Performing memory & memorialising conflict at a distance: innovative approaches to understanding the views of displaced people & receiving communities

该项目探讨了我们对全球冲突的理解，因为它与欧洲难民危机有关，该危机同时被视为人道主义紧急情况和安全威胁。我们正在研究这种理解是如何通过媒体表述、官方和大众话语以及机构和公民主导的倡议来构建的。在此过程中，我们希望探讨人们如何理解人口流动以及地方、国家和欧洲机构在冲突方面的作用。我们正在探索这种理解如何反过来影响接收国的制度和民众反应，包括敌意，例如政治家将难民定性为滥用庇护制度的“经济移民”；转向团结，比如草根公民倡议，利用社交媒体接待难民，并向加莱捐款。我们也有兴趣研究流离失所者如何记住和纪念冲突的经历和看法，以及这在建设和平和解决冲突中可以发挥的作用。我们关注的是英国和意大利，这两个国家经历了对欧洲机构的不信任（与有关冲突的移民辩论交织在一起），与对主流政治的不满有关，但尽管如此，同时有许多当地公民倡议声援难民，通常通过社交媒体组织起来。我们的项目将通过跨学科的方法来探索这种情况，我们将艺术方法应用于社会问题。这包括绘制用于构建英国和意大利难民危机的官方和媒体话语；绘制声援难民和对难民表示敌意的公民倡议；与在英国和意大利支持移民寻求庇护者的组织合作进行访谈；研究社会媒体对难民危机的反应，调查对难民危机的态度和政治机构的作用。我们还将为逃离冲突的人举办“关键记忆工作”讲习班。批判性记忆工作是一种方法，它使用表演和其他创造性的方法让人们反思他们的经历，并探索如何记住和纪念冲突。从这项研究中收集的材料将分发给一些听众。我们为学术读者开发出版物（一本书和几篇期刊文章），并将在会议上展示我们的工作。我们还将为组织和政策制定者创建一份总结调查结果的报告。与牵连剧院（一家在社区戏剧和参与性艺术方面有经验的戏剧公司）合作，我们将开发一个民族戏剧剧本。民族戏剧是一种将社会科学研究成果（引用、调查数据、民族志实地记录）等纳入戏剧剧本和/或表演的方法。该脚本将与社区组织共享。报告和民族戏剧剧本将被翻译成意大利语，与意大利观众分享我们的研究结果。在项目结束时，我们将在诺丁汉当代艺术馆举办一场公开活动，分享我们的研究成果，并举行一场民族戏剧剧本的公开阅读。一个规模较小的平行活动将在意大利的另一个剧院举行，与坎蒂尼·梅蒂奇剧院合作，这是一家与寻求庇护者合作的戏剧公司。这些材料还将用于开发一个在线档案，该档案将由东伦敦大学主办，作为其社会科学生活难民档案的一部分。

The project explores our understanding of global conflict as it relates to the European refugee crisis, which has been framed simultaneously as a humanitarian emergency and a security threat. We are examining how this understanding is constructed through media representations, official and popular discourses, and institutional and citizen-led initiatives. In doing so, we wish to explore how people understand both population movement and the role of local, national and European institutions in relation to conflict. We are exploring how this understanding in turn shapes institutional and popular responses in receiving countries, ranging from hostility, such as the framing of refugees by politicians, as 'economic migrants' who are abusing the asylum system; to solidarity, as in grassroots citizen initiatives, using social media to host refuges and send donations to Calais. We are also interested in examining how experiences and perceptions of conflict are remembered and memorialised by displaced people and the role this can play in peace-building and conflict resolution. We are focusing on the UK and Italy as two countries that have experienced mistrust towards European institutions (intertwined with debates around migration in relation to conflict), connected to disaffection with mainstream politics, but where, despite this, there are simultaneously numerous local citizens' initiatives in solidarity with refugees, often organized through social media.Our project will explore this situation through an interdisciplinary approach in which we apply arts methodologies to social issues. This includes mapping official and media discourses used to construct the refugee crisis in the UK and Italy; mapping citizen initiatives both in solidarity with refugees and those which express hostility towards them; conducting interviews in collaboration with organisations supporting migrants asylum seekers in the UK and Italy; a study of social media responses to the refugee crisis, and a survey of attitudes to the refugee crisis and the role of political institutions. We will also carry out 'critical memory work' workshops for people who have fled conflict. Critical memory work is a method which uses performance and other creative approaches for people to reflect on their experiences and to explore how conflict is remembered and memorialised.The material gathered from this research will be disseminated to several audiences. We develop publications for academic audiences (a book and several journal articles) and will present our work at conferences. We will also create a report summarising findings for organisations and policymakers. Working with Implicated Theatre (a theatre company with experience in community theatre and participatory arts), we will develop an ethnodrama script. Ethnodrama is a method for incorporating social sciences research findings (quotes, survey data, ethnographic fieldnotes) etc. into a theatrical script and/or performance. The script will be shared with community organisations. The report and ethnodrama script will be translated into Italian to share the results of our research to Italian audiences. At the end of the project, we will hold a public event at Nottingham Contemporary in which we share research findings, and hold a public reading of the ethnodrama script. A smaller-scale parallel event will be held in Italy at an alternative theatre, working in collaboration with Cantieri Meticci, a theatre company with experience working with asylum seekers. The material will also be used to develop an online archive which will be hosted by the University of East London as part of their Social Sciences Living Refugee Archive.