Translocal Lives in Times of Conflict: Understanding People’s (Im)Mobilities and (Dis)Connections under Conditions of Violence and War (IMISCOE Research Series)

This open access book builds a bridge between migration and refugee studies and peace and conflict studies by examining the trans-local lives of people affected by violent conflict. Combining conceptual debates with rich insights from empirical research from across the world, 18 chapters address the question of how war and conflict shape, disrupt and transform (im)mobility trajectories and patterns of translocal living—within and across borders. The volume is complemented by an introduction that presents conceptual advances in this emerging interdisciplinary research field, two chapters summarising methodological innovations and challenges in conducting empirical studies, and a conclusion reflecting on the findings and policy implications of applying a translocal research perspective. This book will be an excellent resource for students and scholars seeking to move beyond a conventional, linear understanding of displacement, embracing instead a translocal perspective that captures the multi-sited patterns and repercussions of violence and war.

Benjamin Etzold is a social geographer and migration scholar with 19 years of experience in studying people’s vulnerability, livelihoods and experiences of violence, trajectories of migration and displacement, as well as informal labour relations and patterns of food security. He holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Bonn (2012). Benjamin works at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC) in Germany. He is affiliated member of the Bonn Center of Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) at the University of Bonn, where he leads a research group at the BCDSS on the entanglements of violence and livelihood precarity in translocal settings of conflict and displacement. Since he joined bicc in 2016, he worked in and led several research projects in the field of forced migration and refugees, including the interdisciplinary EU-funded Horizon 2020 research project ‘Transnational Figurations of Displacement’ (TRAFIG), which looked into the role of mobility and translocal connectivity for people in protracted displacement. Benjamin has published three books and multiple articles in Population, Space and Place, Geographica Helvetica, Erdkunde, Die Erde, Geographische Rundschau, Climate and Development, Migration and Development, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, International Migration, Comparative Population Studies, International Quarterly for Asian Studies, as well as several chapters in edited volumes. He is member in IMISCOE’s board of directors, board member of IMISCOE's Standing Committee on "Migration and Transnationalism" (MITRA), and member of the editors board of the book series "IMISCOE research series”.

Marie Godin is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography at the University of Leicester, UK, in the School of Geography, Geology, and the Environment. Additionally, she serves as a research affiliate at the Centre on Migration, Policy, and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford. Her primary research focuses on examining the multifaceted impact of digital technologies on displaced populations across diverse displacement settings. Marie has published extensively on the Congolese diaspora, the politics of “‘home’” and belonging in the digital world. She is actively engaged in academic networks, serving as a board member of the Standing Committee on Migrant Transnationalism (MITRA) within IMISCOE, facilitating academic exchange on diaspora studies and transnational migration scholarship. She has co-edited a special issue for Forced Migration Review (FMR) on Digital Disruption and Displacement (May 2024) and a special issue for the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS) entitled “Digital Technologies and Migration: Behind and Beyond the Black Box (July 2024). Finally, she is an associate editor for the Journal of Migration Studies and has been awarded a research fellowship by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung for her project on refugees’ socio-digital futures in protracted displacement settings in Kenya (2025–2027).