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Journal article

Beyond the boxes: refugee shelter and the humanitarian politics of life

Abstract:
Humanitarian agencies often reach for new designs and technologies in order to meet basic human needs. In the field of emergency shelter, one of the most widely publicized new designs is the Ikea refugee shelter: a flat‐packed, mass‐produced structure that can be shipped and constructed wherever it is required. This shelter aspires to be a universal solution, but since its formal launch in 2013, it has met with criticism and many challenges in the field. Deployed in political contexts in which people have very different expectations of basic shelter, the Ikea shelter demonstrates the limitations of universal standards, the inequities of humanitarianism, and the entwinement of biopolitics and the politics of life.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Files:
Publisher copy:
10.1111/amet.12833

Authors


More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
SSD
Oxford college:
St Cross College
Role:
Author


Publisher:
American Anthropology Association
Journal:
American Ethnologist More from this journal
Volume:
46
Issue:
4
Pages:
509-521
Publication date:
2019-09-25
Acceptance date:
2019-07-10
DOI:
EISSN:
1548-1425
ISSN:
0094-0496


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
pubs:1031508
UUID:
uuid:86bb4159-d7f1-47db-9738-46e739c6a62c
Local pid:
pubs:1031508
Source identifiers:
1031508
Deposit date:
2019-07-12

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