Joanna Regulska Rutgers University New Brunswick
The number of armed conflicts and the number of refugees, world-wide, has in recent years declined, but the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has remained stable and IDPs continue in that status for longer periods of time. While the mobilization of resources and humanitarian assistance has generated several studies (primarily addressing immediate relief needs), the existing research remains under-theorized, suffers from methodological flaws, lacks comparability, and primarily presents an institutional-response perspective. This international and multidisciplinary collaborative project in-volving geographers, sociologists, anthropologists, social psychologists, and women's studies and policy specialists investigates how within the post-conflict context internally displaced persons be-come agents of change by constructing livelihood strategies. It aims to advance scholars' and policy-makers' understandings of human responses to the dramatic effects of social, economic, and territo-rial displacement.
The interdisciplinary team will address several broad research questions: 1) In what ways do IDPs and the general population construct social networks and implement livelihood strategies? 2) In what ways do those differ by gender, place, and dwelling type? 3) What are the similarities and differences between the composition of social networks of forced migrants and the general popula-tion? The research in particular focuses on the presence of individuals and groups involved with forced migration management strategies. The research team will analyze the case of a post-socialist society "Georgia" that continues to face an unstable political and economic environment. Three research methods will be employed: narrative interviews, network analysis interviews of both IDPs and non-migrants, and a series of semi-structured interviews with members of governmental and non-governmental agencies tasked with the management of IDPs. The data will be collected in three sites across Georgia--Tbilisi, Samegrelo, and Imereti. The narrative interviews will be subjected to textual analysis and the results of the formal network analysis mapped and tested for significant dif-ferences across the sample.
In contrast to the majority of research on IDPs, this study places migrants at the center of the analysis, seeing them as the agents of change. It argues that becoming and being a forced migrant has implications for the ways in which livelihood strategies are produced and utilized. By account-ing for cultural, political, economic, and social factors, the research will develop a new paradigm for understanding the forced migratory process as a political-economic process within the context of transition societies. It will counter existing migration studies that often fall short of capturing the interaction of cultural norms, historical patterns, gender dimensions, economic change, and political instabilities. Further, it will contribute to theoretical debates on the concepts of governance environ-ment and social network analysis in respect to forced migrants. Finally, the investigators hope to de-velop a new methodology for analyzing the geography of social networks by integrating spatial as-pects of everyday practice with the construction of social networks.
Broader impacts. The study will produce critical knowledge about IDPs that will be accessible through a website and will be disseminated to governmental and non-governmental organizations, policy-makers, and others who work and formulate policies pertinent to forced migration. The research contributes to several debates and emerging topics in the area of social network analysis such as how gender influences the development and use of social networks related to livelihood strategies. Unlike previous studies, the governance perspective allows the research to integrate fully the state and other participants in the social network analysis and to assess the implications of heterogeneity. The research also contributes to an emerging topic: the geography of social networks.
