Snapshots of Syrian displacement: Re-evaluating humanitarian portrayals of resilience and vulnerability through photovoice

This investigation will value embodied knowledge through the feminist understanding that all people can produce knowledge and theory. To achieve this aim, this mixed-methods investigation will combine artistic production with social scientific data collection through "photovoice" - a participatory action research technique where participants take photographs to record their lived experiences and showcase both the strengths and concerns of their community (Wang & Burris, 1997). This decolonial research methodology allows participants to shape the research directly (Dodman, 2003), which can act as an intervention against damage-centric research on marginalized communities (Tuck, 2009). While photovoice has been increasingly utilized to document the experiences of displaced individuals in third countries of resettlement, such as the U.S. and Canada (see Miled, 2020 and Saksena & McMorrow, 2020), it has not been used in Jordan.

First, multiple participant groups (individuals living in the same housing unit/area) will be given cameras and take photographs to reflect their experiences being Syrian in Jordan. Next, each group will participate in a two-part focus group. In the first stage, participants will discuss the photographs, producing knowledge regarding Syrian perceptions of displacement. This will reveal the extent to which Syrians utilize resilience or vulnerability frameworks, or whether they have alternative ways of understanding their displacement, humanitarian responses, and their futures. Then, in the second stage, participants will be given copies of photographs and written passages depicting Syrian displacement within publicly available 3RP documents. Participants will be asked to reflect on these materials, providing feedback on humanitarian portrayals of Syrian displacement and their lived experience with aid groups. This comparison of participant-taken photographs and humanitarian documents reflects an innovative expansion of the photovoice methodology to include a critical discourse analysis of 3RP publications.

For this investigation, I narrowed my scope to Jordan as the close collaboration between the Jordanian government and humanitarian/development actors has resulted in the widespread implementation of resilience-centric programming (UNHCR & UN Women, 2021). I will locate interested participants through my previously established on-the-ground relationships with Syrian communities and community-based organizations (CBOs), as I have prior research and grassroots-project implementation experience with Syrians in Jordan. Further, this research will include both women and men, as there is a critical lack of research investigating the concerns of Syrian men in Jordan, especially regarding their interactions with humanitarian programming (Turner, 2019).

Overall, this research will use art-based research methodologies within the social science fields of Development Studies and Middle East Studies to critically examine whether humanitarian/development discourses and programs in Jordan reflect the desires of Syrian communities. this research can lay the foundations for further context-specific work aiming to centre the voices of displaced persons and reveal the power prevalent in global humanitarian systems to improve the health, well-being, and social care of the displaced. I will also publish an "alternative humanitarian report" on a publicly accessible website, which will utilize the format of a traditional humanitarian publication, but instead contain the photographs, stories, and findings of this research project. This will act as an intervention against top-down portrayals of Syrian lived experiences, while advocating for a re-centering of Syrian desires to guide future discourses and policies.