In this piece, Tessa Ubels traces the use of the word ‘empowerment’ within the context of humanitarian responses to refugees in Lebanon. Drawing on her fieldwork in Beirut, and applying Deepa Narayan-Park’s conceptual framework, Tessa critically assesses the effectiveness of the focus on ‘empowerment’ within the humanitarian network of international and local organisations responding to... Continue Reading →
When we ‘sweep away the professional, intimate, spiritual and even socio-economic past of refugees,’ what impact does this have on our understanding and (non)engagement with forcibly displaced people, including displaced religious leaders? In this post, Dr Estella Carpi, Southern Responses Research Associate, draws on her research with Syrian religious leaders in Lebanon who have worked... Continue Reading →
What happens when international agencies intervene without knowledge of the historical, geographical, or relational contexts of the area? Should engagement with and use of local faith leaders as intermediaries become standardised within international aid provision? In March 2019 our Research Associate Dr Estella Carpi participated in a seminar organised by ALNAP-Overseas Development Institute and the... Continue Reading →
How do refugees themselves experience and conceptualise Southern-led responses developed ‘on their behalf’? Building on her research in Lebanon, Cuba and Algeria vis-a-vis Palestinian and Sahrawi refugees’ participation in a Cuban scholarship programme established in the 1960s, this question has long been at the core of Prof. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s work, and continues to be central... Continue Reading →
What are humanitarian actors trying to bypass, remove, enhance or achieve by emphasising the importance of intermediaries in their sector? In this blog post our Research Associate Dr Estella Carpi discusses the role of intermediaries in the field of humanitarian aid provision in the Lebanese context, especially in the framework of the Syrian refugee crisis.... Continue Reading →
Since 2011, aid programmes have been implemented in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey…Read more
Through a multi-sited case-study of Southern-led responses to displacement from Syria…Read more
This project draws on ethnographic and participatory research with refugees from Syria…Read more
