SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Overview

Name:

Mr Luigi Achilli

Email address:

208947@soas.ac.uk

Office Hours:

11am-12pm (room v215), 4-5pm (room v217)

Thesis title:

When the political bores: the everyday practice of avoiding, concealing, and restaging the political in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan

Year of Study:

3rd

Internal Supervisors

• Magnus Marsden

Biography

Middle East, Anthropology, Palestinian refugees, Islam, Politics, Violence, Diaspora Studies

PhD Research

On the occasion of the recent Israeli naval attack on the international aid flotilla bound for Gaza, hundreds of demonstrators marched on the streets of Wihdat – a Palestinian refugee camp established in 1955 in the proximity of Amman, Jordan. Amman currently hosts 51,000 registered Palestinian refugees, and Wihdat is now officially part of the city. The protestors torched US and Israeli flags, chanted pro-Hamas slogans, and carried banners reading, “Yes for resistance” and “End the Zionist occupation of Palestine”. Soon after, however, people in the Camp seemed to retain only a fading memory of the flotilla incident. This is not surprising. Except for few political demonstrations and events, neither the recent political turmoil in the Gaza and West Bank, nor the constant footage of the Palestinian crisis depicted in the Arab media have roused refugees from the boredom and idle pastimes of daily life in the Camp. When I began my 15 months fieldwork in Wihdat, I expected a Palestinian refugee camps to be. Persuaded to document the significance of ‘the political’ in the everyday life of refugees, I was disappointed to observe an ostensible absence of it. Inevitably, this draws attention to how Palestinian political subjectivity and agency is articulated in the Camp. What I hope to suggest is that, in order to understand Palestinian political subjectivity in the refugee camps of Jordan, it is necessary to shift attention away from the classic parameter of political militancy toward underrepresented spaces of refugee everyday life.

Whereas political parties and groups have lost their appeal, ‘soccer allegiance’ for local and international football clubs takes on particular significance in the daily life of refugees. The passion for football, however, goes beyond the simple support for football clubs; it spreads into different dimensions of life,also influencing, for example, dress patterns. Football is also an important vehicle through which the political is reenacted. In addition to, also attention to Islamic morality and discipline play an important role in daily lives of refugees in Wihdat. For many, the potential ‘corruption’ of values is a source of constant anxiety, and the root of their moral and physical problems. Significantly, people perceive moral and physical corruption as interwoven with the political. Linking their faith to a broader political and social context, many in the Camp have extolled the virtues of carrying out a Muslim life as a stronghold against the imagined or true menaces of international neo-colonialism. It would be erroneous to suggest that Islam and football are central only to the articulation of political identity and agency. However, through football and Islam refugees have formulated an alternative to political parties and movements. Feeling  to be betrayed by political organizations in Palestine and Jordan and victims of a global conspiracy, for Palestinian refugees, football and steadfastness in faith is what they fall back on but also what they need to make sense of their lives and exile in Jordan.

PhD Publications

• “Between Football and Islam: the Denial and the ‘Camouflage’ of the Political in a Palestinian Refugee Camp of Jordan”, CBRL Bulletin, forthcoming.
• “Etiqueter dans un espace incertain : le cas des camps de réfugiés palestiniens en Jordanie”, Migrations Société, n° 128, mars-avril 2010
• Pratiche e politiche dell’etnografia, Meltemi, Milan, January, 2008
• “Lo spazio umanitario. Il caso di campi di rifugiati palestinesi in Giordania”, in Achab, vol. 8, Milan, July 2006

PhD Conferences

“A Lasting Temporariness: Population, Space and Social Practices, 1990-2010”
Workshop on Palestinian Refugee Camps in Jordan
Organized in partnership with IFPO and CBRL
7 March, Amman, Jordan

PhD Affiliations

PhD Associate, Institute Français du Proche Orient (IFPO), Amman, Jordan