Displacing Territory

Displacing Territory explores the core concepts of territory and belonging—and humanises refugees in the process.

Based on fieldwork with Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Jordan, Displacing Territory examines how the lived realities of refugees are deeply affected by their imaginings of what constitutes territory and their sense of belonging to different places and territories. Karen Culcasi illustrates how these individual conceptualisations about territory don’t always conform to the Western-centric division of the world into states and territories, thus revealing alternative or subordinated forms and scales of territory.

Culcasi argues that disproportionate attention to “refugee crises” in the Global North has shifted focus from other parts of the world that carry the responsibility of protecting the majority of the world’s refugees. By examining Jordan, a Global South state that hosts the world’s second-largest number of refugees per capita, this book offers insights for considering alternate approaches to addressing the situation of refugees elsewhere.

In the process, Culcasi draws the reader into the diverse realities of refugees through their own words, inherently arguing against the tendency of many in the Global North to view refugees as aberrant, burdensome, or threatening.