‘Urban-itarian’ Ecologies after Displacement from Syria

Abstract

AbstractOver the last decade, displacement from conflict-ridden Syria has converged with an increasing emphasis on the ‘urban-humanitarian’ nexus. Humanitarian actors have focused on urban livelihoods as refugees mainly move to cities in search of employment and a predominantly camp-based mode of assistance has turned into support for urban refugees, internally displaced people, and local urban dwellers. Within this framework, the politics of international humanitarianism has inscribed itself in cities and towns, generating layered ‘urban-itarian’ ecologies. Considering vernacular definitions of ‘urban’ and ‘urban actors’, this chapter discusses encounters and missed encounters between the urban and the humanitarian worlds. Drawing on different case-studies since 2016 in six sites across Lebanon, Türkiye, and Jordan – all primary destinations for refugees from Syria – it shows how ‘urbanising’ humanitarianism, when insufficiently responsive to local specificities, has tended to result in poorly attuned humanitarian programming. My multisite-based observations suggest that people lead hybrid lifestyles while developing complex livelihood strategies, building their worlds across the urban and the rural. In light of this, the working concept of ‘urban-itarian’ does not intend to mark those spaces as exclusively or predominantly urban; but, rather, as an interface where humanitarian and urban actors and negotiations end up marginalising or assimilating the rural and the peri-urban, regardless of environmental complexities.