Are John Knudsen est Professeur à l’Institut Chr. Michelsen (CMI) et détient un doctorat en anthropologie sociale de l’Université de Bergen (UiB). Il est spécialiste des déplacements forcés, des camps de réfugiés, notamment en milieu urbain au Moyen-Orient, en particulier au Liban. Ses recherches portent sur l’urbanisme d’urgence et des réfugiés, ainsi que sur l’architecture des abris. Knudsen est l’éditeur du livre à paraître Continental Encampment : Genealogies of Humanitarian Containment in the Middle East and Europe (Berghahn, 2023) et d’une nouvelle anthologie sur : Urban Displacement : Syria’s Refugees in the Middle East (Berghahn, en cours de révision).
Page personnelle : https://www.cmi.no/staff/are-knudsen.
Programme d’interventions
Mercredi 12 octobre 2022 — Séminaire commun du département Policy with Kamel Doraï (CNRS, U Poitiers & fellow de l’ICM)
HORAIRE ET LIEU :
- 09h30-11h30
- Salle1.023 du Bâtiment Recherche Sud, Campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers
Emergency Urbanism : Self-Settled Syrian Refugees in Two Beirut Tenement Buildings par Are John Knudsen
The Syrian refugee crisis is predominantly urban, but what does urban displacement, self-settlement and indeed being an “urban refugee” entail ? Reflective of the urban dimension of the crisis and the “urban turn” in refugee studies, this presentation examines the causes and consequences of refugee self-settlement in two Beirut tenement buildings and discusses the connection between urban displacement and the built environment for an understanding of emergency urbanism in Middle East host cities. Micro-studies of tenement buildings in two Beirut neighborhoods reveal differences in both settlement processes and outcomes, as well as housing and rental dynamics between (slum-)landlords and impoverished tenants. The run-down tenement buildings’ history, contested ownership and location are important examples of the urban dimension of the current displacement crises and offer a glimpse into the self-settlement of Syrian refugees in middle-class (Hamra) and poverty-stricken (Sabra) areas. The transformation of neighborhoods and multi-storey buildings represent an informalization of refuge, whereby displaced people seek refuge in cities and transform neighbourhoods and shelters not only as city dwellers, but as city makers. The buildings can hence be “read” as vertical migration histories and spatial archives providing a genealogy of displacement and emplacement that can inform the study of emergency and refugee urbanism and point to solutions in cities for “urban refugees” lacking access to affordable housing.
From camp to cities. A reflection based on the Palestinian and Syrian refugee camps” experience in Lebanon and Jordan par Kamel Doraï
Can refugee camps be considered as urban spaces ? How can we qualify these spaces, subject to specific legal regimes, whose inhabitants when they are themselves refugees, have a legal status which limits their access to property, labour market, health or education. From a morphological point of view, camps seem similar to the informal settlements of the main Middle Eastern cities, although, often due to demographic pressure, they are more densely built. Camps are the result of a long history of hosting and settling refugee groups, since the creation in the 1920s of camps to host Armenian refugees fleeing the genocide. Some of these camps are now hosting Palestinian refugees. The progressive urbanizationof the camps is the result of several dynamics : the permanence over time of these reception areas, the successive arrival of different groups of refugees and their protracted settlement. Since 2012, new camps have been created in Jordan to host Syrian refugees. Zaatari camp has gone through deep transformations since its creation like most of the informal settlements in the region. This contribution proposes to question the dynamics of integration of camps and their inhabitants in the margin of the main Middle Eastern cities.
English version
Are John Knudsen is Research Professor at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and holds a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Bergen (UiB). He specializes forced displacement, camp-based and urban refugees in the Middle East, in particular Lebanon. His research interests include emergency and refugee urbanism and shelter architectures. Knudsen is editor of the forthcoming book Continental Encampment : Genealogies of Humanitarian Containment in the Middle East and Europe (Berghahn, 2023) and a new anthology on : Urban Displacement : Syria’s Refugees in the Middle East (Berghahn, under review).