The Politics of IDP Education Provision: Negotiating identity and schooling in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

The expansion of Islamic State control in Iraq led to massive internal displacement. Iraq now has one of the largest internally displaced populations in the world. Many families found relative safety in government‐controlled towns throughout the country; a large proportion sought refuge in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), having fled from its northern territories where Arabs, Kurds, Yezidis, Assyrians and Turkmen each claimed demographic dominance. Consequently, the KRI has become a sanctuary to almost a million Iraqi IDPs of varying ethnic backgrounds and cultures. This article draws on extensive regional fieldwork to explore the relationship between education provision for displaced populations and broader ethno‐sectarian and socio‐political influences. The article will unpack the research question: “In what ways does education for IDPs in KRI exacerbate or mitigate conflict?” and will highlight key areas in which misunderstanding of identity politics has resulted in reduced quality education for displaced populations.     

Refugee Hospitality in Lebanon and Turkey. On Making ‘The Other’

This paper examines the hospitality provided to Syrian refugees during the refugee crisis spanning from 2011 to 2016 in the border areas of Gaziantep (southeastern Turkey) and the Akkar region (northern Lebanon). Hospitality, apart from a cultural value and societal response to the protracted refugee influx, is a discursive strategy of socio‐spatial control used by humanitarian agencies, local and national authorities. This paper, first, argues against hospitality as an assessment to ethically compare host countries (i.e. more welcoming versus less welcoming states). Second, drawing on Walters’ notion of “humanitarian border”, it shows how the governmental, humanitarian, and everyday workings of hospitality exercise an assertive politics of sovereignty over the social encounter between locals and refugees. We examine the state‐centered hospitality in the Turkish case and a humanitarian‐promoted hospitality in the Lebanese case. We also show how the hospitality discourse shapes the spaces that refugees, citizens, and earlier migrants partake in.     

What encourages community health workers to use mobile technologies for health interventions? Emerging lessons from rural Rwanda

This article explores the determinants of using mobile phone technologies for public health (mHealth) through a quantitative study with community health workers (CHWs) in rural Rwanda. A total of 72 CHWs from two districts in Rwanda who were using the mHealth tool, RapidSMS, were surveyed in June 2014. Using a socio‐technical approach, user, programme and technical characteristics were tested and deemed influential in determining use. Technical characteristics (reminders and alerts) were by far the strongest predicting factors of use. The user characteristic, age, had no influence on utilization, while supports though training and supervision (programme characteristics) revealed mixed findings. These findings illustrate the uniqueness of each context and reiterate the need to consider social and technical factors when implementing mHealth projects.     

Unpacking the Displacement-Migration Nexus: Evidence from Northern Iraq

Recent conflicts have increasingly produced a twofold, forced movement of people: internal displacement and forced migration. While the co-occurrence of these phenomena is an acknowledged fact, there is not yet an understanding of their relation in terms of either the scale or the process contributing to it. This article seeks to fill this gap by questioning the relation between conflict-induced displacement and migration in and from Iraq. The analysis is based on survey data (500 questionnaires) and 29 semi-structured interviews with Iraqi IDPs residing in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and national and international key informants. Based on the findings, the study concludes that the aspiration to leave Iraq is primarily attributable to the structural enduring condition of Iraq, rather than an individual condition – a finding that uneasily translates into the new framework for intervention in conflict-affected and fragile contexts premised on deterring migration.     

(Im)materiality, virtual reality and interaction: grounding the 'virtual' in studies of technology in action

This paper explores the organisation of social interaction amongst participants ‘in’ Virtual Reality. Despite the wide‐ranging sociological interest in ‘virtual’ technologies, there is rather little detailed sociological investigation of user experiences of the virtual technology par excellence, namely multi‐user Virtual Reality. Interestingly the discourses that underpin discussions of more mundane virtual technologies (eg email, the Web, mobile phones, etc.) tend to draw on design visions for Virtual Reality, such as the opportunities for social life freed from the constraints of the physical body. This paper contributes to a growing number of empirical studies that provide a critique of this view, but maybe more importantly, provides a detailed analysis of action and interaction in virtual worlds. It considers the organisation of interaction within VR with particular emphasis on the ways in which visual features of the digital domain are seen and shared by participants. The paper describes the ways in which the abilities to share views on the virtual world requires participants to overcome problems associated with the very material character of the VR interfaces. The study is based on the analysis of recordings of a Virtual Reality system that enables participants to talk to one another and see one another's actions within a virtual environment.     

New forms of writing,new visual competencies

This article discusses two crucial issues in the social semiotics of visual communication. The first is the move from accounts of specific semiotic modes towards an integrated multimodal approach to visual communication in which the analysis of images becomes less central than the analysis of semiotic resources such as composition, movement and colour, which are common to a range of semiotic modes including images, graphics, typography, fashion, product design, exhibition design and architecture. The second is a new emphasis on the discourses, practices and technologies that regulate the use of semiotic resources, and on studying the take‐up of semiotic resources by users in relation to these regulatory discourses, practices and technology. Here, the article will discuss a number of semiotic ‘regimes’, including codification, tradition, expertise, best practice or role modelling, and technological control. The article ends with a discussion of the way normative discourses are built into the latest visual communication technologies (e.g. PowerPoint, HTML, Photoshop, Illustrator) and an affirmation of the need for a critical and well‐contextualised semiotics of visual technology.     

Leveraging blockchain technology in humanitarian settings – opportunities and risks for women and girls

ABSTRACT

There is an increasing acknowledgement among policymakers and private-sector partners that we cannot overcome the challenges of our time without harnessing the potential of emerging technologies. As blockchain technology is rapidly being introduced to support work across a wide number of areas of humanitarian action, this article considers its potential impact on women and girls. The article draws on experiences emerging from UN Women’s explorations of blockchain technology and the first gender-responsive pilot targeting Syrian refugee women in UN Women’s cash-for-work programme in Jordan. The article reminds us how important it is to introduce technologies in ways that maximise their potential to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian settings, and minimise the risk of doing harm. Without conscious commitment to these aims, blockchain technology may exacerbate the marginalisation of women and girls.     

Global Anti‐Money Laundering Standards and Developing Economies: The Regulation of Mobile Money

This article discusses the confluence of international initiatives to counter money laundering and terrorist finance with migrant remittances and the growing use of mobile telephone technology for more than making a call. The experiences of Kenya and the Philippines with mobile telephone‐based financial services are outlined as potential models consistent with the ‘risk‐based’ approach now promoted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), one objective being to encourage the implementation of regulation of m‐money services by recognising the development and social‐welfare opportunities offered by the technology in the context of a developing economy.     

Philanthropic Soldiers,Practical Orientalism,and the Occupation of Iraq

This article discusses the ways in which white, male, United States soldiers make sense of both themselves and Iraqi others. Drawing from qualitative interviews with twenty-four said soldiers from southern Indiana, most of whom having deployed to Iraq, it is shown how these soldiers perform gendered and racialized Orientalist discourses to rationalize United States empire and in particular the military occupation of Iraq. Specifically, imperialist discourses that imagine a superior “us” and an inferior “them” and understand United States state violence as ultimately a Western humanitarian “rescue” are shown to be powerful cultural logics in the sense-making practices of the interviewed soldiers. This article then is concerned with what others have called “practical Orientalism”—or the ways in which formal and official Orientalist discourses are adopted by everyday actors.     

The power reinforcement framework revisited: mobile technology and management control in home care

Whereas digital technologies are often depicted as being capable of disrupting long-standing power structures and facilitating new governance mechanisms, the power reinforcement framework suggests that information and communications technologies tend to strengthen existing power arrangements within public organizations. This article revisits the 30-year-old power reinforcement framework by means of an empirical analysis on the use of mobile technology in a large-scale programme in Danish public sector home care. It explores whether and to what extent administrative management has controlled decision-making and gained most benefits from mobile technology use, relative to the effects of the technology on the street-level workers who deliver services. Current mobile technology-in-use might be less likely to be power reinforcing because it is far more decentralized and individualized than the mainly expert-dominated and centrally controlled technologies that were the main focus of the 1970s and 1980s studies. Yet this study concludes that there is general support for the reinforcement framework in the contemporary application of mobile technology in public sector home care.     

Constantly online and the fantasy of ‘work–life balance’: Reinterpreting work-connectivity as cynical practice and fetishism

Smartphones and other mobile communication devices are promoted with promises of enhancing professional competence and individual freedom in working life, and in work–life balance. However, an emerging stream of research demonstrates that the adoption of such technologies is accompanied by increasing stress, collective control and work intensification. This article provides a discussion of recent research on the effects of smartphone usage in contemporary organizational life. Generally, this research presents a contradiction between, on the one hand, the discourse on technologies as a means to enhance individual autonomy and competence and, on the other hand, the de facto incorporation of technology users in networks of control and an unhealthy work culture of permanent connectivity. Finding inspiration in the work of Slavoj ?i?ek and his development of psychoanalytical concepts, this article offers an alternative approach to this issue. It does so by reconsidering how to understand employee subjectivity and, specifically, why employees voluntarily embrace company-sponsored smartphones although they are fully aware of the damage that this technology creates in their personal lives.     

Pushing boundaries and blurring categories in digital media and religion research

As religious identity and spiritual practices transform and expand in the digital media moment, this article advocates for more critical scholarship on media and religion that examines the complex ways that individuals make meaning in the digital age. First, I present an overview of foundational media and religion theories that analyze the interactions between these ever‐changing fields, such as the culturalist tradition, mediatization theory, and the social shaping of technology approach. Furthermore, this essay highlights insightful research trends that blur distinctions between media spaces and complicate definitions of religion. Finally, a discussion of gaps in the scholarship will justify an argument for more theories centered in international contexts, as well as analysis of the relationships between media technologies, aesthetics, affect, identity and religious expression. These emerging approaches provide more in‐depth discussions of how the fast‐changing and ever‐complex digital culture is deeply connected to the evolving nature of religion and human existence.     

Leveraging Academic Partnerships to Improve Logistics at Nonprofit Organizations

This article presents the results of a partnership between a nonprofit organization and a team of academic researchers that developed a low‐cost spreadsheet‐based tool that allows organizations to effectively schedule vehicle operations. Specifically, the tool (1) handles the real‐world constraints present in moderately complex logistics environments; and (2) uses general computing hardware and software that is already deployed in most organizations, thereby rendering the solution radically low cost (effectively free). We deployed this tool to a humanitarian organization, the Idaho Foodbank, which realized a substantial improvement in its fleet efficiency and a corresponding reduction in route‐planning time. The methodology used to manage this collaboration with academia can be leveraged by other nonprofit organizations attempting to overcome the financial barriers that commonly prevent budget‐constrained organizations from accessing advanced technologies.     

Understanding the Impact of Mobile Phones on Livelihoods in Developing Countries

Mobile phones are spreading rapidly in developing countries, but research conceptualisations have been lagging behind practice, particularly those that link mobile phones to livelihoods. This article seeks to fill this gap in two ways. First, by means of a literature review which analyses how they impact upon assets – through facilitating asset substitution, enhancement, combination, exchange and forms of disembodiment. On this basis key roles for mobile phones are defined within livelihood strategies. Secondly, the analysis demonstrates the shortcomings of the livelihoods framework for understanding technological innovation; its agriculture‐oriented understanding of assets; its silence on the developmental role of information and on user appropriation of technology; and its narrow categorisation of impact. Ways of addressing these shortcomings are suggested, pointing towards areas of future research and application.     

Mobile communication and refugees: An analytical review of academic literature

Over the past decade, an expanding literature has explored the ways in which refugees rely on mobile communication technologies to stay in touch with a wider community and to access relevant information and services in their new places. Nevertheless, challenges linked to (a lack of) digital literacy and accessibility among refugees, and associated risks of technology use can negatively affect their empowerment and participation in a “mediatized” society. In light of the mutually shaping processes emerging between technology and society, this article provides an overview of studies focusing on the relationship between mobile communication practices and refugee lives under different circumstances. Using the concept of affordances as an analytic tool, this article looks into ways in which existing studies address the possibilities and vulnerabilities of mobile communications, the social conditions, and the agency of refugees in engaging with mobile technologies in the different temporal and spatial dimensions of their migration trajectories. Future studies should explore more collective processes and the power dynamics involved in the appropriation of mobile technologies by different migration actors.     

Forced migrations and Externalization of European Union Border Control: Serbia on the Balkan Migration Route

The article argues that the recent “migration crisis” has been constructed as a security threat to the European Union, which conceals both the multiple causes of forced migrations, and the inability of the Union to respond to the massive influx of people in need of protection. Serbia had taken up a “refugee-friendly” policy, which implied a humanitarian approach. However, due to a change of political discourse in connection with the EU accession, a shift towards the security position occurred. This article sheds light on the actual status of migrants and asylum seekers in Serbia, as well as the state response to the growing challenges in the area of acceptance and protection, following the official closure of the Balkan route. In the conclusion, the authors tentatively plead for return to a balanced humanitarian approach, since there is clear evidence that mixed migration flows will resume in the times to come.     

Disability citizenship and independence through mobile technology? A study exploring adoption and use of a mobile technology platform

This article explores the use of a mobile technology platform as experienced by people with disability, their significant other and service providers. An interpretive qualitative study design was adopted involving observations and interviews. The data were analysed using the combined lenses of the social approach to disability and the PHAATE model which represents the factors for consideration in service design for assistive technology. The findings suggest that the adoption of the technology by those in the study could be characterised by a typology of users. The implications of the typology are discussed together with the influencing factors that affected social participation and disability citizenship.     

Augmented or admented reality? The influence of marketing on augmented reality technologies

As mobile and wearable devices that enable digital content to be displayed over physical surroundings continue to develop, scholars are increasingly interested in these ‘augmented reality’ (AR) technologies. While much of the focus has either been on the technological development of these devices and their potential for changing user perception, there has been less attention paid to the stakeholders and companies developing these technologies. This study examines developments in the industry itself, where companies are finding resources and structuring their businesses, and how this has created a momentum toward marketing and advertising. The intricate link between marketing and AR is one that has implications for how the technology is developing, what experiences are possible through the technology, and the future contexts in which AR is deployed.     

Using Technology to Deliver Career Development Services: Supporting Today's Students in Higher Education

Career services professionals are increasingly involved in decisions regarding the use of technology. This article presents a number of considerations to be explored, including the characteristics and needs of today's students, available technologies, funding requirements, and confidentiality issues. The author recommends an approach that includes strategic planning, needs analyses, training, and ongoing support. Current asynchronous and synchronous technologies are described, and examples of the use of each in the context of career services are provided. The specific technologies presented are e‐mail, discussion boards, video, podcasts, websites, Internet‐based guidance and information systems, telephone, instant messages, and virtual rooms.