Research project
Displaced Brokers: How displaced people shape humanitarianism in an era of fragmented protection
- Start date: 1 May 2025
- End date: 30 April 2027
- Funding: Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action Grant
- Value: €276,187.92
- Primary investigator: Dr. Aminath Nisha Zadhy-Cepoglu
- Co-investigators: Professor Ipek Demir
This project seeks to open up new perspectives in studying displaced people by foregrounding a specific cadre of displaced individuals: those undertaking (in)formal roles in humanitarian organisations. To critically examine the role of such individuals, the project will focus on the case of displaced people in Turkey.
Project aims
The broad aim of the project is to reframe our understanding of displaced people by moving beyond institutionalised (and fragmented) definitions of protection and offering a detailed examination of the differentiated experiences of displaced people under differentiated regimes.
As such, the project seeks to fill a major gap in knowledge about the role played by displaced people working in the humanitarian field, documenting them not simply as intermediaries between organisations and communities or by-products of a volatile situation, but rather as change-makers in a field that is in flux.
Impact
This study will make three key contributions:
- produce new data on contemporary mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion of displaced people under the differentiated protection regimes in Turkey
- make a theoretical contribution about the transformative negotiations of different groups emerging from different conflict contexts
- provide policy-relevant analysis to reveal the role of displaced people as aid agents, prompting their acknowledgement and streamlining their contributions within humanitarian processes.