Camp methodologies: The “how” of studying camps

Abstract

Camps and camp-like spaces have long sparked interest among geographers, sociologists, historians, architects, political scientists, and anthropologists alike. This scholarship has varyingly conceived of the camp as a modern technology of humanitarian aid and population management, a thanatopolitical institution, a site of protest and resistance, a metaphor of sovereign exclusion, or a means of colonial expansion, and more. However, comparatively few studies have explicitly focused on the methodologies of actually doing research in/on camps. The characteristics of camps, that make them of interest to researchers in the first place, generate methodological, ethical, and practical challenges for conducting research. Consequently, this special section contributes to an already multifaceted and growing body of camp studies literature by dwelling specifically on the "how" of studying camps. It does so by drawing on broader critical methodologies

Playing in the Camps: Performative Practices in the Migrant Camps of Southern Italy

“…To approach their study, therefore, it is crucial to consider the close concordance between aesthetic, political, and spatial aspects that generate them. As the growing field of Camp Studies shows, transit places impose new approaches (Martin et al 2020) since their characteristics simultaneously generate methodologies (Weima and Brankamp 2022). By entering this field of studies, this article confirms the variety of adaptation practices and the need to open new interpretative perspectives in research.…”