No Way Back? Adaptation and Urbanization of IDP Livelihoods in the Darfur Region of Sudan

This article explores how people in conflict zones adapt their livelihoods after they migrate to urban areas. Drawing on case studies in two towns in the Darfur region of Sudan, the authors find that livelihood systems are in transition and have undergone fundamental changes resulting from displacement and the effects of conflict on dysfunctional and failing institutions. Urban migrants’ livelihood strategies evolve in a context of insecurity, distorted markets, lack of regulation and punitive rent‐seeking regimes such as protection payments. Maladaptive livelihood strategies emerge in response to the need for food and income in the short term. New strategies also can increase societal inequities and marginalization, and over‐exploit limited natural resources. Thus the ‘new’ livelihoods cannot be considered sustainable or equitable, or even able to provide food security in the short term. Locally appropriate and innovative approaches to support livelihoods are badly needed, but it is important to monitor and evaluate their impacts on livelihood groups, local economic recovery, environment and conflict.     

‘La rue du 19 mars 1962 c'était la rue de la liberté’: Personal and Collective Memory Spaces in Rachid Akbal's Commemoration of Peace

Rachid Akbal is a French-born Algerian playwright, director and actor whose company, ‘Le temps de vivre’, took up residence at the Théâtre de Belleville in Paris in 2012 to perform his Trilogie Algérienne (three plays with a loosely autobiographical element: Baba la France, Ma mère l'Algérie and Alger, Terminal 2). On 19 March 2012, to mark the 50th anniversary of the first day of the ceasefire between Algeria and France, Akbal held an open evening at the theatre. The first half offered a run-through of the history between France and Algeria. The second half was a more personal, lyrical narrative of what the date represented for Akbal; unpublished elsewhere, Akbal has given permission for it to be reproduced here. In its hour-long performance, the narration was accompanied by sounds (natural elements, gunfire and sirens, and music), and at the end the lights went up and Akbal took a seat on stage, to begin a half-hour discussion with the audience. In so doing, Akbal created a discreet space of remembrance which allowed interested parties to come together in collective commemoration. Setting theorisations of cultural memory in dialogue with commentaries published during the commemorative period, this article sets up a framework to interrogate the possibilities of personal and collective remembrance offered by Akbal's event, opening these up via publication of the text and analysis of it as a ‘memory space’.     

Against the ‘tyranny’ of single-family dwelling: insights from Christiania at 40

Ownership of a single-family dwelling remains the dominant aspiration in market-led economies. In a hyper-privatised landscape, it is widely assumed that people will not share housing except in extraordinary circumstances. There is nevertheless a long and rich history of countercultural groups who imagine and practise alternative forms of shared housekeeping and collaborative dwelling. This article draws on first-hand observations of daily life from the countercultural community of Christiania, in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, at a critical moment in a 40-year history of state-threatened ‘normalization’. Christiania is an intriguing lens through which to re-imagine affordable, adaptable, gender democratic housing and urban structure: it reveals how sharing, mutuality and innovation intersect at multiple scales of homemaking and community governance. These insights are relevant for provoking new thinking about dwelling and mutuality in the context of a deepening crisis in housing provision and access across Europe.     

Policy for children and young people: What is the evidence and can we trust it?

In a range of settings in health, education, social care, housing and justice, policy makers are urged to make decisions based on research evidence. At present, those seeking sound research evidence to underpin interventions with children and young people will frequently find the evidence cupboard disappointingly bare. This article signposts resources pointing to networks producing research evidence for policy and practice, and discusses drivers and obstacles to the use of research evidence in policy. The authors highlight the importance of synthesising different kinds of evidence in order for practice, policy and end point research users to have greater confidence in interventions in the lives of children and young people.     

'I Don't Really like It Here but I Don't Want to Be Anywhere Else': Children and Inner City Council Estates

This paper explores the experiences of children living on inner London council estates. Prevalent discourses of social exclusion position such children as both 'at risk' and a risk to others. They are portrayed as a mixture of deviant delinquent and passive victim. In contrast, this research study found that children have a reflexive awareness of the places they inhabit which recognises the estates as harsh and restricting, yet the same time encompasses more positive feelings of identification and belonging. Most children shared a sense of feeling 'at home,' but one which was infused with both a recognition of the stigma associated with 'sink' estates and a fascinated horror with regard to the behaviour of a delinquentminority.