Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Εκπαίδευση και Ανθρώπινα ΔικαιώματαLibrary of the School of Education
Author:
Psilopanagiotis Konstantinos
Supervisors info:
Ανδρούσου Αλεξάνδρα, Σχολή Επιστημών της Αγωγής Τμήμα Εκπαίδευσης και Αγωγής στην Προσχολική Ηλικία, ΠΜΣ Εκπαίδευση και Ανθρώπινα Δικαιώματα, Κατεύθυνση Εκπαίδευση και Ανθρώπινα Δικαιώματα
Original Title:
«Αλληλεγγύη» και «αδιαφορία»: Η αυτό-εθνογραφία ενός εργαζόμενου εκπαιδευτικού σε camps προσφύγων στην Ελλάδα
Translated title:
«Solidarity» and «indifference»: The auto-ethnography of a teacher working in refugee camps in Greece
Summary:
After the signing of the 'toxic agreement' between the EU and Turkey in 2016, the first refugee camps appeared in Greece, which were placed in various geographically isolated industrial and rural areas. International and local humanitarian organizations and NGOs gradually became active in these camps, employing workers of various specialties. Having worked for almost seven years as an educator for refugee children in various camps in Greece, in this study, I narrate my own experience, exploring how this specific ideological and spatial framework shapes the subjectivity and actions of the workers. Through the theoretical concepts of humanitarianism, bureaucracy, and camp studies, I recognize refugee camps as post-colonial entities within which humanitarian governance and bureaucratic management are encountered. More specifically, using the method of auto-ethnography, I highlight the ways in which such a framework not only produces a particular form of 'solidarity' but also frustration and 'indifference', transforming the workers into accomplices of policies of exclusion and marginalization. However, I narrate my own experience with the aim of envisioning collective ways of resistance and alternatives in a culture that is in decline and has reached its limits. Essentially, the lines that follow are nothing but an attempt – certainly desperate – to kindle a hope and put an end to a system that makes us indifferent and cynical.
Main subject category:
Geography - Anthropology - Folklore
Keywords:
humanitarianism, bureaucracy, refugee camps, auto-ethnography, education, ‘solidarity’, ‘indifference’
