Page - 8 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Rainer Geißler/Horst Pöttker | Preface 8 For the second conference, which is documented in this volume, inter- national developments were our central theme. Our focus was not on a uni- form theoretical approach, but, rather, on enriching the debate by combining perspectives from various countries on both sides of the Atlantic with sizable immigrant populations. At the same time, it was important for us to be able to maintain a certain continuity within our discussion. For this reason, we were especially pleased to have recruited three speakers, Leen d’Haenens (the Netherlands), Augie Fleras (Canada), and Kenneth Starck (U.S.A.), who were also at the conference in Siegen in 2004. Petra Herczeg (Austria), Svetlana Serebryakova (Russia), Souley Hassane (France), and Heinz Bonfadelli (Switzerland) allowed us to considerably enhance the scope of international perspectives this time. Fortunately, journalists in authoritative positions, such as Jona Teichmann (WDR) and Rainer Rosenberg (ORF), spontaneously agreed to take part in the concluding debate. It is perhaps an indication of some form of cosmopolitan progress in the social sciences and in cultural studies that not only for this publication, but also during the entire proceedings of the conference on German soil we were able to consistently make use of English as a lingua franca. The editors wish to express their gratitude not only to the speakers and participants at the conference, but also to all of those without whose help this book could never have been completed: the German Research Foundation (DFG), the offices of the presidents of Dortmund and Siegen Universities, the Siegen research center “Media Upheavals, Media Cultures, and Media Aesthetics at the Beginning of the 20th and in Transition to the 21st Century” as represented by its spokesperson, Professor Peter Gendolla, the academic staff and student assistants on the research project “Media Integration of Ethnic Minorities in Germany, the U.S., and Canada”, and special thanks to the journalist Anne Weibert, who took on the responsibility of preparing this volume for publication, to Thomas La Presti, who helped us with proofreading the English texts, and to the members of our secretarial staff in Dortmund and Siegen, Angelika Schomann and Christa Still. We are immeasurably indebted to our two colleagues and friends in North America, Professor Augie Fleras (University of Waterloo, Canada) and Professor Kenneth Starck (University of Iowa, U.S.A., currently at Zayed University, FAR/UAE), whose intellectual support we have had the privilege to rely upon for many years. Rainer Geißler, Horst Pöttker Dortmund and Siegen, September 2008