URBAN TALK
Friday, 03.05.2024, 4.00 p.m. | IfA Halle 2

Dr. Ayham Dalal - Refugees and the Right to the City

Displacement, whether from or to cities, has always been an important factor in urbanization and city growth. However, after the creation of nation-states, human flows have become categorized, especially those “unwanted” or unmatching to the political project of the nation-state. Categories such as refugees, asylum seekers, IDPs, stateless, migrants, guest workers and so on, are rapidly increasing. In the Global North, this reality is addressed as “superdiversity” but in the Global South, neoliberal reality prevails, becoming a push/pull factor for situating displaced populations in the city (or in camps). Within such a rapidly changing, and diverse realities, this lecture suggests that the “right to the city” presents a solid framework for addressing refugees’ involvement in city-making and the spatial co-production.

Dr. Ayham Dalal is an architect and urban planner with expertise in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies, Urban Informality, Sustainability and Community-Development. His research and artistic practice aim to amplify the voices of marginalized communities by exploring new research and visualisation methods that combine between ethnography, experimental mapping, and architectural visualisation. Currently he serves as a Lecturer at the Architecture and Urban Design Department at the German University in Cairo (GUC).

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