Conserving Cultural Heritage: The Resilience of Forcibly Displaced Syrian Artisans in Jordan

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Prior to Syria's devastating civil war and escalating refugee crisis at least 12% of Syria's gross domestic product was generated by cultural heritage crafts (Jordan Times Online, 2016). Yet by 2015, approximately 80% of these artisans had left their trade, and fled to neighbouring states in search of safety and security (Jordan Times Online, 2016) resulting in a grave threat to Syria's cultural heritage. However, whilst there remains a marginal community of artisans in Syria, the forcibly displaced Syrian artisans in Jordan are reviving their cultural heritage crafts by operating in Jordan's informal economy and adopting economic and cultural survival strategies to create their own pathways and networks to provide a livelihood for themselves and their families. The vast majority of Syrian refugees are living in extreme poverty earning below the Jordanian poverty line equivalent to US$ 96 per person per month (UNHCR, 2016). They are living with minimal prospects for economic, social and cultural development and integration. This project addresses Jordan's development challenges arising from the burgeoning influx of forcibly displaced Syrians by exploring the resilience, vulnerabilities and identities of the forcibly displaced Syrian artisans residing in Jordan since the war in Syria erupted in 2011. Doing so will help us answer questions about the socio-political impact of engaging in cultural heritage crafts on the forcibly displaced Syrian community in Jordan, the impact of cultural appropriation through 'made in Jordan' Syrian cultural heritage products on the conservation of the Syrian cultural heritage by the forcibly displaced artisans, and the impact of displacement and the arising marginalised masculinities, on the resilience of neo-patriarchal displaced Arab communities. Indeed, focusing on their resilience will help us to understand how the forcibly displaced artisans overcome social, economic and political vulnerabilities, and thus, how they respond to economic and social upheaval. In doing so, we contribute to the rapidly growing resilience discourse which has largely ignored the resilience of forcibly displaced artisans, and forcibly displaced Syrians.Mixed methods will be used to collect data from multidisciplinary stakeholders and 80 forcibly displaced Syrian artisans residing in Jordan. In addition, the project has three capacity building components. The first is to enhance Jordan's social research capacity by training postdoctoral researchers, and the second advances the largely misunderstood social enterprise model by training trainers to deliver a social enterprise start up programme for forcibly displaced artisans. The third focuses on the forcibly displaced artisans by offering them social enterprise start up training and mentoring. Stakeholder engagement is a key focus of the project and thus an introductory event and dissemination event will be held in Amman - Jordan. The introductory event will help to alleviate any suspicions about the project's aims, and the dissemination event will focus on research, practice and policy development for the forcibly displaced.The project will be realised through the interdisciplinary strengths of the team of investigators and project partners. Haya Al-Dajani (Principle Investigator) brings a gender, enterprise and displacement expertise, whilst Geoff Wilson (Co-Investigator) is an expert on resilience and Marta Rabikowska (Co-Investigator) is an expert in the creative industries and visual and sensorial methods. The Jordanian Partner the King Hussein Foundation Information and Research Centre is an internationally recognised centre focused on socio-economic planning and transformation through research, advocacy and knowledge transfer. The second Jordanian Partner - Tiraz is a unique non-profit cultural foundation and cultural heritage research centre dedicated to promoting and preserving the threatened Arab cultural heritage.