Ettore Recchi

contact : ettore.recchi(at)sciencespo.fr
Tel: 01.45.49.54.11 - office: B.203

PUBLICATIONS - RESEAUX SOCIAUX

Ettore Recchi is professor of Sociology at Sciences Po Paris as well as part-time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the EUI (Florence) and Fellow of the Institut Convergences Migrations (Paris).
He has published more than 200 journal articles, book chapters, working papers, edited volumes and monographs.
His papers feature in journals of sociology (e.g., European Sociological Review), political science (e.g., West European Politics), demography (e.g., Demographic Research), European studies (e.g., Journal of Common Market Studies), migration studies (e.g., International Migration Review), geography (e.g., Political Geography), global studies (e.g., Global Networks) and data science (e.g., EPJ Data Science). 
His latest book is The Handbook of Human Mobility and Migration (Elgar, 2024), co-edited with with Mirna Safi.
He has directed several national and international projects on free movement in Europe, transnationalism, migration, and the impact of Covid-19 on social life and mobility. He was awarded the 2020 prize of the American Sociological Association for best international paper in the Global and Transnational Section.

Research topics

Recchi’s core research agenda revolves around issues of human mobility, investigating the drivers and consequences surrounding the unique expansion of individuals’ movements in space of our age. He questions the cultural, economic, political, and environmental sustainability of geographical mobility through micro- and macro-sociological empirical analyses. At the micro-level, his research delves into the study of the spatiality of individuals’ lifeworlds (or ‘space-sets’). At the macro-level, he leads the Global Mobilities Project at MPC/EUI – a project dedicated to collecting, systematizing and analyzing worldwide data on population movements and their underpinning social, economic, and political conditions. Since 2024, the Global Mobilities Project is part of the Migmobs project, a team work with Adrian Favell (PI, University College Cork) and other scholars worldwide.

Recent publications (selection)

• 2024 (with Mirna Safi), (Ed.), Handbook of Human Mobility and Migration, Edward Elgar, 2024, 320 p.
• 2023 (with E. Ferragina, A. Zola, M. Pasqualini, "Understanding public attitudes during Covid-19 in France with Polanyi and Gramsci: a political economy of an epidemiological and economic disaster", Comparative European Politics, vol. 22, p. 479-511. Available online
• 2023, "Per una sociologia della mobilità umana", Mondi Migranti, n° 2023/3, p. 9-29. Available online
• 2023 (with Katharina Tittel), "The Empirical Study of Human Mobility: Potentials and Pitfalls of Using Traditional and Digital Data", In: E. Bertoni, M. Fontana, L. Gabrielli, S. Signorelli, M. Vespe (ed.), Handbook of Computational Social Science for Policy, Springer, p. 437-464. Available in Open Access
• 2023 (with Emanuel Deutschmann, Lorenzo Gabrielli), "Roads, rails, and checkpoints: Assessing the permeability of nation-state borders worldwide", World Development, vol. 164, 106175. Available on ScienceDirect in open access
• 2022 (with Alessandro Ferrara, Alejandra Rodriguez Sanchez, Emanuel Deutschmann, Lorenzo Gabrielli, Stefano Iacus, Luca Bastiani, Spyridon Spyratos, Michele Vespe), "The impact of air travel on the precocity and severity of COVID‑19 deaths in sub‑national areas across 45 countries", Scientific Reports, vol. 12, art.16522. Available in open access on nature/Scientific Report 
• 2022 (with Emanuel Deutschmann and Michele Vespe), "Assessing Transnational Human Mobility on a Global Scale", In: Steffen Pötzschke & Sebastian Rinken (eds), Migration Research in a Digitized World: Using Innovative Technology to Tackle Methodological Challenges, Springer, IMISCOE Research Serie, p. 169-192. Open access chapter
• 2022 (with Marta Pasqualini, Olivier Godechot, Marta Dominguez Folgueras, Emanuele Ferragina & Mirna Safi), "Who took care of what? The gender division of unpaid work during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in France", Demographic Research, vol. 46, art. 34, p. 1007-1036. Open access paper
• 2022 (with Emanuel Deutschmann), "Europeanization via Transnational Mobility and Migration", In: Sebastian M. Büttner, Monika Eigmüller, Susann Worschech (ed.), Sociology of Europeanization, De Gruyter, p. 259-282. Downloadable online (with institutional access)
• 2021 (with Zachary Van Winkle and Emanuele Ferragina), The Unexpected Decline in Feelings of Depression among Adults Ages 50 and Older in 11 European Countries amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, Socius, vol. 7, First Published 10 August. Available in Open Access on Sage Journals
• 2021 (with Emanuele Ferragina), "Leggere la società attraverso il welfare: la lezione di Achille Ardigò", Autonomie locali e servizi sociali, Quadrimestrale di studi e ricerche sul welfare, 1/2021, pp. 79-86. Available on Rivisteweb
• 2021 (avec Aurore Flipo et Emmanuelle Duwez), « "Ce monde que je connais" : les space-sets des Français », In: E. Duwez et P. Mercklé (dir.), Un panel français. L'étude longitudinale par Internet pour les sciences sociales (ELIPSS), INED éditions, col. Grandes Enquêtes.  
• 2021 (with Emanuele Ferragina, Marta Pasqualini, Andrew Zola), "Who cares about health and the economy through the Covid-19 pandemic? Longitudinally tracking changes and heterogeneity in people’s perceptions of risks", SocArXiv Papers, 20th March, doi 10.31235/osf.io/rv7e3.
• 2021 (with Emanuel Deutschmann, Lorenzo Gabrielli, Nodira Kholmatova), The global visa cost divide: How and why the price for travel permits varies worldwide, Political Geography, vol. 86, 102350. Available online on ScienceDirect

Academic Presentations (selection)

• 2024, "El mundo movil, el mundo inmóvil: Análisis de las disegualdades mondiales con el Global Mobilities Project", Universidad de La Habana, 11 July. 
• 2024 (with Luca Bernasconi), "Potential Overstayers? Taking Stock of Flight Data for the Analysis of Irregular Migration",  21st IMISCOE yearly conference, ISCTE, Lisbon, 3 July.
• 2024, "People across Places: Transnational Mobility as ‘Degree Zero’ of Migration Studies", opening keynote, 21st IMISCOE yearly conference, ISCTE, Lisbon, 2 July.
• 2024, "Movilidad internacional y actitudes cosmopolitas: el ‘conjunto-espacio’ como categoría analítica", 15th Congreso de la Federación Española de Sociologia, Sevilla, 27 June.
• 2024, "El mundo movil, el mundo inmóvil: Análisis de las disegualdades mondiales con el Global Mobilities Project", INCASI Talk, Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 18 April. 
• 2024 (with Luca Bernasconi), "What Commercial Flights Can Tell about Irregular Migration", workshop “Pilot studies on irregular migration”, MirreM project, University of Potsdam, 18 March.
• 2024, "Cultural Fragmentation as Externality of the Liberal Script? A Formal Analysis of Value Change Across 51 National Societies (1995-2020)", BIRT seminar presentation, Freie Universität, Berlin, 14 March.
• 2024 (with Tobias Grohmann), "Exploring The Multifaceted Nature of Transnational Human Mobility: The Global Mobilities Project and the Migmobs Project", workshop “Regime Entanglements: Mobility, Citizenship and the Law”, GLOBALCIT Centre, European University Institute, Florence, 6 March.
• 2023 (with Luca Bernasconi), "Coming and not Going Back: Potential Air Overstayers in the Schengen Area", MirreM project workshop, University of Milan, Milan, 6 October.
• 2023 (with Andrew Zola), "Do You Think You Stand Where You Actually Stand? The interplay of subjective and objective social status in 10 industrialized countries (2002-2021)",  RC28 Summer Conference, ISA World Congress of Sociology, Melbourne, 26 June.
• 2023 (with Marta Veljkovic and Andrew Zola), "Assessing the Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Economic Well-Being in France (2019-2022)" , RC28 Spring Conference, Paris, 25 May.
• 2023, "Per una sociologia della mobilità umana", keynote lecture, 5th Mondi Migranti Conference “La questione sociale delle migrazioni”, Università di Milano, 28 April.
• 2023 (with Luca Bernasconi), "Exploring Flight Passenger Data for Measuring Irregular Migration", MirreM project workshop “Innovative approaches to measuring irregular migration”, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, 25 April.
• 2022, "Assessing the Permeability of Global Land Borders", 19th IMISCOE Conference, Oslo, 1 July.
• 2022, "How Permeable are State Borders Worldwide?Towards a Global Index, paper presentation", MPC Annual Conference “Change and Continuities in a Migration World”, EUI, Florence, 23 May.
• 2022, "States as Gatekeepers: Lessons from Macro-Empirical Research on Visas and Borders Globally", keynote at MAPS (Migration and Asylum Policy Systems) Research Network, final conference, Università Orientale, Naples, 20 May.
• 2022, "How Permeable are State Borders Worldwide?" Global Development Network (GDN), Methodological Deep Dive Lecture online, 18 May.
• 2022, "The Civic Stratification of Status and Class Attainment: Micro- and macro-level effects of immigration on intergenerational social mobility in Europe, paper presentation", ISA-RC28 Conference, LSE, 21 April.
• 2022, "Human Mobility and National Borders in a Post-Covid World", Three Lectures, “Critical Conversations”, American Library in Paris, April and May.
• 2021, "Comparing the social, economic and cultural impact of Covid-19 on Europeans with high-quality survey data", workshop organizer, Sciences Po/OSC, 9 December.
• 2021, "Flows, Borders and Controls: Assessing Transnational Mobility on a Global Scale", Migration & Big Data Workshop, Institut Convergences Migration (Dynamics Department), Paris, 25 November.
• 2021, « Faire face au Covid: les reactions de la population française", Conférence « Les expériences de la vulnérabilité dans l’épidémie de Covid-19 », Université de Lille, 12 November.
• 2021, "COVID-19: Lessons for Sociologists", Webinar Researching and Understanding COVID Societies: Sociology and Beyond, International Science Council and International Sociological Association, 25 October. https://council.science/events/covid-sociology/ (video)
• 2021 (avec H. Rapoport, J-P. Cassarino et E. Galbis), « La libre circulation, centre de gravité de la politique migratoire de l’Union Européenne », Roundtable « Repenser la politique migratoire européenne », Festival des Sciences Sociales, "Tout migre ?”, EHESS, Marseille, 25 Septembre.
• 2021, « Résilience, Continuité, Proximité : Les Français durant l’année Covid », Table ronde de l'Union des Entreprises de Proximité (U2P), Maison de la Mutualité, Paris, 16 Septembre.
• 2021, "Sociology of Europe: What is it about? What have we learnt?" Closing keynote, CIVICA Summer School, EUI, Florence, 9 September.
• 2021 (with M. Pasqualini, E. Ferragina, M. Safi), "Coping with Covid-19: Who suffered the most and why? An exploration of well-being with panel data among the French population", 5th SISEC Conference, Catania, 11 June.
• 2021, "L’emigrazione di ricercatori e ricercatrici: dinamiche e determinanti", Cconference “Restare o partire? Migrazioni e carriere nella ricerca”, Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze, 9 giugno.
• 2021, "Mobility After Covid-19", expert intervention at the CSS4P Workshop “Mapping the Demand Side for Computational Social Science for Policy”, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission, Ispra, 26 May.
• 2021, "Pensare, misurare e governare le migrazioni", lecture at Accademia La Colombaria, Florence, 11 May.
• 2021, "The Airport Factor: Assessing the Impact of Aviation Mobility on the Spread of Covid-19", MPC/EUI Webinar, “International Mobility Restrictions and the Spread of Pandemics: New Data and Research”,  10 February. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmhBNNeURus&feature=youtu.be.

Research Projects - Projets de recherche

"Social Change in Global Perspective: A Formal Analysis", Direction Scientifique de Sciences Po (Competitive grant). 2024-2026.

"Winners and Losers of the Covid-19 Pandemic in France and Israel: Evaluating the Long-Term Effects on Well-Being", Maimonide Funds, French-Israeli Research Cooperation Council, in partnership with the Samuel Neaman Institute for Policy Research, Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Haifa. 2022-2023.

Coping with Covid-19. Social distancing, cohesion and inequality in 2020 France (CoCo) - 2020-2021 (with Sciences Po - CDSP - ANR Flash Call).

The Space-Set Project: The Power of Personal Geographies. Fine-tuning 'Space-Sets' and Testing their Measurement (2014-2016, funded by Sciences Po Research).

Direction de thèses - PhD Students

• Maxime Christophe, Demander l'asile en France : étude ethnographique sur les temps et les espaces de l'attente
• Bartholomew Konechni, Studying the Changing Pattern of Spatial Mobility During the COVID-19 Crisis in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands
• Tania Moutai (co-dir.), Insularités et (im)mobilités. Trajectoires mobilitaires des populations corses et martiniquaises
• Katharina Tittel  (co-dir.), Discours sur l'immigration dans les médias (sociaux) en France et en Allemagne : productions, circulations, interprétations et contestations
  

Teaching - Enseignements

- Sociology of migration (master, 2022-)
- Comparative social research (master, 2024-)
- Introduction to sociology (undergraduate, 2019-, Poitiers & Dijon, 2024-)
- Sociology of inequalities (master, 2019-2023)
- Social inequalities in Europe (undergraduate, 2014-2018, Reims)
- Introduction to EU studies (undergraduate, 2016-2018, Reims)
- Sociology of contemporary Europe (master, 2014-2017)
- Comparing European societies (2018-2019, Reims)
- Sociology of free movement (master, 2014-2023)
- Social research methods II (master, 2016-2017)
- Questions of sociological research (master, 2017-2021)
- Comparative sociology of inequalities (master, 2017-2019)
- Sociology of international mobility (undergraduate, 2018-2022, Poitiers)