War, Conflict and Migration

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES:

This focus area actively seeks to build knowledge and new insights on forced migration, internal displacement and reconstruction after wars and natural disasters. We encourage studies of post-crisis interaction played by various stakeholders in the transformation and the re-establishment of order in society and peace, development and reconciliation. Globalisation is seen as a process of differentiation, in which individuals, groups or geographical areas may end up as excluded. Such marginalisation may take place in the wake of globalization as profit revenue-making circuits often are developed on the backs of the truly disadvantaged. Such circuits of globalisation overlap with some of the major dynamics that compose globalization. Empirical studies on (forced) migration, refugee studies, conflict/peace studies and studies of post-crisis reconstruction support the theory of differentiation and marginalisation.

The major research objective for this focus area is thus to identify how Globalisation is articulated as a force of differentiation in war and disaster affected communities. In this regard it becomes pertinent to

• understand how Globalisation impacts on conflict-ridden and marginalised areas and people

• understand how Globalisation impacts on receiving communities and refugee populations

• understand how migration (forced and not) is an intrinsic part of Globalisation, which determine people’s livelihoods strategies and rights

• understand the significance of post-disaster reconstruction and recovery, and how such interventions relate to globalised discourses, practices and implementing agencies.