Displacement as Heterotopic Space: The Syrian Refugee Crisis in Jordan

Abstract

The idea of a sovereign territorial order dominates representations of space in International Relations through ubiquitous dichotomies such as international/domestic, inside/outside, and citizen/foreigner. Yet, phenomena of forced displacement question the perceptiveness of these binaries justifying an enquiry into the possibility of different accounts of the type of space that displacement constitutes. This essay revisits critically the Foucauldian concept of heterotopic space and proposes its redefinition. It then uses the revised concept for the reconstruction of the Syrian displacement crisis in Jordan. The objective is to show the validity of heterotopic space as a concept to represent the site that states, refugees, and international organisations constitute through their interactions in displacement response. The argument is that interpreting displacement as heterotopic space allows for a more credible representation of this phenomenon that supplants the assumptions of sovereign territoriality. This leads to an interpretation of displacement as an ‘other-space’ in its own capacity, thus offering an account that differs from displacement as liminality or as an exception to the territorial order.