Dr Christopher McDowell

Reader in International Politics

Email: Christopher.McDowell.1@city.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7040 4571

(Please note that Dr McDowell will be undertaking sabbatical research in Kyrgyzstan from January to December 2012.)

Overview

Dr McDowell is a political anthropologist conducting research on forced population displacement in situations of conflict, as part of the development process and as a result of environmental change.

His current work focuses on involuntary resettlement and its socio-cultural and political outcomes, and the governance of resettlement. He regularly advises UN agencies, development banks and governments on socio-political aspects of displacement. Dr McDowell specialises in South Asia and East Africa and has undertaken extended research in southern Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, India and China. Between 2004-2008 he was Director of the Information centre on Asylum and Refugees (ICAR).

Past publications include Understanding Impoverishment (1996), A Tamil Asylum Diaspora (1996), Risks and Responsibilities (2000) and Catching Fire (2006). He has recently completed a volume on non-conflict displacement.

Academic roles

Dr McDowell is a Reader in International Politics and teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate classes on displacement, governance and institutions, and contemporary political issues. He regularly engages in commissioned research, most recently for the UK Government's Foresight Programme on the politics of climate change, and peer reviews research for research councils and UK Government research departments. He also sits on the editorial panel of the Journal of South Asian Diasporas. He has examined PhDs at Lancaster, Melbourne and Oxford Brookes and has sat on ethics review committees at King's College London and Macquarie University. He is a Life Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Consultancy and advisory roles

Dr McDowell is a member of the Independent Advisory Group on Country Information in the Office of the Chief Inspector of the UK Borders Agency. As an international resettlement and social development specialist he has advised the World Bank's Inspection Panel (Ghana, 2008-2009), the Asian Development Bank (India, China and Cambodia, 2005-2006) and the UN (humanitarian evaluation of the East Timor intervention, 2000). He has also advised the Government of the Netherlands on refugee return to Ethiopia (1998) and the World Health Organization on the ethics of research on gender-based violence in emergencies (2006). In 2007 Dr McDowell (with Gareth Morrell) undertook a major study for the Norwegian Refugee Council on non-conflict displacement.

Research interests

Dr McDowell's research interests include the development of involuntary resettlement studies from within the discipline of political anthropology applied to development studies. The work involves developing concepts, theories and research methodologies as well as conducting empirical studies to guide research aimed at better understanding the social, cultural, political and economic impact of asset loss, population displacement and involuntary relocation as a result of infrastructure development in the developing world.

Dr McDowell is also engaged in research on conflict and forced migration examining international responses to conflict situations, humanitarian relief operations and the evolution of new institutional structures to respond to humanitarian and protection needs. This includes work on network migration of refugee movements, and asylum systems in Western countries.

His current research is on state actions towards adaptation and mitigation to climate change, asylum policy in Europe, and the economics of involuntary resettlement.

Selected publications

Latest publications

2012: Displaced: The Human Costs of Development and Resettlement, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, with Olivia Bennett

Recently published books

2010: Displacement Beyond Conflict: Challenges for the 21st Century, Oxford: Berghahn, with Gareth Morrell

Previously published books

2006: (eds) Catching Fire: Containing Complex Displacement in a Volatile World (with N. Van Hear), Lexington, Lanham, Maryland, ISBN: 0-7391-0923-5. 2000: (eds) Risks and Reconstruction: Experiences of Refugees and Resettlers, Washington (with Cernea, M.M.) D.C.: World Bank Publications.

1996: A Tamil Asylum Diaspora: Sri Lankan Migration, Politics and Change in Switzerland Oxford: /Berghahn Books, Series on Forced Migration, pp.308.

1996: (ed.) Understanding Impoverishment: The Consequences of Development-Induced Displacement Oxford: Oxford University/Berghahn Books, Series on Forced Migration. 1991: (eds) Restoring the Land: Environment and Change in Post-Apartheid South Africa (with Mamphele Ramphela) London: Panos, 1994, 2nd Edition Cape Town: David Philip.

Chapters in books

2012: 'Sri Lankan Tamil Settlement and Politics in Switzerland', in Encyclopedia of the Sri Lankan Diaspora, Didier Editions with Kamala Ganesh 2006: 'Refugees', in ed. Thomas M Leonard, The Encyclopedia of the Developing World, Routledge, London, ISBN 1-5795-8388-1, pp.

2006: Chapter 8, 'Linking Return and Reintegration to Complex Forced Migration Emergencies: Diversities of Conflict, Patterns of Displacement and Humanitarian Responses - A Comparative Analysis' (with N. van Hear) in Dumper, M. (ed.) Palestinian Refugee Repatriation in Global Perspective , London: Routledge. 0-4153-8550-4

2006: 'Displacement, Return and Justice in the Creation of Timor Leste' in McDowell, C. and Van Hear, N. Catching Fire: Containing Complex Displacement in a Volatile World, Lexington, Lanham, Maryland, ISBN: 0-7391-0923-5

2006: 'Introduction' (with N. Van Hear) in Catching Fire: Containing Complex Displacement in a Volatile World, Lexington, Lanham, Maryland, ISBN: 0-7391-0923-5

2005: 'An Asylum Diaspora: Tamils in Switzerland', in Ember, Carol R.; Ember, Melvin; Skoggard, Ian eds. Encyclopedia of Diasporas Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, Part Two: Topics - Types of Diasporas, Yale: Kluwer.

2003: Privatising Infrastructure Development: 'Development Refugees' and the Resettlement Challenge' in Sullivan, R. ed. Human Rights and Business: Dilemmas and Solutions, London: Greenleaf Publishing.

2000: 'The Resettlement of Oustees and Refugees' in (eds) Risks and Reconstruction: Experiences of Refugees and Resettlers, Washington (with Cernea, M.M.) D.C.: World Bank Publications.

1999: 'The Point of No Return - The Politics of the Swiss-Sri Lanka Return Programme' in Black, R. and Khoser, K. eds, The End of the Refugee Cycle, Oxford: Oxford University/Berghahn Books Series on Forced Migration, pp.110-126.

1995: 'Migrant Trafficking: The Sri Lankan Experience', The State of the World's Refugees Oxford: OUP/United Nations High Commission for Refugees, pp.192-193.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

2011: 'Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation: Implications for land acquisition and population relocation', PD22, commissioned review by Global Environmental Migration Programme, UK Government's Foresight Project, October

2011: 'Tamils in Switzerland: An Emerging Post-Asylum Community?' in Hommes et Migrations, May-July, No.1292 2007: 'Development and Displacement: Institutionalising Responsibility' (with Gareth Morrell), Development, Volume 50, Number 3.

2007: 'Beyond "Do No Harm": The Challenge of Constructing Ethical Relationships in Refugee Research' (with Pittaway, E. and MacKenzie, C.) Journal of Refugee Studies, Special Edition, Research Methodologies (eds) Voutira, E. and Dona, G. June.

2006: 'Mediterranean Solution? Chances of Success' (with Kneebone, S. and Morrell, G.) International Journal of Refugee Law, Volume 18, Issue 3, October 2006.

2002: 'Transitions, State-Building and the "Residual" Refugee Problem: The East Timor and Cambodian Repatriation Experience' (with Eastmond, M.) in Australian Journal of Human Rights, Vol.8, No.1, pp.7-27

2002: 'Involuntary Resettlement, Impoverishment Risks and Sustainable Livelihoods' in Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, Vol.2.

Reports

2007: 'Non-Conflict Displacement: A Thematic Literature and Organisational Review' (with Gareth Morrell), August, pp.166, Geneva: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

2007: 'Reporting Asylum: Results of a media monitoring study, analysing the portrayal of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK national, regional and faith/minority press, during January - March 2005'. Kate Smart, Dr. Roger Grimshaw, Dr Christopher McDowell, Beth Crosland. Prepared for National Refugee Integration Forum, Community and Media Sub-Group and Immigration and Nationality Directorate, UK Home Office.

January 2006: Reflecting Asylum in London's Communities - Monitoring London's Press Coverage of Refugees and Asylum Seekers, (Smart, K., Grimshaw, R. and Crosland, B) ICAR and the GLA, ISBN 0-9547024-5-X