Politik Olmak Ya Da Olmamak: Beyrut’taki Genç, Eğitimli Suriyelilerin Aktif Genç Vatandaşlığı Üzerinden Uluslararası Gelişme Söylemini Sorgulayan Bir İnceleme

Uluslararası gelişme sektörü toplumun ilerlemesi için dünya üzerindeki aktif genç vatandaşlara güvenmektedir. Ana akım gelişme söylemi, böylece yüksek eğitimli gençler arasında bireysel bir zorunluluk olarak aktif genç vatandaşlığın olumlayıcı bir görünümünü aktarmaya eğilim gösterir. Ancak yer değiştirme durumlarında vatandaşlık alanları tartışmaya açık hale gelir. Bu makale Beyrut’taki genç, eğitimli Suriyelilerin nasıl ve neden Lübnan’daki mültecilere yardım sektörüne katılımlarını inceler. Uluslararası gelişme söylemine olan bu katılımların öznel yorumlamalarını sıralayarak bu çalışma aktif genç vatandaşlığın temel etkinliklerine ışık tutar. Makale 2016 yılının başlarında Beyrut’ta toplanan niteliksel gözlemsel veriye dayanır. Araştırma bu katılımların aktif genç vatandaşlığın örnekleri olduğunu gösterir. Katılımcılar kendilerini hem Suriyeli hem de küresel vatandaşlar olarak konumlandırırlar ve katılımlarını Suriyeli hemşerilerine olduğu kadar evrensel insan hakları düşüncesine karşı da bir sivil adanmışlık olarak anlamaktadırlar. İlginçtir ki, bu katılımlar hala apolitik olarak çerçevelenmektedir çünkü yerel bağlamda ‘politik olmak’ hem istenmeyen hem de karşı çıkılan bir şey olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Bu politikadan uzaklaşma durumları uluslararası gelişme söyleminin ifade ettikleri ile ters düşmekte ve genç Suriyelilerin çabalarını tehlikeye sokmaktadır. Böylece çalışma, Suriye krizine getirilen bağımsız uluslararası müdahalelerin, genç, eğitimli Suriyelilerin meşru akış düzenleme rolünün uzlaşma ve kapsayıcı gelişme süreçlerini besleme potansiyelini göz ardı ettikleri sonucuna varmaktadır

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Suriye, Zorla Yer Değiştirme, Genç Vatandaşlığı, Mülteci Vatandaşlığı, Kimlik

To Be or Not To Be Political: An Investigation of Active Youth Citizenship Among Young, Educated Syrians in Beirut to Question International Development Discourse

The international development sector confides in active young citizens around the globe to advance society. Mainstream development discourse therefore tends to transport an affirmative vision of active youth citizenship as individual obligation among highly educated youth. In the context of displacement, however, the realms of citizenship become contested. This article investigates how and why young, educated Syrians in Beirut engage in the refugee aid sector in Lebanon. By juxtaposing the subjective interpretations of their engagements with international development discourse, the study sheds light on substantive practices of active youth citizenship. The article draws on qualitative empirical data collected in Beirut in early 2016.The research reveals that the engagements constitute instances of active youth citizenship. The respondents positioned themselves both as Syrian and global citizens, and understood their engagements as civil commitment towards fellow Syrians as well as towards the idea of universal human rights. It was striking that the engagements were still framed as apolitical, because ‘being political’ was assessed as either undesirable or thwarted within the local context. The depoliticising circumstances contradict what international development discourse purports, and jeopardise the efforts of young Syrians. The article therefore concludes that the interdependent international interventions towards the Syrian crisis disregard the potential that the legitimate gatekeeping role of young, educated Syrians bears for processes of reconciliation and inclusive development

Keywords:

Syria Forced Displacement, Youth Citizenship, Refugee Citizenship, Identity, Interna,

PDF

___

• Abboud, S.N. (2016). Syria [Kindle 4]. Hot Spots in Global Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press. Retrieved from Amazon.de.
• Amsterdam Institute for Social Sciences Research (AISSR) (2013). AISSR ethical procedure and ques- tions. Retrieved from: http://aissr.uva.nl/research/ethical-review/ethical-review.html [Accessed: 17 June 2016].
• Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (Re- vised ed.). London: Verso.
• Arendt, H. (1968). The origins of totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
• Bayat, A. (2010) Life as politics: How ordinary people change the Middle East (ISIM Series on Contem- porary Muslim Societies). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
• Belhadj, S. (2013). La Syrie de Bashar al-Asad: Anatomie d’un régime autoritaire. Paris: Éditions Belin.
• Boekelo, M. (2016) Of citizens and ordinary men: Political subjectivity and contestations of sectarianism in reconstruction-era Beirut (Doctoral dissertation). Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
• Campante, F.R. & Chor, D. (2012, September 16). The educated middle class, their economic prospects, and the Arab spring. The World Financial Review. Retrieved from: http://www.worldfinancialreview. com/?p=1483 [Accessed: 27 July 2016].
• Chatty, D. (2015). The Syrian humanitarian disaster: Disparities in perceptions, aspirations and behaviour in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. RSC Research in Brief 3. Oxford: Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford.
• Cornwall, A. (2002). Locating citizen participation. IDS Bulletin 33(2): i-x.
• Cresswell, J.W. & Plano Clark, V.L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Los Angeles: Sage.
• Drummond-Mundal, L. & Cave, G. (2007). Young peacebuilders: Exploring youth engagement with con- flict and social change. Journal of Peacebuilding & Development 3(3): 63-76.
• Dunne, M. et al. (2014). Youth as active citizens Report. Centre for International Education, University of Sussex; SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency; Oxfam Novib.
• Foucault, M. (1966). Les mots et les choses: Une archéologie des sciences humaines. Paris: Gallimard.
• Foucault, M. (1969). L’archéologie du savoir. Paris: Gallimard.
• Gaventa, J. & Tandon, R. (2010). Citizen engagements in a globalizing world. In: Id. (eds.) Globalizing citizens: New dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. (3-30). London: Zed Press.
• Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. In: Id. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (3-30). New York: Basic Books.
• Hardill, I. & Baines, S. (2011). Enterprising care? Unpaid voluntary action in the 21st century. Bristol: Policy Press.
• Hinnebusch, R.A. (1995). State, civil society, and political change in Syria. In: A.R. Norton (ed.) Civil so- ciety in the Middle East (vol. 1) (214-242). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
• Isin, E.F. (2002) Citizenship after orientalism. In: E.F. Isin & B.S. Turner (eds.) Handbook of Citizenship Studies (117-128). London: Sage.
• Isin, E.F. & Nyers, P. (2014) Introduction: Globalizing citizenship studies. In: Id. (eds.) Routledge Hand- book of Global Citizenship Studies (1-11). New York: Routledge.
• Jones, E. & Gaventa, J. (2002). Concepts of citizenship: A review. IDS Development Bibliography 19. Brighton: IDS Institute of Development Studies.
• Kawakibi, S. & Kodmani, B. (2013). Civil society against all odds. In: S. Kawabaki (ed.) Syrian voices from pre-revolution Syria: Civil society against all odds (5-8). Knowledge Programme Civil Society in West Asia Special Bulletin 2. The Hague: Hivos.
• Kenny, S. et al. (2015). Challenging the third sector: Global prospects for active citizenship. Bristol: Policy Press.
• Khouri, R.G. & Lopez, V.M. (eds.) (2011). A generation on the move: Insights into the conditions, aspira- tions and activism of Arab youth (Executive summary). Beirut: Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut.
• Kiwan, D. (2014). Emerging forms of citizenship in the Arab world. In: E.F. Isin & P. Nyers (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies (307-316). New York: Routledge.
• Kiwan, D. (2015). Contesting citizenship in the Arab Revolutions: Youth, women, and refugees. Democ- racy and Security 11(2): 129-144.
• Knight Abowitz, K. & Harnish, J. (2006). Contemporary discourses of citizenship. Review of Educational Research 76(4): 653-690.
• Lopes Cardozo, M. et al. (2015). Literature review: Youth agency, peacebuilding and education. Amster- dam: Research Consortium Education and Peacebuilding, University of Amsterdam. Retrieved from: http://learningforpeace.unicef.org/research/youth-agency-peacebuilding-and-education/ [Accessed: 21 July 2016].
• Mehta, L. & Napier-Moore, R. (2010). Caught between national and global jurisdictions: Displaced peo- ple’s struggle for rights. In: J. Gaventa & R. Tandon (eds.) Globalizing citizens: New dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. (232-252). London: Zed Press.
• Mitchell, L.E. (2010). Youth engagement in Syria: Expected – but not encouraged. Oslo: Fafo.
• Monroe, K.R. (2015). Empathy and our relations to others. In: A. Laitinen & A.B. Pessi (eds.) Solidarity: Theory and Practice (88-104). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
• Mouffe, C. (1992) Democratic citizenship and the political community. In: Id. (ed.) Dimensions of radical democracy: Pluralism, citizenship, community (2nd ed.) (225-239). London: Verso.
• Mouffe, C. (1995) Democratic politics and the question of identity. In: J. Rajchman (ed.) The identity in question (33-46). New York: Routledge.
• Onyx, J., Kenny, S. & Brown, K. (2012). Active citizenship: An empirical investigation. Social Policy and Society 11: 55-66.
• Pearlman, W. (2016). Narratives of fear in Syria. Perspectives on Politics 14(1): 21-37.
• Percy-Smith, B. (2015). Negotiating active citizenship: Young people’s participation in everyday spaces. In: K.P. Kallio & S. Mills (eds.) Politics, citizenship and rights: Geographies of children and young people (401-422). London: Springer.
• Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Rochester, C., Ellis Paine, A. & Howlett, S. (2010). Volunteering and society in the 21st century. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Staeheli, L. & Nagel, C.R. (2012). Whose awakening is it? Youth and the geopolitics of civic engagement in the ‘Arab Awakening’. European Urban and Regional Studies 20(1): 115-119.
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (2013). UNHCR’s engagement with displaced youth: A global review. UNHCR: Geneva.

ISSN: 2147-8473
Yayın Aralığı: Yılda 3 Sayı
Başlangıç: 2012
Yayıncı: T.C. Gençlik ve Spor Bakanlığı Eğitim, Kültür ve Araştırma genel Müdürlüğü