Refugia: Radical Solutions to Mass Displacement. Edited by Nicholas van Hear and Robin Cohen

Abstract

Refugia provides a pragmatic utopian vision as a solution to end mass displacement for refugees and all forms of displaced people. The book suggests a design of a polity that is transnational in its entity and formation, with Refugians (citizens of Refugia) seen as creative agents who are imagining and co-building their own kind of polis. The book references the mainstream academic views of refugee and displacement politics, identity, and home-making practices as the authors frame their perspective on Refugia. With backgrounds in development studies, both authors have extensive research experience in forced migration. Refugia covers a wide range of research examples (historic and current) and practices from anthropological research, design, architecture, and planning that support and confirm the authors’ own thinking process regarding the need for unique, alternative, and novel ways of approaching the challenge of mass displacement. The book begins with an overview of Refugia 2030 (with a misspelled/grammatically wrong Arabic date) that explains the governance, economy, and overall character of this utopian vision.