From education to employment? Trajectories for young people in Lebanon in the context of protracted displacement.
Lead Research Organisation:
Oxford Brookes University
Department Name: Faculty of Tech, Design and Environment
Abstract
The overall question we seek to address in this research project is: In displacement settings, what shapes the trajectories of young people from education into employment? The project will analyse the trajectories from education to employment of young Palestinian refugees, young Syrian refugees and young Lebanese in two regions of Lebanon. Young people are here defined as people between the age of 15 and 29 years old in line with the official Lebanese definition.
The project is a collaboration between the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice, Oxford Brookes University and the Centre for Lebanese Studies at the Lebanese American University in Beirut.
Lebanon has received the most refugees in the world relative to its population. The arrival of refugees and its location in the Middle East has contributed to increased unemployment levels, a more vulnerable economy, and an overall reduction in welfare among its diverse population of Lebanese and non-Lebanese nationals. Lebanon is one of many countries where refugees cannot automatically work and where work can only be accessed through a work permit. The project will analyse trajectories from education and into employment in interaction with political, economic and social development at local, national and global scales. Currently, there is limited research examining the relationship between education and employment prospects for children and young people in the context of protracted displacement and conflict. The proposed project seeks to rectify this gap in knowledge by focusing on how young people move from education to employment. With an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners, the key idea is to understand the role of displacement and the particular status and restrictions that come with this status. Lebanon is a highly relevant example because the trajectories of refugees in varying displacement contexts may be juxtaposed with trajectories of Lebanese young people who may have experienced internal displacement and conflict, but nevertheless have a legal status that allows formal employment. With calls for more understanding of displacement and urban contexts, the project will consider two different urban contexts in Lebanon: the suburb of Bourj Al Barajneh in Beirut and the Southern town of Saida. The principal research questions we seek to answer in this research are:
1. How does legal status (refugee, national, migrant, displaced) and the accompanying rights and restrictions of that status impact trajectories from education to employment?
2. What is the interaction between different types of education (including no education) and employment for different groups of young people in the context of protracted displacement?
In order analyse trajectories from education to employment, we will collect and formulate narratives along the following dimensions that may impact trajectories from education to (un)employment:
a. Background, family-history, place of origin and capabilities of young individuals
b. Narratives of individual young people's trajectories navigating from education to employment
c. Local context and place-based characteristics
d. National and local level institutional arrangements and policies on education and employment
We will conduct 180 interviews from young people and 180 with their families, in addition to interviews to construct place-based and institutional narratives. From a collective analysis with the principal stakeholders of this research we will formulate profiles of typical and unusual trajectories from education to employment. The trajectories will be analysed by seeking to explain turning points in individual narratives by intersecting dimensions in family narratives, place based narratives and institutional narratives. From the narratives, we will also set up a play and an exhibition in close collaboration with our partners in Lebanon Al Jana and Blue Mission.
The project is a collaboration between the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice, Oxford Brookes University and the Centre for Lebanese Studies at the Lebanese American University in Beirut.
Lebanon has received the most refugees in the world relative to its population. The arrival of refugees and its location in the Middle East has contributed to increased unemployment levels, a more vulnerable economy, and an overall reduction in welfare among its diverse population of Lebanese and non-Lebanese nationals. Lebanon is one of many countries where refugees cannot automatically work and where work can only be accessed through a work permit. The project will analyse trajectories from education and into employment in interaction with political, economic and social development at local, national and global scales. Currently, there is limited research examining the relationship between education and employment prospects for children and young people in the context of protracted displacement and conflict. The proposed project seeks to rectify this gap in knowledge by focusing on how young people move from education to employment. With an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners, the key idea is to understand the role of displacement and the particular status and restrictions that come with this status. Lebanon is a highly relevant example because the trajectories of refugees in varying displacement contexts may be juxtaposed with trajectories of Lebanese young people who may have experienced internal displacement and conflict, but nevertheless have a legal status that allows formal employment. With calls for more understanding of displacement and urban contexts, the project will consider two different urban contexts in Lebanon: the suburb of Bourj Al Barajneh in Beirut and the Southern town of Saida. The principal research questions we seek to answer in this research are:
1. How does legal status (refugee, national, migrant, displaced) and the accompanying rights and restrictions of that status impact trajectories from education to employment?
2. What is the interaction between different types of education (including no education) and employment for different groups of young people in the context of protracted displacement?
In order analyse trajectories from education to employment, we will collect and formulate narratives along the following dimensions that may impact trajectories from education to (un)employment:
a. Background, family-history, place of origin and capabilities of young individuals
b. Narratives of individual young people's trajectories navigating from education to employment
c. Local context and place-based characteristics
d. National and local level institutional arrangements and policies on education and employment
We will conduct 180 interviews from young people and 180 with their families, in addition to interviews to construct place-based and institutional narratives. From a collective analysis with the principal stakeholders of this research we will formulate profiles of typical and unusual trajectories from education to employment. The trajectories will be analysed by seeking to explain turning points in individual narratives by intersecting dimensions in family narratives, place based narratives and institutional narratives. From the narratives, we will also set up a play and an exhibition in close collaboration with our partners in Lebanon Al Jana and Blue Mission.
Planned Impact
Who will benefit from this research?
The primary stakeholders of this project are young people in Lebanon, Syrian refugees, Palestinian refugees and young Lebanese nationals in areas with Syrian and Palestinian refugees and their families. In addition, stakeholders and those who will directly benefit from our research will include: policy makers at national and international level, local and national authorities; local, national and international civil society in Lebanon and beyond; and host communities.
How will they benefit from this research?
As a result of the project we seek to influence the ways in which education and employment are considered together in refugee policies and we will be able to provide advice for specific areas of intervention.
The project will be a resource for understanding how to target and assist particular groups of young people and hence become a useful tool in programming for local and national organisations. The project will also help to strengthen the bonds between international, national and local governmental and non governmental organisations. The collaborative model between academics and practitioners will directly strengthen research capacities in the two partnering organisations AlJana and Blue Mission. The project will also provide the two organisations with unique access to data and analyses. Through the partner organisations and other stakeholder encounters, we will also be able to engage in direct advocacy at all geographical scales.
Young people - the primary stakeholders - of this research will tell their stories and be involved in analysing their stories and creating explanations around the various trajectories of the profiles will be constructing. In this way, young people will develop more insights into the conditions in which they live. The workshops and interactions between young people and between different groups of young people will also enable social capital through the strengthening of local and national networks and increased social cohesion in a fragmented society.
What will be done to ensure that they have the opportunity to benefit from this activity?
A collaborative approach is our main response to the question about what we will do to ensure that primary stakeholders have the opportunity to benefit from the project. For young people and their families, we will not just conduct interviews with them, but they will also be involved in analysing the data in focus group discussions, performing the insights of the data through a play and through an exhibition of their stories. For the partner organisations, we will have staff employed in the organisations that will work actively in the project and help to embed the research into the organisations. For local authorities, we will run workshops and stakeholder meetings and they will be invited to exhibitions and to the play. For national and international policy makers we will be conducting stakeholder meetings and seminars in Beirut, London and Geneva and also create arenas where academics, policy makers and practitioners come together. We will also publish widely from the project. In order to make sure we can reach a wide audience, we aim to publish shorter opinion pieces that will be published widely through social media.
The primary stakeholders of this project are young people in Lebanon, Syrian refugees, Palestinian refugees and young Lebanese nationals in areas with Syrian and Palestinian refugees and their families. In addition, stakeholders and those who will directly benefit from our research will include: policy makers at national and international level, local and national authorities; local, national and international civil society in Lebanon and beyond; and host communities.
How will they benefit from this research?
As a result of the project we seek to influence the ways in which education and employment are considered together in refugee policies and we will be able to provide advice for specific areas of intervention.
The project will be a resource for understanding how to target and assist particular groups of young people and hence become a useful tool in programming for local and national organisations. The project will also help to strengthen the bonds between international, national and local governmental and non governmental organisations. The collaborative model between academics and practitioners will directly strengthen research capacities in the two partnering organisations AlJana and Blue Mission. The project will also provide the two organisations with unique access to data and analyses. Through the partner organisations and other stakeholder encounters, we will also be able to engage in direct advocacy at all geographical scales.
Young people - the primary stakeholders - of this research will tell their stories and be involved in analysing their stories and creating explanations around the various trajectories of the profiles will be constructing. In this way, young people will develop more insights into the conditions in which they live. The workshops and interactions between young people and between different groups of young people will also enable social capital through the strengthening of local and national networks and increased social cohesion in a fragmented society.
What will be done to ensure that they have the opportunity to benefit from this activity?
A collaborative approach is our main response to the question about what we will do to ensure that primary stakeholders have the opportunity to benefit from the project. For young people and their families, we will not just conduct interviews with them, but they will also be involved in analysing the data in focus group discussions, performing the insights of the data through a play and through an exhibition of their stories. For the partner organisations, we will have staff employed in the organisations that will work actively in the project and help to embed the research into the organisations. For local authorities, we will run workshops and stakeholder meetings and they will be invited to exhibitions and to the play. For national and international policy makers we will be conducting stakeholder meetings and seminars in Beirut, London and Geneva and also create arenas where academics, policy makers and practitioners come together. We will also publish widely from the project. In order to make sure we can reach a wide audience, we aim to publish shorter opinion pieces that will be published widely through social media.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Cathrine Brun (Principal Investigator) | |
| Maha Shuayb (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Abou Zaki H
(2021)
Dans le << cocktail >> de Chatila : discours et récits autour d'une perte passée, présente et future
in Ethnologie française
Brun C
(2023)
Twenty years of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies: towards a new ontology and epistemology
in Globalisation, Societies and Education
Shuayb M
(2021)
Carving Out Space for Equitable Collaborative Research in Protracted Displacement
in Journal of Refugee Studies
Shuayb M
(2020)
Reflection on the Education of Refugee Children: Beyond Reification and Emergency
in Refuge. Canada's Journal on Refugees
Brun C
(2020)
Exceptional and Futureless Humanitarian Education of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Prospects for Shifting the Lens.
in Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees
| Title | Here we are. A portrait of a youth in deadlock. |
| Description | The film follows young people who were part of our research project and narrates their stories and their hopes for education and employment. The film was made by Mohammad Ali Atassi and Joude Gorani |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | We are currently showcasing the film at various film festivals |
| Title | Lafeef: a publication showcasing the creative writing project for young people in Southern Lebanon |
| Description | As part of the project from Education to Employment, we had planned to conduct a collaborative analysis creatively with different art forms that would end up in an exhibition. However, due to the COVID pandemic this proved challenging and together with the activist organisation Lil Medina and the artist Amal Kaawash we organised a series of writing workshops with young people which has resulted in the book "Lafeef". Through the workshops, young people learnt to find their voice and write about their experiences and realities. The book currently published in Arabic, will also be available in English. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | As an important part of working with young people to understand their realities, the creative writing workshops worked as a way for young people to find ways of presenting their own stories and realities. As part of the workshops, a live reading performance by the participants were held at Nohye Al Ard community garden in Saida on October 10, 2021. In connection with the publication of the book, Amal Kaawash was interviewed on live radio Montecarlo on the 16th March 2022. The English version of the publication will be publicly available in the research repository of Oxford Brookes University and on a public facing page on the project. |
| Title | Stories from young people in times of crisis |
| Description | In what was originally planned as developing a theatre performance with research participants and the oral history organisation Al Jana, due to COVID, the theatre director Rouayda Al Ghali worked with 8 young research participants on zoom which ended in each of them producing a short performance that they filmed in their homes. Due to the sensitivity of the themes that they are addressing, we have not made the films widely available online but we are displaying them in different events. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The project had profound impact on the young people involved and they have used the films in their career building and training as well as a platform for disseminating their experiences. The films will be publicly available in the research repository of Oxford Brookes University and on a public facing page on the project. |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/events/stories-from-young-people-in-times-of-crisis-a-collaboration-betw... |
| Description | As part of the project we have achieved and discovered the following: 1. Analytical model: From the beginning of the project, an analytical model and method for studying young people's trajectories from education to employment in the context of uncertainty and protracted displacement were developed. The model, taking into account the multidimensional and multidirectional trajectories that distinguish young people's trajectories moving between different forms of education and different forms of employment. A journal article by Zoe Jordan and Cathrine Brun on this theme has been published in the open access journal of Social Sciences. We believe that our work will be helpful for other studies in this field. 2. As part of the project, we have developed typologies of trajectories from education to employment based around four dimensions: 'Education outcome' (whether the young person had completed basic education or not); 'Education disruption' (Whether their education was linear, disrupted for more than a year, or completed alongside substantial work); 'Employment outcome' (If the young person was employed, unemployed, or continuing their education at the time of the interview); 'Employment match'(Whether their employment matched their educational qualification). Of our 293 research participants in the two studies an overall a majority (72%) completed their basic education. 30% of our participants have a non-linear education, with an additional 9% having a linear education but leaving before completion. Of those whose education was severely disrupted for more than a year, only just over half had completed or were continuing their education. Nationals in both countries were more likely than refugees to have completed their education. We found a distinctive difference for Syrians, as compared to other nationalities and between the countries (18% of Syrian refugees completed linear education in Lebanon, and 48% in Jordan). Numbers are small, but those who completed education while working were often employed at the time of our interviews. 3. Nuanced understanding of leaving school (or school dropout): The article presenting the analytical framework by Jordan and Brun (mentioned in no 1), takes the experience and practice of leaving school as its example for understanding the breaking points (or what we term 'vital conjuncture') that determine the directions taken in a young person's trajectory. With the analysis of the 293 qualitative interviews conducted with young people in Lebanon and Jordan, a more nuanced understanding has been established of the process of leaving school, the multiple ending and starting school that finally result in either stopping or completing an education. We have also found that despite the huge structural constraints, there are other mechanisms that help young people to stay in school, related to young people's resources and capabilities. One of these dimensions is the role of what we term 'cheer leaders' - the supporters of young people's school trajectories in support to stay in and complete school. Mother's education plays a huge role in supporting young people, similarly the role of teachers, extended family members as well as support through role models in civil society organisations. More knowledge is needed on these support networks and we are pointing to some of this in a forth coming paper by Zoe Jordan, Susannah Webb and Cathrine Brun. 4. The problem with national refugee education policies approached through humanitarianism: The research into young people's trajectories between education and employment has also resulted in a policy analysis of education measures for refugees in Lebanon. In a journal article by Maha Shuayb and Cathrine Brun (published in the open access journal Refuge in 2020) we consider the problems with the short term humanitarian logic used to deliver education in a protracted refugee crisis. We identify the challenges with the exclusionary approach to assisting refugees and suggest alternative approaches to create a more just, inclusionary and high quality-education system for refugees. The article is part of a special issue of Refuge where Shuayb together with Maurice Crul summarises some of the key challenges in the current field of refugee education. Particularly significant insights from our project is the more exclusionary approach that is taken towards refugee education where a 'reification' of refugees means continued separation between groups of youth. There is a need to rethink the education offered to refugees in the current humanitarian model of giving access but not prioritising quality education and its relevance. 5. Emergency education - ways forward for the international humanitarian community: Following from the Refuge paper, Shuayb and Brun suggested in a widely read blog, co-published by Centre for Lebanese Studies and Centre for Development and Emergency Practice, and a webinar, five critical points for Education in Emergencies: we summarise the challenges regarding refugee education related to the need for a wider discussion of the purpose of education, how education is delivered, the need for a more participatory and socially just approach that can help to shift the power both nationally and internationally. These observations are also emphasised in the special issue published in Refuge and edited by Maha Shuayb and Maurice Crul. 6. The role of legal status: Our main question in this research project is about how legal status (whether a refugee or a national) impacts on young people's trajectories between education and employment. In addition to the qualitative interviews, we conducted a quantitative survey of 1442 young people in Jordan and Lebanon (Syrian and Palestinian refugees, Jordanian and Lebanese nationals). The overall conclusion from the data is that legal status does have an impact on youth's overall education and employment. In both countries, legal status has an impact on educational attainment and educational qualifications, but it is more significant in Lebanon than in Jordan. This shows that refugees struggle in accessing and progressing in their education in Lebanon compared to Jordan. Male refugees are more likely to drop out than women potentially due to a bigger pressure on them to join the job market to provide financial support for their families. We also found that legal status in interaction with other social positions (particularly gender and socio-economic status) contributes to the experience of refugees being stuck in a difficult situation where social mobility and development of lives through education and employment are almost impossible to achieve. Particularly, legal status plays a critical role in the case of lower and middle classes and have less impact on upper classes who are able to secure work permit or housing more easily. Crucially, our findings also emphasise that refugees are not one homogenous group but that being a Palestinian or a Syrian refugee together with class and gender in particular play significant roles in shaping the refugee experience. There is a particular point in young refugees' trajectories when they realise that their future possibilities are restricted due to their legal status. At this point, their aspirations are often modified and education becomes less attractive to some, despite education continuing to have a very high value among young people. The meaning/value of education and of different types of employment then tend to vary over time in young people's trajectories. In addition to the particular experience of the legal status by Palestinian and Syrian refugees, the "instability" of the Lebanese legal framework (largely based on decrees) is an additional challenge for refugees living in Lebanon and leads to different experiences of displacement depending on the year the young person entered the country or searched for a job ( for example the July 2019 ministerial decree requiring non-Lebanese labourers to obtaining a work permit). As well as the experience of moving in and out of illegality and the laboursome and often costly process of obtaining a legal status, While legal status has an important impact on young. Refugees lives, there are significant commonalities between refugees and nationals in the experience of challenges and aspirations for the future: these shared experiences are both related to schooling, the relationship between education and employment and the experience of an uncertain future that influence their aspirations. In particular, there is a shared aspiration to emigrate to escape the dire financial situation in Lebanon. 7. We find a clear disconnect between education and employment: in the quantitative survey of 1442 young people in Jordan and Lebanon we found that there is a disconnect between education and employment in all groups studied (regardless of whether a national or a refugee), strengthening our argument above that more discussion on the purpose of education is needed. This indicates that across all groups studied, education is not relevant to employment. In other words, there is a mismatch between the education youth receive or pursue and the type of employment they can access. This is even more important in the case of Palestinian and Syrian youth who have limited access to the labour market due to their legal status. 8. The different interests that affect young people's trajectories between education and employment: In our research we have identified the differing policy and political interests embedded in the international and national response towards refugees. The discourse on the humanitarian-development nexus has taken a minimalist understanding of development, which is entirely economical and without attention to the human development factors that young people are deeply concerned about. This has led to Underemployment and decent work conditions, including pay, stability, and treatment at work are major issues for young people who feel exploited and without rights. Young people value education and also vocational education and short courses as a way of bridging education gaps and the feeling of doing something useful even though it does not directly provide a work opportunity. Young people continue to invest in their own futures as best as they can. In order to support young people in building their futures, it is not enough with simplistic economic self-reliance models. Much more emphasis needs to be placed on understanding pre-existing inequalities which needs to be incorporated into both the crisis response as well as discussions on longer term development. 9. Decolonise research collaborations and knowledge production: A pressing need to decolonise research collaborations and knowledge production between global north and south research collaboration in the field education for refugee children: Our research collaboration over the past few years have further exposed the unequal power dynamics between the global north and south research collaborations which become more prominent in knowledge production and research networks. Maha Shuayb and Cathrine Brun published an article on this in the Journal of Refugee Studies titled "Carving out space for equitable collaborative research in protracted displacement." We are also n the process of publishing work on the collaborative analysis and artistic work that we did with the research participants. |
| Exploitation Route | First, we believe that our analytical and methodological frameworks will be useful to other researchers in the field. Second, we believe that understanding how young people enter employment and the meaning of their education for employment in the current climate of uncertainty and precarity will be important for formulating employment policies in displacement settings. Third, the findings so far can be useful for redesigning the ways in which education is offered in protracted displacement. Particularly adding to the discussion of how to design education for refugees in an inequitable society. Four, the findings will contribute to change the international humanitarian community's approach to education in protracted displacement Five, the nuanced understanding of how young people leave education will contribute to developing better strategies for finding ways for young people to complete education and to select relevant education paths. Six, we are working with several research networks in the global north and south on addressing the decolonisation of migration studies especially in the field of education for refugee children. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://www.brookes.ac.uk/Research/Units/TDE/Projects/Education-to-Employment |
| Description | Our dissemination in blogs and webinars have contributed to the discourse in the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies. Our findings have led to a wider discussion on the purpose of education in the field of Education in Emergencies. In this context the PIs, Maha Shuayb and Cathrine Brun have published three widely used blogs: (2020) Education in Emergencies: five critical points for shifting the power. Blog-post jointly published by the Centre for Lebanese Studies and the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice, http://cendep.blogspot.com/2020/12/education-in-em ergencies-five-critical.html; (2020) For young Syrian refugees, education and employment cannot remain apolitical, Open Democracy, 20th November 2020, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west -asia/young-syrian-refugees-education-and-employment-cannot-remain-apolitical/; and "6 years after the London Syria conference: Was it a gamble to invest in the crumbling Lebanese public school system?" (2022). The webinar "Education in Emergencies 20 years on" hosted by the Centre for Lebanese Studies were attended by policy makers in the UK and internationally who incorporated our ideas in their further discussions on decolonising education in emergencies. Shuayb also published two opeds on education of refugee children including an Oped in Open Democracy. Shuayb, M. 2020. How a generation of Syrian children in Lebanon were robbed of their education, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west -asia/how-generation-syrian-children-lebanon-were- robbed-their-education/ and Shuayb, M, and Hammoud, M. (2021), The Protracted Reality of Syrian Children in Lebanon: Why Go to School with no Prospects? ( https://lebanesestudies.com/the-protracted-reality -of-syrian-children-in-lebanon-why-go-to-school-wi th-no-prospects/) Alexandra Kassir and Hala Caroline Abou Zaki also published an oped in Open Democracy (June 2021): Why it's important to see displaced people as more than just 'refugees' (https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/why-its-important-to-see-displaced-people-as-more-than-just-refugees/). Further to this work, Maha Shuayb and Cathrine Brun published the earlier mentioned oped on the Centre for Lebanese Studies homepages in connection with the 6 year anniversary of the London Donor meeting: "6 years after the London Syria conference: Was it a gamble to invest in the crumbling Lebanese public school system?" (https://lebanesestudies.com/6-years-after-the-london-syria-conference-was-it-a-gamble-to-invest-in-the-crumbling-lebanese-public-school-system/) which gained much traction in social media. Shuayb published two opeds one focused on localization entitled "Localisation only pays lip service to fixing aid's colonial legacy" https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2022/2/8/Localisation-lip-service-fixing-aid-colonial-legacy. The second article was focused on the use of data on Education in Emergency "Opinion: Beyond just programming: data as an instrument of power and activism" https://www.devex.com/news/sponsored/opinion-beyond-just-programming-data-as-an-instrument-of-power-and-activism-102441. The Documentary film produced by Ali Atassi and Joude Gorani. The documentary, which had additional funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), involved research participants in telling their stories in a different format and helped to disseminate the insights from the research in a popular format with wide reach. The documentary is currently being showed at different national and international festivals. The project planned to work with research participants and a theatre director to develop a play. However, due to COVID, we had to do the mentoring by the director on Zoom and as a result seven research participants developed a format for expressing their views and narratives through theatre which was filmed as short stories. This project was conducted with the Oral History organization Al Jana, who co-hosted a screening of these films in Beirut. In addition, we worked with the activist organisation Lil Medina. In what was originally planned to be developing an art exhibition, again due to COVID turned into a series of writing workshops where research participants were coached in learning to express themselves through writing. The written narratives have been published in Arabic and the English translation is in press and have been shared in a public reading in Saida. Texts selected by the young participants are presented in the popular book "From Education to Employment? Youth trajectories in protracted crisis" and website (www.educationtoemployment.org) documenting the outcomes from the project. Overall, our research has managed to keep the participatory dimension with the young people running throughout the project despite the COVID pandemic and the deep financial crisis in Lebanon. The impact has been important for the young research participants in multiple ways. Through collaborative analysis workshops and engagements in artistic production, the participants have had the opportunity to understand their own story and situate them in a wider societal context. It has created new networks and friendships among research participants and a platform to disseminate their stories and realities. In addition through a series of workshops, we have worked with the organisation Lil Medina on activism as well writing workshops where participants have been coached in writing their own stories. All the participatory activities have helped to further the insights of Young People's Trajectories from education to employment. The project helped us to stay in the policy discussions on education and education to employment for young people in the MENA region. In a final seminar summarizing the results and outcomes from the research we had ILO, UNHCR and civil society participants. The project thus enabled us to be firmly embedded in policy discussions on education in Lebanon. In the last year, and building on the work we did in this project, the Centre for Lebanese Studies has worked actively with media outlets and civil society networks to campaign for solutions to the deep education crisis in Lebanon. We consider the research project an important building block for the Centre's impact on policy and in the education sector. With this project, the centre was able to work with different stakeholders: we have worked for sustainability in the engaged scholarship that the Centre is involved in. At the Centre for Lebanese Studies, we are now starting to see the fruition of this work, and the Centre is at the centre of policy discussions for change in the education sector at the moment. However, the work has also faced risks and there are concerns for the ways in which actors in the Lebanese society are attempting to limit academic freedom. Continuing to support research centres that are politically independent and who can use knowledge from solid research to advocate for policy change will be even more important in the future. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Towards employment? Youth trajectories in Jordan and Lebanon's refugee crisis |
| Amount | $546,528 (USD) |
| Organisation | International Development Research Centre |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Canada |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 08/2020 |
| Title | From Education to Employment? Youth trajectories in the context of protracted displacement. Creative Productions. |
| Description | This dataset consist of creative productions made by young research participants throughout the project: 15 River of Life drawings showcasing young people's trajectories through their own drawings, 8 short films with young people's performances ("Stories from young people in times of crisis"); Lafeef: the creative writing project; in addition to ten creative writing pieces by young people. In addition, there is 40 anonymised summaries representing the 293 qualitative interviews, presented in narrative form. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The database has not yet been made available to the public, but will be available during the first half of 2022 in the research repository of Oxford Brookes University and on a public facing page on the project. |
| Title | From Education to Employment? Youth trajectories in the context of protracted displacement. Qualitative data. |
| Description | The dataset is the transcripts of 293 qualitative interviews with young people aged 15 to 29 years old (nationals and Palestinians and Syrian refugees) in Lebanon and Jordan, 45 interviews with family members of those young people focusing on Young People's Trajectories from education to employment. The dataset is not open access due to confidentiality, but can be accessed upon an application two the Centre for Lebanese Studies and the Centre for Development and Emergency practice and after an ethics approval. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | It is too early to describe any impact |
| URL | https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/99c5f2ea-f209-4c77-ab93-29fa02459a1d/1/ |
| Title | From Education to Employment? Youth trajectories in the context of protracted displacement. Quantitative data. |
| Description | This is a data set with 1442 questionnaires with young people aged 15 to 29 years old in Lebanon and Jordan (nationals and Syrian and Palestinian refugees). The questionnaires map the meaning of legal status for young people's education to employment trajectories as well as the impact of other social and economic positions for those trajectories. The dataset is currently embargoed, but we aim for it to be open access from 2024 available in the research repository, RADAR, of Oxford Brookes University and on a public facing page showcasing the project. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Too early to describe any impact |
| Description | Hala Caroline Abou Zaki is fellow at the Institut Convergences et Migrations (France) which brings together hundreds of researchers from French research centers and universities who work on migration issues. |
| Organisation | College of France |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I collaborate and contribute to this partnership by participating in the research activities of the institute (attend internal meetings, workshops and seminars) |
| Collaborator Contribution | As a fellow, this is an opportunity to present and discuss the research of our awarded project "From education to employment". I can exchange on the project with the other fellows of the institute who work on migration issues in the field of social sciences and humanities. |
| Impact | Meetings and discussion about the project Disseminate the project within a network of hundreds of researchers who work on migration issues Develop possible future partnerships with French research centers and universities |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | LERRN: Local Engagement Refugee Research Network. It consists of a team of researchers and practitioners committed to promoting protection and solutions with and for refugees. Its goal is to ensure that refugee research, policy and practice are shaped by a more inclusive, equitable and informed collective engagement of civil society. Through collaborative research, training, and knowledge-sharing, it aim to improve the functioning of the global refugee regime and ensure more timely protection |
| Organisation | Carleton University |
| Country | Canada |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The project hosted three internships of graduate students at CLS who helped with the interviews and literature reviews. We are also co-organising a conference on Global North/South collaboration in Context of displacement in May 30 and 31 2020 We are co-organising a panel at the upcoming International Association of the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM): Building sustainable research ecosystems on refugee and forced migration studies in the global South: |
| Collaborator Contribution | Based on our collaboration, our local NGO partner Al Jana was also invited by LERRN to Canada to present their work on oral Palestinian history. Two of our research team members attended LERRN refugee summer school in Kenya which explored migration studies. During the workshop our team members discuss the Lebanese and Jordanian response to the Syrian crisis and exchanged their experiences with colleagues from the African context and policy makers. https://carleton.ca/lerrn/2019/launch-of-innovative-training-on-forced-migration/ |
| Impact | This is a multidisciplinary collaboration and the outputs are still in progress |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | "Here We Are" Documentary Screening at the Karama Beirut Film Festival Closing Night in Beirut Sunday, 26 September 2021. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The documentary "Here we are" was screened at the Karama Film Festival in the festival's closing event on the 21st September 2021 in the Sunflower Theatre in Beirut, Lebanon. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with the youth and the directors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Being young through conflict and displacement: changing meanings of "youth" among Syrian youth in Lebanon |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blog by Hala Caroline Abou Zaki and Zoe Jordan: A 'lost generation', a source of potential instability, and the hope for the future: young people displaced by conflict are increasingly the focus of national and international attention and intervention. Yet there are limited representations of Syrian youths' own perceptions and experiences of displacement.[i] Our research questions what shapes young people's trajectories from education to employment in protracted displacement in Jordan and Lebanon. In this blog, we explore how the experience of conflict-induced displacement has altered the meaning of 'youth' and 'being young' for young Syrians living in Lebanon. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | http://www.youthcirculations.com/blog/2021/4/19/being-young-through-conflict-and-displacement-changi... |
| Description | Blog posts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Over the period of the project, we are publishing blogposts on the CENDEP blog |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://cendep.blogspot.com/2019/11/work-in-progress-exceptional-and.html |
| Description | Blog: (2020) Education in Emergencies: five critical points for shifting the power. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blog-post jointly published by the Centre for Lebanese Studies and the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice http://cendep.blogspot.com/2020/12/education-in-emergencies-five-critical.html and https://lebanesestudies.com/education-in-emergencies-at-20-five-critical-points-for-shifting-the-power/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://cendep.blogspot.com/2020/12/education-in-emergencies-five-critical.html |
| Description | Carving out space for equitable collaborative research in protracted displacement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Max Planc institute for Social Anthropology, Department of Law, Germany: Event: Vulnerability under the global protection regime 20 Feb 2020 Talk: Carving out space for equitable collaborative research in protracted displacement (by Maha Shuayb based on paper by Shuayb and Brun) Around 40 people attended the talk which was part of the kick of of a new Horizon 2020 funded research grant which brings together scholars from the Global North and South. Hence the talk was very timely for us to think about equitable research collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Collaboration, co-production and co-analysis: producing and disseminating knowledge on education and employment in protracted displacement in Lebanon and Jordan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), Canterbury, UK n Conference presentation by Zoe Jordan, Alexandra Kassir and Oroub El-Abed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Conference presentation and panel organisation International Association for the Study of Forced Migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Zoe Jordan co-convened with Katharina Lenner (University of Bath) a panel at the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) from the 1st to the 5th August 2022, Universidade Catolica de Santos, Colombia. The panel was titled "Intersections of labour, gender and displacement in the Middle East". Dr. Jordan's talk was titled " From education to employment? Young women's transitions to employment in protracted displacement". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://iasfm.org/iasfm19/ |
| Description | Decolonising the Research Industry and Collaborative Research: A Critique of Localisation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a conference presentation at the Comparative International Education Society annual conference 2022 (April 18th to 22nd) by Maha shay |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://cies2022.org |
| Description | Dr. Hala Caroline Abou Zaki was the discussant for a book launch |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Hala Caroline Abou Zaki was invited discussant at the book launch of Perla Issa's book "The Endurance of Palestinian Political Factions: An Everyday Perspective from Nahr el-Bared Camp". The talk was organized by Professor S. Hanafi, The Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES) & the Institute for Palestine Studies, 22 November 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Every Action Counts: Determinants of young people's trajectories from education to employment in protracted displacement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a blogpost written by the team in connection with the World Refugee Day in June 2020. The blog was based on the findings from a quantitative survey we did with more than 1400 youth in Jordan and Lebanon |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://e2e.home.blog |
| Description | Exceptional and futureless humanitarian education in Lebanon: Prospects for shifting the lens. By Maha Shuayb and Cathrine Brun |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The talk was part of the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) at Oxford Brookes Public Seminar Series: In this talk, we aim to unpack and analyse the potentials and shortcomings of a humanitarian framework for educational responses in protracted displacement. Most literature on this topic tends to examine humanitarianism and education separately and few studies have analysed the effect of the humanitarian model on the education provisions and policies and most importantly on the outcomes. Humanitarianism is concerned with the immediate while education is a future oriented-activity. Hence the interrelation between the two might appear an oxymoron. At the same time, calls to shift the humanitarian discourse from relief and survival to development have given strong grounds to include education as part of the humanitarian response in a situation of crisis. Yet there is a lack of clarity concerning the concept of development which the education provisions rest on. In the talk we will unpack the concept of education in emergency and its effect on students' schooling outcomes. The study focuses on Lebanon as a case to analyse the potentials and limitations of this model. To do so, the study analyses the educational policies and interventions Lebanon introduced in the last seven years since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis and examine their impact on the education outcomes of Syrian children. In conclusion, we reflect on some of the potential outcomes of the current model and introduces some alternatives to the current education system for refugees. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://cendep.blogspot.com/2019/11/work-in-progress-exceptional-and.html |
| Description | For young Syrian refugees, education and employment cannot remain apolitical |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a blogpost for Open Democracy written by the PIs Maha Shuayb and Cathrine Brun |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/young-syrian-refugees-education-and-employme... |
| Description | From Education to Employment: Youth Trajectories in Jordan and Lebanon in the Context of Protracted Displacement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This online event took place on the 13th October 2021 and presented the finding from our quantitative study, primarily funded by the IDRC but with conceptual develop from the ESRC team. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/events/from-education-to-employment-youth-trajectories-in-jordan-and-leb... |
| Description | From Education to Employment? Young people's trajectories in the context of protracted displacement in Lebanon and Jordan. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a final event of the project to disseminate the main findings of the project. The event was a collaboration between Centre for Lebanese Studies at Lebanese American University, the Institute for Migration Studies (IMS) at LAU and CENDEP at Oxford Brookes University. Dr. Jasmin Lillian Diab from IMS and Dr Kishore Kumar Singh from the International Labour Organisation acted as discussants. From the project team, Dr. Zoe Jordan, Dr. Alexandra Kassir, Dr. Hala Caroline Abou Zaki and Dr. Oroub El Abed contributed. Prof Cathrine Brun chaired the online event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | How Global is the Forced Migration Studies Literature? Knowledge Production, Access, and Representation. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a webinar organised by our partner LERRN titled: LERRN's Analysis of Refuge and RSQ: Reflections on Knowledge Production, Access, and Representation on the 26th February 2021. Co-PI Maha Shuayb did a presentation and participated in the discussion as part of our initiatives around global south-north collaborations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | How a generation of Syrian children in Lebanon were robbed of their education, |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was an oped for Open Democracy setting out some of the findings from our policy review Author: Maha Shuayb |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/how-generation-syrian-children-lebanon-were-... |
| Description | Lebanon Uprising - the road to reform? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A panel discussion was held in London to discuss how can the hopes of the Lebanese people for a less corrupt and less sectarian political system be fulfilled? What needs to be done to rebuild the economy and avoid financial meltdown? The panel attended in particular to the question The talk unpacked the economic roots of the crisis and its effect on youth. Expert panelists debated around these themes and answered the audience's questions. Panelists were: Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS; Dr. Maha Shuayb, Director of the Centre forLebanese Studies; Paul Raphael, Founding Chairman of LIFE. Joumanna Bercetche, CNBC Anchor moderated the talk. 200 people attended and the event was streamed online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/events/lebanon-uprising-the-road-to-reform/ |
| Description | Lebanon's "October revolution" : An end to the civil war? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was an oped for Open Democracy The oped situates our work in the context of Lebanon's October Revolution Author: Alexandra Kassir |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/lebanons-october-revolution-end-civil-war/ |
| Description | Lebanon's "October revolution" : An end to the civil war? Op Ed by Alexandra Kassir |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The OpEd presented a contextualisation to the October Revolution in Lebanon |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/papers/lebanons-october-revolution-an-end-to-the-civil-war/ |
| Description | Localisation only pays lip service to fixing aid's colonial legacy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This is a commentary on the meaning of localisation as seen from the globe south researcher and builds on the discussions and experiences we have had in this project, |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2022/2/8/Localisation-lip-service-fixing-aid-colonial-leg... |
| Description | Opinion: Beyond just programming: data as an instrument of power and activism by Dr. Maha Shuayb |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this op ed Dr Maha Shuayb discusses the role of data in the context of education in emergencies, or EIE, and its tendency to focus the discussion on data gaps on the operational aspect of education, i.e., what data is lacking to improve programming and provisions rather than engaging with the broader aims and purposes of collecting data or education. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.devex.com/news/sponsored/opinion-beyond-just-programming-data-as-an-instrument-of-power-... |
| Description | Palestinian and Syrian Families Refugees in Lebanon Faced with Uncertainty: Preliminary Reflections (in French) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The talk, on March 2020, was given during a seminar at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Hala Abou Zaki presented her preliminary reflections on Palestinian and Syrian families refugees in Lebanon facing with uncertainty, based on the data she has collected during her fieldwork in Lebanon. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Palestinian and Syrian refugee families in Lebanon : preliminary reflections. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk by Hala Caroline Abou Zaki for the Seminar-series Family, Societies and States in the Contemporary Arab Countries, Turkey and Iran. Institute for the Study of Islam and Muslim Societies (IISMM), Paris. 11th March 2020 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Palestinians in Lebanon: experiencing and navigating precariousness and uncertainty |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Abou Zaki, H.C.,. 22 July 2020 - "Palestinians in Lebanon: experiencing and navigating precariousness and uncertainty", Présentation for the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), Panel 130 Contexts and experiences of precariousness: discourses, practices and emotions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2020/ |
| Description | Panel organiser Youth and Migration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Hala Caroline Abou Zaki was Co-organizer of the panel Jeunes, jeunesses et migrations [Youth and Migrations] at the 4th Congress of Studies on the Middle East and Muslim World, Aix-Marseille, 28 June 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Partnerships in refugee education in Lebanon: Insights from country-level analysis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a conference presentation at the Comparative International Education Society annual conference 2022 (April 18th to 22nd) by Maha Shuayb and Ola Al Samhoury |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://cies2022.org |
| Description | Project Launch Oxford Brookes University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | During the Oxford Human Rights Festival in March 2019, we organised a project launch at Oxford Brookes University. We had Johanna Waters from University of Cambridge commenting on the project. The audience ranged from the general public, to invited NGOs, academics and postgraduate students. The project was introduced by the three staff employed by the project at Oxford Brookes University, Hala Caroline Abou Zaki, Zoe Jordan and Cathrine Brun. After Johanna Waters very informative and thoughtprovoking commentary on the project, we opened up for questions and answers from the audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Project Launch in Beirut, April 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Together with the co-funded IDRC project, we did a project launch in Beirut in April 2019. The launch attracted a wider range of audience from various Civil society organisations, a representative from the Canadian Embassy, From the British Council,. academic colleagues from different universities in Lebanon, students and project partners. The launch had presentations and commentary on associated projects in Lebanon from Mona Harb (American University of Beirut), Walid Marrouche (Lebanese American University) and presentations by Oroub ElAbed (representing the Centre for Lebanese Studies in Jordan), Maha Shuayb and Cathrine Brun. Through the launch, we aimed to make links with some of the key research environments on youth in Lebanon, some of the most important organisations working on relevant themes and to make our project known in the policy environment. The launch was highly successful and led to a number of new contacts from which the project has benefitted hugely. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Research collaborations with nongovernmental organisations and civil society: the spectacle continues or a potential for decolonising research? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk Danish Institute for International Studies 221019 by Cathrine Brun With discussant from the Danish Red Cross (Head of International Operations). The talk described the collaboration in the Education to Employment Project with non governmental organisations and discussed some of the issues around co-production of knowledge across different partners. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Research collaborations with nongovernmental organisations and civil society: the spectacle continues or a potential for decolonising research? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The talk, from January 2020 at Makerere University, used the same idea as an original talk given by Cathrine Brun at the Danish Institute of International Studies. However, the talk focused more on the existing research collaboration between CNEDEP, Oxford Brookes and the Centre for Lebanese Studies through our collaboration on the from Education to Employment project. The talk circled on the different types of collaborations in the project: North-South Academic collaborations as well as academic-practitioner collaborations. The audience, mainly academics and postgraduate students from Makerere University, shared their many experiences of such collaborations and we discussed ways in which to transgress the North-South boundaries. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Research-Collaborations in Education and Displacement: the Spectacle Continues or the Potential for Decolonising Practices? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a conference presentation at the Comparative International Education Society annual conference 2022 (April 18th to 22nd) by Cathrine Brun |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://cies2022.org |
| Description | Rethinking solutions in never ending displacement: what are the alternatives? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a webinar on alternatives to durable solutions for refugees, coming out of the work we are doing in the project. The discussion between co-PI Maha Shuayb, Nicholas Van Hear (University of Oxford) and Anita Fabos (Clark University, US) centred around what alternatives there are for people living in unending displacement, We reflected on the findings of how insights of education for refugees can be useful for the discussion. The webinar for organised by the other co-PI of the project Cathrine Brun |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Round Table on Cultural and Artistic Safe Spaces for young people |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The talk by two project members, Dr. Alexandra Kassir and Dr. Hala Caroline Abou Zaki was titled "Beyond co-production and co-analysis: unpacking the potential of academic-artistic collaborations in opening safe spaces for young people in Lebanon" and was part of a round table titled "Cultural and Artistic Safe Spaces in the Middle East and the Gulf" organised by the French Institute for the Near East (Ifpo / Amman), 18 July 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Social movements in the global pandemic |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was an international webinar on social movements and social change in the context of the global pandemic. Author: Alexandra Kassir |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.fmsh.fr/en/college-etudesmondiales/30971 |
| Description | Stories from young people in times of crisis: a collaboration between research and art: Eight short film screenings followed by an open discussion with young artists |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In this event which was face to face and online (via Facebook), we screened the eight short films we produced with research participants. The event was an opportunity for the research participants to discuss their experiences with the project as well as the realities they present in their piece. The films talked to the particular experience of being trapped in the current crisis. The research findings revealed a mismatch between education and employment. Insights show that investment in education for youth does not yield better access to employment and employment outcomes. Hence, investing in secondary education may not be considered meaningful for most families in the current socio-economic climate in both countries. The findings lead researchers to question the meaning of education in a refugee setting and the impact of refugee education strategies developed by humanitarian organisations, education clusters, and governments. In eight short clips, the young performers caught in a deadlock share their daily struggles, challenges, and hopes for the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/events/stories-from-young-people-in-times-of-crisis-a-collaboration-betw... |
| Description | Talk to he General Assembly of the Association pour les jumelages entre les camps de réfugiés palestiniens et les villes françaises (AJPF), France, 3 December 2022. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Hala Caroline Abou Zaki was invited guest speaker for the General Assembly of the Association pour les jumelages entre les camps de réfugiés palestiniens et les villes françaises (AJPF), France, 3 December 2022. Her talk was titled: << Les camps de réfugiés palestiniens au Liban : un état des lieux >> [Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon: an overview], |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | The "Refugee Brand" and Humanitarian Education, |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The talk was given by Dr. Maha Shuayb at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, 28 Feb 2020. Over 40 students and faculty staff attended. The talk helped answer some of the common questions on Education and Emergency in Lebanon. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/events/eri-open-seminar-on-friday-28th-february-2020/ |
| Description | The "Refugee Brand" and Humanitarian Education: a critique of the discourse of education of refugee children |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The talk by Dr Maha Shuayb was part of the Centre for Education and International Development (CEID) at UCL "Education in Conflict and Emergencies Seminar Series, 2019/20" 40 people attended the talk which highlighted the challenges of adopting humanitarian education. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/events/perspectives-on-humanitarian-and-refugee-education/ |
| Description | The Protracted Reality of School-Aged Syrian Refugees in Lebanon: Why go to school with no prospects? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was a blog posted on Centre for Lebanese Studies own web page. Aithors: Maha Shuayb and Mohammad Hammoud |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/the-protracted-reality-of-syrian-children-in-lebanon-why-go-to-school-wi... |
| Description | The logic of the camp in the global refugee regime: containment between the geopolitics of fear and geoeconomics of promise in Lebanon and Jordan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was part of a workshop organised by the Christian Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway. Cathrine Brun presented an analysis of the legal status as experienced by young people and framed in the context of containment between economic and political interests of the national and international refugee regimes: Abstract: While the focus of attention has to some extent shifted from camps to urban areas in the global refugee regime, the logic of the camp continues to dominate assistance and protection towards refugees: Refugees across the world dwell in temporary, exclusionary and marginal spaces. They are largely governed outside the governance structures of the host states. People forced to move as a result of conflict cannot escape the camp-logic of care and control and this logic of the camp has become a device that produces spaces and positions for refugees that are almost always outside the mainstream society. In this presentation, I reflected on the interaction between geopolitics and geoeconomics in maintaining the logic of the camp in the global refugee regime and in the two national contexts of Lebanon and Jordan. The continued presence of the camp-logic in the two countries represents a geopolitics of fear - a securitised approach - where states maintain the urge to control people on the move as a result of conflict: People are considered out of place and generally a threat to security. In close interaction with the securitisation approach, however, is a geoeconomic approach to refugees represented here by the neoliberal governance of the refugee with a promise of development resulting in self-reliance, progress and empowerment. To understand the material outcomes of this interaction of geopolitics and geoeconomics, I analyse how young people living with displacement in Lebanon and Jordan experience their legal status as non-nationals between transit and containment. I show how they negotiate the logic of the camp in the meeting points between the securitised national approach and the international community's promise of self-reliance, progress and development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Understanding displacement through collaborative research and artistic productions with young people in Jordan and Lebanon: New publication |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a blog to describe the new book we published with the research participants as an outcome of the project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/publications/understanding-displacement-through-collaborative-research-a... |
| Description | Understanding protracted displacement through the dwelling: the temporal injustice of the not quite, not yet solutions to refugee crises |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The talk was given at Makere University in Uganda by Cathrine Brun. She presented reflections on the Education to Employment (E2E) project around the relevance of the Refugee Compacts, the meaning of self reliance and protracted displacement. Using examples from the institutional interviews in the E2E project, she showed how the focus on self reliance in employment policies for refugees represent a temporal injustice. She was then bringing in other examples from previous research on protracted displacement in Georgia to reflect on the potential impact on the current displacement policies for the experience of protracted displacement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Webinar: Education in Emergencies 20 years on. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This was a webinar organised by the project and the Centre for Lebanese Studies. A panel debate that took place on the 15th December 2020. The panel consisted of the two PIs: Dr Maha Shuayb and Prof. Cathrine Brun together with Professor Mario Novelli (Sussex University). The debate was chaired by Mai Abu Moghli (UCL and CLS) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://lebanesestudies.com/events/education-in-emergency-20-years-on-a-critical-reflection/ |
| Description | Why it's important to see displaced people as more than just 'refugees' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was an opinion piece for Open Democracy |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/why-its-important-to-see-displaced-people-as... |
| Description | Young, displaced and aspiring to work: navigating uncertain and shifting landscapes of opportunities and constraints in Lebanon and Jordan. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a conference paper by Zoe Jordan, Oroub El Abed and Cathrine Brun for the Royal Anthropological Institute, conference Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future, 14 - 18 September 2020 The paper was the first version of an article (to be submitted) on conceptualising young people's aspirations. The paper is based on an analysis of the qualitative material collected in the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.therai.org.uk/conferences/anthropology-and-geography |