Viable Futures: Near and Long Term Prospects among Syrian Youth in Jordan

This ethnographic project investigates the perceptions Syrian youth in Jordan hold of their social, economic and political situation and examines when and how these perceptions inflect the abilities of Syrian youths to envision, plan for and act towards viability in a context of prolonged displacement.

The project advances knowledge on the role of the future for concrete planning and decision-making. Forging a viable future for oneself and one’s social network is related to the human capacity to aspire. We explore which kinds of futures young Syrians aspire to in the near and the long term and examine what such concerns carry over in concrete and everyday forms of prioritizing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Viable Futures project has over the project period put out some pertinent key publications.

Our method paper has been published open access with Journal of Refugee Studies, where it has been selected as editor’s choice for making a significant impact on the grappling with collaboration in and on research with our Syrian peers and interlocutors. The article was co-written with Tareq al-Dilaijim, our field coordinator in Jordan.

Our recommendations to the sector on engaging with Syrian youths in Jordan, and what lessons to take on from this, we have put out a report, where the key design and reflections are made readily available. The report also was co-written with Tareq al-Dilaijim, our field coordinator in Jordan.

Thirty of the Syrian and Jordanian youths we have worked with also have written their own texts, which we have published in a separate open access publication entitled Viable Futures: Syrian Articulations of the Protracted Crisis in Jordan. Beyond these great texts, there are three important interviews with Tareq al-Dilaijim, our field coordinator in Jordan, Martin Fernando Jakobsen, CEO of Turning Tables, our partner NGO in Jordan, and Dawn Chatty, professor of Refugee Studies at Oxford University.

We hope these publications will stimulate to further thought and action.

 

 

 

Researchers

Name Title Phone E-mail
Bandak, Andreas Associate Professor - Promotion Programme +4551302514 E-mail

Funding

Viable Futures  is funded by The Novo Nordisk Foundation
Project period:  1 January 2021 - 31 December 2023

PI:  Andreas Bandak
Co-PI: Anders Hastrup 

Contact

Andreas Bandak
Associate professor
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen