CfP AAG 2022
2022 AAG Conference
CfP: Technology, Innovation and Experimentation in the Refugee Sector
25 February – 1 March, New York City
CfP: Technology, Innovation and Experimentation in the Refugee Sector
25 February – 1 March, New York City
Panel Organizers:
Aila Spathopoulou, Goldsmiths University (UK)
Hanna Ruszczyk, Durham University (UK)
In this panel we invite papers reflecting on how financial and digital technologies are transforming refugee governance in different geographical regions and humanitarian contexts. Researchers have observed how the expansion of digital technologies into the refugee sector is, on the one hand, empowering refugees and, on the other, enhancing new modes of control and surveillance. But initiatives in refugee sites, such as hotspots, camps, registration centres and protection procedures, such as the asylum procedure, remain highly variable. In this panel, we would like to highlight the commonalities and diversity of technology and innovation experiments in humanitarian aid towards refugees. We are particularly interested in the different types of financial, technological and digital experiments such as debit cards as part of various cash assistance programs, digital apps, maps, digital information hubs and remote interviews within camps, integration centres and the asylum system.
We invite papers considering:
We welcome papers from any discipline or region. Please send 200 word abstracts to A.Spathopoulou@gold.ac.uk and H.a.ruszczyk@durham.ac.uk by 10 October 2021. We hope to host both an in person and a virtual session. Please tell us which option you are considering. Please get in touch if you have any questions.
Aila Spathopoulou, Goldsmiths University (UK)
Hanna Ruszczyk, Durham University (UK)
In this panel we invite papers reflecting on how financial and digital technologies are transforming refugee governance in different geographical regions and humanitarian contexts. Researchers have observed how the expansion of digital technologies into the refugee sector is, on the one hand, empowering refugees and, on the other, enhancing new modes of control and surveillance. But initiatives in refugee sites, such as hotspots, camps, registration centres and protection procedures, such as the asylum procedure, remain highly variable. In this panel, we would like to highlight the commonalities and diversity of technology and innovation experiments in humanitarian aid towards refugees. We are particularly interested in the different types of financial, technological and digital experiments such as debit cards as part of various cash assistance programs, digital apps, maps, digital information hubs and remote interviews within camps, integration centres and the asylum system.
We invite papers considering:
- What types of financial, technological and digital experiments are taking place in relation to refugee governance, where and how? Who do these digital experiments help?
- What are the new barriers that the ‘digital turn’ within humanitarian outreach is producing and how do refugees negotiate them in their daily lives?
- What role do various digital technologies play in debates around refugees’ autonomy versus dependency on humanitarian and state aid?
- In which ways has the pandemic crisis intensified the digitalization of humanitarian aid in refugee contexts?
- How is innovation and technology linked discursively and materially? What does the architecture of technological innovation reveal? What is being obscured by the label of innovation in relation to cash distribution?
- How can we conceptualise innovation, experimentation and technological change in the humanitarian sector? How are relations, spaces and governmentalities changing in and through these initiatives?
We welcome papers from any discipline or region. Please send 200 word abstracts to A.Spathopoulou@gold.ac.uk and H.a.ruszczyk@durham.ac.uk by 10 October 2021. We hope to host both an in person and a virtual session. Please tell us which option you are considering. Please get in touch if you have any questions.