Collaborative Research: Forced Migrants Living in Post-Conflict Situations: Social Networks and Livelihood Strategies

最近几年，世界范围内的武装冲突数量和难民人数有所下降，但国内流离失所者（IDPs）的人数保持稳定，并且在较长时间内继续处于这种状态。虽然调动资源和人道主义援助产生了几项研究（主要是针对立即的救济需要），但现有的研究仍然缺乏理论，存在方法上的缺陷，缺乏可比性，主要是机构反应的观点。这个国际和多学科的合作项目涉及地理学家，社会学家，人类学家，社会心理学家，妇女研究和政策专家，研究如何在冲突后的背景下，国内流离失所者通过构建生计战略成为变革的推动者。它旨在促进学者和政策制定者对人类对社会、经济和领土流离失所的巨大影响的反应的理解。跨学科团队将解决几个广泛的研究问题：1)国内流离失所者和一般人群以何种方式构建社会网络和实施生计战略？2)性别、地点和居住类型在哪些方面不同？3)被迫移民与一般人群的社会网络构成有何异同？这项研究特别侧重于参与强迫移徙管理战略的个人和团体的存在。研究小组将分析后社会主义社会“格鲁吉亚”的情况，该社会继续面临不稳定的政治和经济环境。将采用三种研究方法：叙述访谈、对境内流离失所者和非移徙者的网络分析访谈，以及与负责管理境内流离失所者的政府和非政府机构成员进行的一系列半结构化访谈。这些数据将在格鲁吉亚的三个地点收集——第比利斯、萨梅格雷罗和伊梅列季。叙述性访谈将进行文本分析，并对正式网络分析的结果进行映射和测试，以确定样本之间的显著差异。与大多数关于国内流离失所者的研究相反，这项研究将移民置于分析的中心，将他们视为变革的推动者。报告认为，成为和成为被迫移徙者对生计战略的制定和利用方式有影响。通过考虑文化、政治、经济和社会因素，该研究将为理解转型社会背景下的被迫迁移过程作为政治经济过程提供一种新的范式。现有的移民研究往往未能捕捉到文化规范、历史模式、性别维度、经济变化和政治不稳定之间的相互作用。此外，它将有助于对有关被迫移徙者的治理、环境和社会网络分析概念的理论辩论。最后，研究人员希望通过将日常实践的空间方面与社会网络的构建相结合，开发一种新的方法来分析社会网络的地理。更广泛的影响。这项研究将产生关于国内流离失所者的重要知识，这些知识将通过一个网站提供，并将传播给政府和非政府组织、决策者以及从事和制定与被迫移徙有关政策的其他人员。这项研究有助于社会网络分析领域的若干辩论和新兴主题，例如性别如何影响与生计战略有关的社会网络的发展和使用。与以往的研究不同，治理视角允许研究充分整合社会网络分析中的国家和其他参与者，并评估异质性的含义。这项研究也为一个新兴的话题做出了贡献：社交网络的地理。

SBE-0624325Beth MitchneckUniversity of ArizonaSBE-0624230Joanna RegulskaRutgers University New BrunswickThe 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.