METHODS article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Migration and Society
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1689957
NEWTONIAN-CULTURAL MOTION METHOD: A TRANSDISCIPLINARY METHOD FOR MIGRANT STUDIES
Provisionally accepted
- Vellore Institute of Technology - Chennai Campus, Chennai, India
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This paper introduces a transdisciplinary methodological approach, the Newtonian-Cultural Motion Method (NCMM), which integrates Newton's (1687) Laws of Motion with Raymond Williams' (1977) Cultural theory of Dominant, Residual, and Emergent culture. By reconceptualizing identity as motion and culture as force, NCMM offers a dynamic lens for analyzing cultural negotiation in migration narratives. Integrating physics and cultural studies, this method offers a new dimension to rethink identity formation shaped by sociopolitical pressures and inherited cultural inertia. This method is demonstrated through a critical analysis of the diasporic novel Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, a multigenerational family saga that traces the experiences of Korean immigrants in Japan. NCMM, explicate how cultural pressure, resistance, and transformation operate across generations of migrant communities. It enables researchers to understand migrant identity as a dynamic process shaped by both historically rooted cultural mass and sociopolitical forces. This new methodological approach provides a basis for the exploration of cultural negotiation, the mechanics of pressure, resistance, and transformation in migrant narratives. By bridging Newton's law of motion with Williams' cultural theory, NCMM provides a new transdisciplinary approach in analyzing the dynamics of identity, and transitions of culture. This method refigures identity as motion, and culture as a force.
Keywords: Migration, culture, Identity, Dominant, residual, emergent, force, motion
Received: 21 Aug 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 M A and M. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Subbulakshmi M, subbulakshmi.m@vit.ac.in
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