Intervention Gentrification and Everyday Socio-Economic Transactions in Intervention Societies

Abstract

This article calls for a focus on the economic everyday of intervention societies. It opens the debate by demonstrating the effects of intervention gentrification and sketching out different forms of local-intervener interactions. We argue that the majority of economic impacts are localised and connected to immediate geographic proximity and thus require a qualitative methodological approach. Further, many of these implications are of a socio-economic rather than purely economic nature, or only translate into economic changes over time. To demonstrate this, the article explores the socio-economic impact of everyday interactions and (non-)material transactions between local and international residents in the neighbourhood of Jabal al-Weibdeh, Amman. Given Jordan's location amidst conflict settings such as Israel-Palestine, Iraq and Syria, and its high refugee population, many international and regional non-governmental organisations focusing on humanitarianism and development, base themselves in Amman. Currently, the international community has no mechanisms in place to mitigate socio-economic effects of their presencepossibly creating social conflict or at least economic precarity for some. It is therefore important to consider the economic effects of intervention societies and intervention gentrification in more far-reaching economic and social studies.

The social meaning of money: multidimensional implications of humanitarian cash and voucher assistance

“…People in the affected communities attach themselves to this economy to survive and generate opportunities. In many cases, prices and goods and services available on the market change as a result (B⊘ås, 2015; Thomas and Vogel, 2018), so as to ‘get while the getting is good’ (Jennings, 2015, p. 307). As B⊘ås (2015, p. 124) argues, humanitarian and market‐based interventions create ‘a particular type of refugee–host economy’, something we confirmed when looking at CVA.…”