This book explores relationships between war, displacement and city-making. Focusing on people seeking refuge in Somali cities after being forced to migrate by violence, environmental shocks or economic pressures, it highlights how these populations are actively transforming urban space.
Using first-hand testimonies and participatory photography by urban in-migrants, the book documents and analyses the micropolitics of urban camp management, evictions and gentrification, and the networked labour of displaced populations that underpins growing urban economies. Central throughout is a critical analysis of how the discursive figure of the ‘internally displaced person’ is co-produced by various actors. The book argues that this label exerts significant power in structuring socio-economic inequalities and the politics of group belonging within different Somali cities connected through protracted histories of conflict-related migration.
Table of Content
1. Introduction: Researching Precarious Urbanism and the Displacement–Urbanization Nexus
2. Histories of Conflict and Mobility: The View From the City
3. Camp Urbanization and Humanitarian Entrepreneurship
4. Improvising Infrastructure: The Micropolitics of Camp Life
5. Techno Relief? Connectivity, Inequality and Mobile Urban Livelihoods
6. Liminal Durability: Belonging in the City and Enduring Solutions
7. Conclusion: Living at the Precarious Edges of Planetary Urbanization
About the author
Peter Chonka is Lecturer in Global Digital Cultures at King’s College London.
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