Practicing Oral History Among Refugees and Host Communities

Description

Practicing Oral History among Refugees and Host Communities provides a comprehensive and practical guide to applied oral history with refugees, teaching the reader how to use applied, contemporary oral history to help provide solutions to the ‘mega-problem’ that is the worldwide refugee crisis. The book surveys the history of the practice and explains its successful applications in fields from journalism, law and psychiatry to technology, the prevention of terrorism and the design of public services. It defines applied oral history with refugees as a field, teaching rigorous, accessible methodologies for doing it, as well as outlining the importance of doing the same work with host communities. The book examines important legal and ethical parameters around this complex, sensitive field, and highlights the cost-effective, sustainable benefits that are being drawn from this work at all levels. It outlines the sociopolitical and theoretical frameworks around such oral histories, and the benefits for practitioners’ future careers. Both in scope and approach, it thoroughly equips readers for doing their own oral history projects with refugees or host communities, wherever they are. Using innovative case studies from seven continents and from the author’s own work, this manual is the ideal guide for oral historians and those working with refugees or host communities. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Figures Series Editor Foreword Preface: What This Book Provides Acknowledgments PART I: What Is Being Done Around the World 1. How Oral History Can Improve Outcomes for Refugees and Host Communities A Global Surge of Innovation Whole Populations on the Move The Unthinkable Costs of Failing, and Why We’re All Invited to Help 2. The Importance of Listening to Host Communities Two Types of Host Communities, and Why We Must Listen to Their Concerns The Spectrum of Political Reactions among Host Communities Recent Oral Histories with Host Communities How This Book Enables You to Engage with Host Communities 3. The Tradition of Oral History with Refugees, and How It’s Radically Changing A Century of Tradition, and Changing Fast The World’s Political Responses to Refugee Populations Who Is Interviewing Refugees, and How? Publicizing Refugee Oral Histories through the Arts The Tech Industry’s Innovations with Refugees’ Oral Histories 4. Case Studies of Oral Histories with Refugees: Transforming Lives and Outcomes Oral Histories with Refugees 5. Case Studies of Oral Histories with Host Communities: Letting Discontent Be Heard Oral Histories with Host Communities PART II: Doing Your Own Oral Histories to Improve Outcomes for Refugees or Host Communities: The Step-by-Step Guide 6. The Ethics, Risks and Legalities of Doing Oral History with Refugees or Host Communities Six Important ‘PIECES’ Legal and Ethical Protections 7. Strategically Planning an Oral History Project that Will Improve Outcomes for Refugees and Host Communities What Do You Want Your Project to Achieve? Gathering ‘Useful Messages’ that Will Make a Real Difference Selecting Narrators Strategically Planning How to Publicize Your Project’s Findings Planning Your Project’s Logistics 8. Doing Interviews that Will Make a Difference Preparing Interview Questions Doing Your Interviews 9. Editing and Publicizing Narrators’ Interviews in Ways that Help Improve Outcomes for Communities Designing Your End Products Editing and Extracting from Your Interviews Quantifying and Communicating the Financial Value of Your Applied Oral History Projects 10. Soaring Refugee Numbers, a Twenty-First Century ‘Mega-Problem’: Applied Oral History Skills as Part of the Solution Why Now Is the Time Intervening at the Pressure Points Bringing Oral History to the Populist Identity Crisis Oral History as Part of the Problem-Solving Frameworks of the Future Appendices Glossary: Some Key Concepts Used in this Book Index