UNHCR's Territorial Depoliticization of Forced Displacement Through the Governance Mechanisms of Participatory Geographical Information Systems

Community Mapping with Resettled Refugees: Reflections on Embeddedness

“…Place is central to community practice (Smith & Miller, 2013;Kemp, 2011), and cartographic or mapping approaches-and particularly community-based participatory mapping (CPM)-thus present themselves as a promising modality of practice (Harte, 2013;Hillier, 2007;Teixeira, 2018), as posited in this paper. CPM, including Participatory Geographic Information System (PGIS) mapping, involves community members in conducting mapping or visually representing their environment to understand and examine social problems and processes (Franke, 2016;Harte, 2013;Teixeira, 2018;Smith & Miller, 2013). CPM is unlike conventional modes of cartography or GIS, whereby experts apply top-down, deductive approaches to collect spatial data (Harte, 2013;Hillier, 2007).…”

“…Finally, with aims of politically empowering forcibly displaced persons, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has also turned to PGIS in humanitarian work, to involve displaced persons in producing knowledge about territorial conditions (Franke, 2016). In Franke's (2016) analysis regarding global efforts to address displacement of the United Nations, PGIS presents a forward-looking tool for humanitarianism that, with critical and thoughtful application, can address the geopolitical aspects of forcible displacement and empower people who have been forcibly displaced.…”

“…As refugee communities make claims to 'place', researchers and practitioners can provide assistance. Participatory mapping with refugees can be one such modality or tool (Franke, 2016;Goopy & Kassan, 2019;Harte et al, 2009Harte et al, , 2011Lloyd & Wilkinson, 2016;Xu et al, 2015).…”

Inside the tent: Community and government in refugee camps

“…The mechanisms of discipline and ‘containment’ make camps ‘enforced “colonies,” not communities defined by voluntary association’ (Hyndman, 2000: 140). Community here seems to demand free choice, that it be self-identifying, voluntary and self-organizing, an intuition shared by others (see Franke, 2012: 19–20). It seems that the restricting, repressive power exercised through camps means they are spaces without even the possibility of community, agency or politics (Agier, 2008: 29–30).…”