Camps and camp-like settings in urban environments: bridging humanitarian and development activities

Abstract

This project is a response to the urgent and interconnected issues of refugee aid and urban development. It aims to tackle one of the most pressing challenges facing global society: providing refugees with life chances from the moment of displacement. It recognizes the gap between traditional refugee aid structures (camps and camp-like settings) and the current global shift towards proactive, human-centered urban development. This project explores the connections between emergency and reception structures to bridge humanitarian and development efforts. The project fills this gap by prioritizing the role of planning. As a scientific discipline theorizing the social divide and a professional field involved in camp planning and urban development, planning can guide policy areas such as migration and asylum. This approach has the potential to facilitate a more sustainable socio-spatial and economic integration, thereby reducing the risk of exclusion and decline. Our research targets NGOs, IOs, state and non-state actors, refugees, politicians, and urban planners. To delve into the camp's socio-spatial dynamics, we use qualitative hermeneutic methods and quantitative spatial analysis. Our research team, comprising 9 scholars (NGO workers/professionals, research fellows, and professors), is spread across our case studies in Moldova, Jordan, and Switzerland. For the scientific community, we support a reflection about camps as neighborhoods. For the professional community, we endeavour to illustrate the potential influence of planning on the social cohesiveness and urban integration of refugees.