The Production of Camp Space

"This monograph makes a major contribution to the study of refugees in Europe and the interdisciplinary field of camp studies. The book combines rich ethnographic fieldwork with original theoretical analysis of camp space and refugee life. It is beautifully written, engaging and persuasive throughout." — Adam Ramadan , University of Birmingham, UK "This book is a major statement in the field, combining careful theoretical analysis with rigorous empirical investigation, drawing on a well-observed ethnography collected over a period of several years. Weaving these currents together, Fusco develops a bracingly original statement on the refugee camp as a spatial technology that both facilitates and is used to justify the perpetuation of inequality." — Michael Collyer , University of Sussex, UK  This book uses a Lefebvrian spatial framework to explore the ‘production’ of Ritsona refugee camp in Central Greece. Lefebvre’s multifaceted and reflexive conceptualisation of space allows for a macro analysis that locates the camp within the global structure and layout of society, but simultaneously facilitates a more localised exploration of space as an interplay between people, social practices and the built environment of the material camp.  The first half of the book contextualises the camp and examines the broader processes and structures implicated in its production, exploring the emergence of the camp as an idea, and of the birth, development and proliferation of the material camp as a technology of control. The second half of the book, meanwhile, engages with the production of camp space at the level of the everyday and from the perspective of camp residents themselves, and is structured around concepts of domestic, neighbourhood and public space. Alex Tomas Fusco is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sussex. His research interests include camps, migration and refugees, literature, politics of Europe and the Middle East, space and urban entanglements. His work has appeared in the Journal of Refugee Studies , as well as a number of non-academic publications.