Browsing by Person "Dakessian, Arek"

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Art, refugeedom and the aesthetic encounter
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-12-17) Dakessian, Arek; Riga, Liliana
Refugeedom and its various politicisations, as a complex human experience of political alterity, poses unique challenges for the visual aesthetics of refugee subjecthoods and subjectivities. In contrast to media and humanitarian visualities, aesthetic engagement with what is contentiously referred to as ‘refugee art’ might have the potential to create more complex possibilities and open new subjective spaces by enabling a different epistemic access to the experiences of refugeedom's constituted subjects. We turn to Jacques Rancière's theoretical frame as we focus attention on the aesthetic encounter, or the affective and sensory experience of what an artwork does. Looking closely at six artworks focused on the recent Syrian ‘refugee crisis’, we ask: What might we perceive differently of forced displacement in the aesthetic encounter that we might not otherwise see in activist or politicised spaces, or in everyday visual representations of forced displacement? Whether by reinscribing real-world subject positions or transcending them, the aesthetic experience can open up a rift – even if momentary – in ordinary ways of seeing and perceiving refugeedom. In other words, the aesthetic experience expands our moral imagination by staging occasions for creating scenes of relationality with political alterity that do not exist or that have not been previously imagined.
Chapter 12: Imagining defragmented university spaces
(Critical Publishing, 2023-05-26) Dakessian, Arek; Ataekong, Anthony; Burrows, Olutayo; Haqani, Misbah; Rahman, Rezaur; Pearson, Georgina; Marcus, Geetha; Van de Peer, Stefanie
Editorial: Exploring the links between social connections, care and integration
(Frontiers Media, 2024-10-08) Vera Espinoza, Marcia; Dakessian, Arek; Boeyink, Clayton
Emotional labour and the autonomy of dependent self-employed workers: The limitations of digital managerial control in the home credit sector
(SAGE, 2021-01-17) Terry, Esme; Marks, Abigail; Dakessian, Arek; Christopoulos, Dimitris
Changes to the labour process in the home credit sector have exposed the industry’s agency workforce to increased levels of digital managerial control through the introduction of lending applications and algorithmic decision-making techniques. This article highlights the heterogeneous nature of the impact of digitalisation on the labour process and worker autonomy – specifically, in terms of workers’ engagement in unquantified emotional labour. By considering the limitations of digital control in relation to qualitative elements of the labour process, it becomes evident that emotional labour has the scope to be a source of autonomy for dependent self-employed workers when set against a backdrop of heightened digital control. This article therefore contributes to ongoing labour process debates surrounding digitalisation, quantified workers and digital managerial control.
Equity in decline: fair distribution in a worse-off world.
(2023-06-28) Reidpath, Daniel; Gruskin, Sofia; Khosla, Rajat; Dakessian, Arek; Allotey, Pascale
Equity in decline: illustrating fairness in a worse-off world. [Commentary]
(2023-10-30) Reidpath, Daniel; Khosla, Rajat; Gruskin, Sofia; Dakessian, Arek; Allotey, Pascale
Exploring refugees' experience of accessing dental health services in host countries: a scoping review
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2024-03-12) Asfari, Elaf; Rodriguez, Andrea; Dakessian, Arek; Yuan, Siyang
Introduction: Refugees often face worse oral health outcomes, such as periodontal diseases and dental caries in host countries due to barriers including language and cultural differences, institutional discrimination, and restricted use of dental health services. This scoping review aims to map and summarise the available studies on refugees’ experience of accessing dental health services in the host countries, to identify the main characteristics of the dental health services that refugees access and to explore the barriers and enablers to navigate the dental health service system in their host countries. Methods: The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) framework was adopted. PubMed, Scopus, Assia, CINAHL and Social Services Abstract were searched. A search strategy was developed using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms and a combination of search operators and syntax used in MEDLINE were adopted for the remaining databases. Data were synthesised using thematic analysis. Results: Fourteen articles were included. Most studies used qualitative methods and Australia seemed to be the country with the highest number of publications surrounding this topic. The included studies showed that refugees frequently encountered substantial obstacles when attempting to access dental services in host countries. Numerous barriers such as language barriers, cultural differences, and lack of health insurance or financial support hindered refugees' ability to access these services. Additionally, many refugees possessed limited knowledge of the dental care system in their new country. As a result of untreated dental problems, refugees suffered from pain and other health complications. Discussion: This scoping review explored the challenges refugees have experienced in accessing dental health services in host countries, which included the key barriers such as affordability, accessibility, accommodation, availability, awareness, and acceptability. The scarcity of relevant research highlighted the need for a more comprehensive understanding of refugees’ experiences accessing dental health services in host countries. Limited data were identified regarding evidence focusing on the characteristics of dental services accessed by refugees in host countries.
Feminized cultural capital at work in the moral economy: Home credit and working‐class women
(Wiley, 2022-08-11) Marks, Abigail; Terry, Esme; Canduela, Jesus; Dakessian, Arek; Christopoulos, Dimitris
One of the defining features of the home credit sector is the role played by its agents—workers who act as intermediaries between lending companies and borrowers to facilitate lending and collect repayments. There is a prevailing and pervasive narrative in the sector that women make superior agents, largely based on the belief that female agents can manage relationships with borrowers more successfully than their male counterparts. This article analyzes data from 349,078 home credit accounts (loans), as well as 71 interviews with home credit agents and lending company managers, to evaluate both the myths and realities of women's roles in home credit. The data is also used to explore the opportunities for—and potential constraints on—women's career progression in home credit work, based on an understanding of the moral economy in which they operate. By exploring the moral economy of low-income communities, the article highlights the role of working-class women's cultural capital within the labor market. Despite women forming the majority of the agent workforce in home credit, women's capital is undervalued in comparison with their male counterparts' capital. The analysis within this article allows a greater understanding of the highly classed and gendered nature of the moral economy of low-income communities and the exchange value of women's capital within the labor market.
Fragile, handle with care: Refining a key concept for global health and development
(BMJ Publishing Group, 2023-06-28) Diaconu, Karin; Witter, Sophie; Dakessian, Arek; Loffreda, Giulia; Ager, Alastair
Summary box In the development sphere, the term ‘fragile’ has generally been used as a pejorative label to represent ‘fragile and conflict-affected states’ with chronic governance challenges. Beginning with the formulation of the OECD’s multidimensional framing of fragility, a broader use of the term is emerging, which is of potential utility in the field of global health. Evidence from a series of studies addressing non-communicable disease and mental health provision—both of which require continuity of care and long-term investments into health service delivery and capacity—informs a ‘fragility for health’ framework consistent with this evolving understanding of fragility. This framework identifies two domains that warrant more intense, politically sensitive study: political economy and financing for health services delivery and community engagement in shaping systems for health. Consideration of these domains will critically inform health interventions in contexts of fragility.
Pathways and Potentialities: the role of social connections in the integration of reunited refugee families
(Queen Margaret University, 2020) Baillot, Helen; Kerlaff, Leyla; Dakessian, Arek; Strang, Alison
Refugee integration in national health systems of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): evidence synthesis and future research agenda
(Elsevier, 2025-09-12) Olabi, Amina; Palmer, Natasha; Bertone, Maria Paola; Loffreda, Giulia; Bou-Orm, Ibrahim; Sempé, Lucas; Vera Espinoza, Marcia; Dakessian, Arek; Kadetz, Paul; Ager, Alastair; Witter, Sophie
This paper reviews evidence on healthcare responses for refugees, documenting the different approaches and their effectiveness and impact in particular in relation to supporting integrating refugees into national health systems. The review adopted a purposeful, iterative approach, utilizing electronic databases, grey literature, and reference lists from relevant studies. A total of 167 studies, primarily from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), focusing on refugees and forcibly displaced persons with empirical data, were included. The review highlights a substantial literature on refugee health and healthcare access, with well-covered areas including delivery models, access barriers, gaps in coverage, and specific health services such as psychosocial care, non-communicable diseases, mental health, and maternal and child health. However, less attention is given to integration models, health system responses, and their impact on system resilience and social cohesion. Few studies examine the costs, feasibility, or sustainability of integration models, and little research focuses on health system perspectives or comparative analyses. Moreover, the host health system's status, capacity, and needs are often underexplored. Some countries are particularly well-represented in studies, e.g. Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Uganda. There is however a paucity of data that would provide the basis for more quantitative or analytical evaluation from a systems perspective. This gap highlights the need for further research on effective integration models, their operational aspects, and their long-term impact on local health systems' resilience and sustainability. To support this research agenda, we propose a conceptual framework to provide analytic guidance for future research on healthcare responses for refugees and health system integration.
The role of social connections in refugees’ pathways towards socio-economic integration
(University of Oxford, 2023-01) Vera Espinoza, Marcia; Baillot, Helen; Käkelä, Emmaleena; Dakessian, Arek; Kerlaff, Leyla
Social connections are well recognised as contributing to integration. Research undertaken in Scotland offers useful, sometimes counter-intuitive insights into their role over time, plus learnings that could be explored in other contexts.
The role of trust in health-seeking for non-communicable disease services in fragile contexts: A cross-country comparative study
(Elsevier, 2021-10-09) Arakelyan, Stella; Jailobaeva, Kanykey; Dakessian, Arek; Diaconu, Karin; Caperon, Lizzie; Strang, Alison; Bou-Orm, Ibrahim; Witter, Sophie; Ager, Alastair
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) disproportionately affect people living in fragile contexts marked by poor governance and health systems struggling to deliver quality services for the benefit of all. This combination can lead to the erosion of trust in the health system, affecting health-seeking behaviours and the ability of individuals to sustain their health. In this cross-country multiple-case study, we analyse the role of trust in health-seeking for NCD services in fragile contexts. Our analysis triangulates multiple data sources, including semi-structured interviews (n=102) and Group Model Building workshops (n=8) with individuals affected by NCDs and health providers delivering NCD services. Data were collected in Freetown and Makeni (Sierra Leone), Beirut and Beqaa (Lebanon), and Morazán, Chalatenango and Bajo Lempa (El Salvador) between April 2018 and April 2019. We present a conceptual model depicting key dynamics and feedback loops between contextual factors, institutional, interpersonal and social trust and health-seeking pathways. Our findings signal that firstly, the way health services are delivered and experienced shapes institutional trust in health systems, interpersonal trust in health providers and future health-seeking pathways. Secondly, historical narratives about public institutions and state authorities’ responses to contextual fragility drivers impact institutional trust and utilisation of services from public health institutions. Thirdly, social trust mediates health-seeking behaviour through social bonds and links between health systems and individuals affected by NCDs. Given the repeated and sustained utilisation of health services required with these chronic diseases, (re)building and maintaining trust in public health institutions and providers is a crucial task in fragile contexts. This requires interventions at community, district and national levels, with a key focus on promoting links and mutual accountability between health systems and communities affected by NCDs.
‘Step by step’: the role of social connections in reunited refugee families’ navigation of statutory systems
(Informa UK Limited, 2023-01-25) Baillot, Helen; Kerlaff, Leyla; Dakessian, Arek; Strang, Alison
For asylum route refugees, the existence and persistence of structural barriers to navigating statutory systems are well-documented. Even when initial barriers are overcome, further transitions may disrupt refugees’ lives. One such is the arrival in the UK of family members from whom they had been separated during their flight from persecution. This paper draws upon data gathered using a Social Connections Mapping Tool methodology with reunited refugee families to make three contributions to the field of refugee studies. Firstly, families’ accounts of navigating statutory systems confirm the multi-directionality of integration. Refugees’ efforts to build and leverage social links proceed differentially across key statutory domains and cannot alone overcome systems barriers that require adaptation on the part of public services. Secondly, our findings contribute to scholarship that critiques the division of social relationships into categories of bonds, bridges and links, and the distinctions made between these based on ethnicity or nationality. Rather, refugees’ social relationships are more appropriately understood as a fluid continuum, with their nature and purpose subject to change. Finally, refugee families’ descriptions of settling in the UK highlight the influence of time on integration and the importance to refugees of re-building independence in a new country context.
Theorizing refugeedom: Becoming young political subjects in Beirut
(Springer, 2020-05-05) Riga, Liliana; Langer, Johannes; Dakessian, Arek
Refugees can be formed as “subjects” as they navigate forced displacement in countries that are not their own. In particular, everyday life as the politicized Other, and as humanitarianism’s depoliticized beneficiary, can constitute them as political subjects. Understanding these produced subjects and subjectivities leads us to conceive of forced displacement – or “refugeedom” – as a human condition or experience of political (sub)alterity, within which inhere distinctive subjectivations and subjectivities. Drawing on fieldwork in Beirut, Lebanon, we use young Syrian and Iraqi refugees’ experiences with everyday racism, violent bullying and racialized discrimination as heuristic lenses with which to see displacement’s political subjects and subjectivities. We argue that the young refugees emerge as both political and moral subjects through core and defining struggles within – and against – these politicizing constraints. We interpret their struggles as ambivalently and dynamically situated within humanitarianism’s and racism’s subjections and subjectivities. Yet we also found that occasionally the young refugees could eclipse these produced subjectivities to claim repoliticized subjecthoods distinct from those of humanitarianism and outside displacement’s normal politics. We interpret these in Rancièrian terms as “political subjectivation.” Abstracting our findings, we offer a simple theoretical architecture of refugeedom’s subjectivations, subjects, and subjectivities as comprising humanitarianism’s rights-bearing or juridical subject; the vulnerable and resilient, innocent and suffering subject; and the Othered or racialized subject, formed through the exclusions of displacement’s politicized spaces. But we also conceive refugeedom as a space of values, and so the ground on which moral meaning and significance attach to agency and subjectivity.
Young Refugees and Forced Displacement: Navigating Everyday Life in Beirut
(Routledge, 2020-12-30) Riga, Liliana; Holmes, Mary; Dakessian, Arek; Langer, Johannes; Anderson, David
Young Refugees and Forced Displacement is about young Syrian and Iraqi refugees navigating the complex realities of forced displacement in Beirut. It is based on a British Academy funded two-year project with 51 displaced youths aged 8 to 17 and under the care of three local humanitarian organisations. Focus groups, interviews and innovative arts-based methods were used to learn about their everyday lives. At the end of the project, we coproduced with them a public mural, allowing unexpected epistemological and methodological reflections on researching refugees and the "right to opacity." Families and friendships, humanitarian caregiving, racism, discrimination and everyday decencies and civilities make up the stuff of their ordinary, everyday encounters within refugeedom, defining both its sharper edges and its more inadvertent and quietly political ones. Thus, refugeedom, as we conceive it, includes "the humanitarian condition" but goes a little beyond it, to become also a human condition of political alterity. In navigating refugeedom, the young Syrians and Iraqis become sophisticated political and moral actors, using emotional reflexivity as they engage layered subjectivities to define the terms of their own forced displacement. This book will be of interest to policymakers, humanitarian organisations, social science scholars and students working on refugees, displacement, humanitarianism, intimacies and emotions, racism and discrimination. It may also be of interest to displaced youth.