Planning and the refugee crisis: Informality as a framework of analysis and reflection

Fawaz, Mona

doi:10.1177/1473095216647722

Cited by 59 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It may also be that the analysis of urban planning in the refugee camp through the notion of dispositif enlarges our general understanding of the government of cities. This analysis could be particularly useful for rethinking informal urbanism, whether in a general way or, more specifically, with regard to refugees (Fawaz, ). Characterized by multiple temporalities (Lombard, ) and experiencing a form of ‘permanent temporariness’ (Yiftachel, ), urban informality would gain by being conceived of not simply as a socio‐material assemblage of dwellers’ tactics (McFarlane, ; ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Improvised Dispositif: Invisible Urban Planning in the Refugee Camp

Oesch¹

2020

Int J Urban Regional Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How does a refugee camp urbanize? Up to now, camps have been considered as either urban assemblages made by dwellers’ improvised tactics or spaces governed by disjointed urban planning policies. I demonstrate that there is another side to the urbanism of the refugee camp. A form of coherent institutional urban planning exists as well. It takes the shape of an improvised dispositif (apparatus). One of its main effects is to render the very process of urban planning invisible. I investigate this type of urbanism on the basis of fieldwork conducted in the Al‐Hussein Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan. I argue that this improvised dispositif of urban planning—of which state and non‐state institutions are part—is the result of a balancing act that ensures the temporary character of the camp, while allowing the implementation of a form of urban development that leads toward a material homogenization between the camp and the surrounding urban space. It does this by rendering its own processes invisible and being officially referred to as ‘improvement’. By emphasizing the key features of heterogeneity, invention and provisionality, I explain that the notion of a dispositif, coined by Foucault (1980), allows us to examine how institutions improvise away from more conventional urban planning. My analysis also complements Jeffrey's examination (2013) of institutional improvisation in the production of space, by showing that improvisation can be a form of strategic elaboration.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Improvised Dispositif: Invisible Urban Planning in the Refugee Camp

Oesch¹

2020

Int J Urban Regional Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Neighborhood formation can be extremely rapid. Refugee camps and disaster‐aid camps are dramatic modern examples of the ways in which large numbers of people assemble rapidly, often with a minimum of possessions, and immediately begin to address basic needs for food and shelter within a context of proximity and mutual interaction (e.g., Fawaz ; M. E. Smith et al. ).…”

Section: The Phenomenology Of Neighborhoodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

4 The Phenomenology of Neighborhoods in the Early Historic Period of the Indian Subcontinent (3rd Century BCE – 4th Century CE)

Smith¹

2019

Archaeological Papers of the American

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Neighborhoods are places of social interdependence expressed in material forms of proximity represented by closely packed households, pathways, and open spaces. Archaeological remains provide the opportunity to analyze neighborhoods as the physical locale of urban residence that included daily routines of eating, sleeping, and self-care; regular acquisition of provisions; and interactions with other people. However, the experiences of neighborhood interaction were not unique to the urban form. In the Indian subcontinent in the mid-first millennium BCE, there were three configurations that brought people together into crowded physical and social spaces, each of which provided the opportunity for repeated, standardized, and routinized mutual interdependence: urban settlements, religious pilgrimage centers, and army encampments. [Urbanism, Households, Phenomenology, Mobility, Pilgrimage, Indian subcontinent]

show abstract

“…The recent call for a more postcolonial approach to urban studies has energized scholars to question taken‐for‐granted notions of southern cities (Robinson, ; McFarlane, ; Watson, ; Derickson, ; Robinson and Roy, ; Roy, ). Rather than sites of dystopian underdevelopment and urban pathology, postcolonial urban theorists have shown how southern cities can be understood as places of global connection, economic resourcefulness and political innovation (Simone, ; Arabindoo, ; Gaffikin and Perry, ; Caldeira, ; Fawaz, ). Therefore, southern cities can and should be viewed as important sites of urban theory generation and practical knowledge production.…”

Section: Conclusion: the View Of New York From South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Best Practice or Regulating Fiction? Street Vending, Zero Tolerance and Conflicts Over Public Space in New York, 1980–2000

Devlin

2018

Int J Urban Regional Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In global urban studies, different cities often serve as stand‐ins for various policy approaches. New York is closely associated with zero tolerance/quality of life policing—specifically the ways this crime‐fighting technique was used to manage and regulate public space in support of broader urban redevelopment goals. Whether celebrated or criticized, the image of New York as a city that was successful in ‘cleaning up’ public space has been exported across the globe, and has been invoked by a number of cities as they embark on their own projects to clear street vendors and other unwanted actors from public space. This article will challenge this established narrative through an examination of struggles over street vending and public space in New York during the 1980s and 1990s. It will show how the revanchist project of public space management was challenged and ultimately limited by vendors using discourses of free market populism and entrepreneurship. It demonstrates the ways in which the image of New York as a city of settled and well‐regulated public space does not tell the complete story, and how New York, like many other ordinary cities across the globe, is a city of contested spaces and uncertain regulatory effectiveness.

show abstract

Planning and the refugee crisis: Informality as a framework of analysis and reflection

Cited by 59 publications

References 32 publications

An Improvised Dispositif: Invisible Urban Planning in the Refugee Camp

An Improvised Dispositif: Invisible Urban Planning in the Refugee Camp

4 The Phenomenology of Neighborhoods in the Early Historic Period of the Indian Subcontinent (3rd Century BCE – 4th Century CE)

Global Best Practice or Regulating Fiction? Street Vending, Zero Tolerance and Conflicts Over Public Space in New York, 1980–2000

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About