions of Hospitality. Rønsdal, Kaia. S. 2019. “Hospitality in the Hands of Who?” Ethics, Politics, and Aesthetics on the Threshold of the In Contested Hospitalities in a Time of Migration: Reli- Possible, edited by Thomas Claviez, 13–24. New York, gious and Secular Counterspaces in the Nordic Region, NY: Fordham University Press. edited by Synnøve K. N. Bendixsen and Trygve Wyller, English, Claire, Margherita Grazioli, and Martina Mar- 175–187. Oxford: Routledge. tignoni. 2019. “Migration Solidarity in Postcolonial Eu- Said, Edward. 1979. Orientalism. New York, NY: Vintage.

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Schmid, Christian. 2008. “Henri Lefebvre’s Theory of the Wingren, Gustaf. 1995 [1974]. Credo. Den kristna tros- och Production of Space: Towards a Three-Dimensional Di- livsåskådningen. Skellefteå: Artos. alectics.” In Space, Difference, Everyday Life: Reading Wyller, Trygve. 2008. “Compassion as an Interruption of Henri Lefebvre, edited by Kanishka Goonewardena, Ste- the Power of Inscription. A Contribution to Diaconal fan Kipfer, Richard Milgrom, and Christian Schmid, Studies.” In Lived Religion: Conceptual, Empirical and 27–45. New York, NY: Routledge. Practical-Theological Approaches; Essays in Honor of Simonsen, Kirsten. 2010. “Rumlig praksis: Konstitution af Hans-Günter Heimbrock, edited by Heinz Streib, Astrid rum mellem materialitet og repræsentation.” Vendingen Dinter, Kerstin Söderblom, and Hans-Günter Heim- mot rummet, Slagmark, 57: 35–58. brock, 171–182. Leiden: Brill. Soja, Edward W. 1996. Thirdspace – Journeys to Los Angeles Wyller, Trygve. 2010. “Religion and Professional Ethics in a and Other-Real-and-Imagined Places. Malden MA: Post-Secular Society.” In Perceiving the Other. Case Blackwell Publishing. Studies and Theories of Respectful Action, edited by Spivak, Gayatri C. 2005. “Scattered Speculations on the Trygve Wyller and Hans-Günter Heimbrock, 188–191. ­subaltern and the popular.” Postcolonial Studies 8 (4): Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 475–408. Wyller, Trygve and Hans-Günter Heimbrock (eds.). 2010. Waldenfels, Bernhard. 2007. The Question of the Other. Al- Perceiving the Other. Case Studies and Theories of Re- bany, NY: SUNY Press. spectful Action. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Waldenfels, Bernhard. 2011. Phenomenology of the Alien. Basic Concepts. Translated by Tanja Stähler and Alexan- der Kozin. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

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