Due to the Syrian crisis, several refugee camps were opened in Jordan in 2012 in order to deal with the increasing number of those feeling the conflict. Refugee Spaces whether camps or other urban informalities face the challenge of being in a status of “permanent temporariness” during which they develop into unexplored urban (city-like) formations through the social production of space. Taking the case of the Zaatari refugee camp, this research explores the process during which refugee camps turn into cities. More specifically, it questions how the interplay between human agency and structure produces space in the camp; eventually the city. Al-Souq, the main market street in Zaatari, is chosen to conduct the study, employing an explorative approach accompanied with narrative elements to understand actors’ own perspective. The collected data is analysed thematically and performatively to investigate the two former categories and the way they are drawn upon in producing space. The main findings denote a constructive exceptionality that facilitates space creation as well as a consequential inclusion of refugees in the camp. Furthermore, the occurring spatial construction of Al-Souq indicates that refugees are in fact active agents. Therefore, as indicated by both results, the research concludes by offering an alternative conceptualisation to camps and refugees as opposed to the traditional humanitarian perception of them being temporary and aid-dependent victims, respectively. / Aufgrund der Syrienkrise wurden in 2012 mehrere Flüchtlingscamps in Jordanien geöffnet, um der steigenden, von dem Konflikt betroffenen, Anzahl an Menschen zu helfen. Die Lebensräume für Flüchtlinge, egal ob Flüchtlingscamps oder andere Marginalsiedlungen (urban informalities), unterliegen der Herausforderung in einem „permanenten Zwischenzustand“ (permanent temporariness) zu verbleiben. Innerhalb dieser Zeit entwickeln sich diese Räume durch soziale Raumproduktion (social production of space) in unerforschte urbane (stadtähnliche) Gebiete. Im Rahmen dieser Forschungsarbeit wird der Prozess, innerhalb dessen sich Flüchtlingscamps zu stadtähnlichen Räumen entwickeln, beispielhaft am Fall des Flüchtlingscamps Zaatari aufgezeigt. Im Konkreten wird hinterfragt wie das Zusammenspiel menschlichen Handelns und Struktur zur Raumproduktion und schließlich zu stadtähnlichen Gebilden führt. Al-Souq, die wichtigste Handelsstraße in Zaatari, wird als Studienobjekt herangezogen, um die Wahrnehmungen der Akteure zu beleuchten. Diese Studie folgt einem explorativen Ansatz mit narrativer Analyse. Die erhobenen Daten werden mittels einer thematischen (thematic analysis) und performativen Analyse (performative analysis) ausgewertet, um das Zusammenspiel der zwei genannten Kategorien im Hinblick auf die Raumproduktion zu untersuchen. Die Haupterkenntnisse der Studie zeigen sowohl eine schöpferische Außergewöhnlichkeit welche die Raumproduktion ermöglicht als auch eine daraus folgende Inklusion der Flüchtlinge im Camp durch ein Gefühl der Zugehörigkeit. Ferner zeigt die Auftretende räumliche Konstruktion von Al-Souq, dass Flüchtlinge Handlungsfähigkeit besitzen und herstellen und somit als „active Agents“ verstanden werden können. Aufbauend auf beiden Ergebnissen kann somit geschlussfolgert werden, dass zu der traditionell existierenden Humanitären Perspektive, in der Camps als temporär und Flüchtlinge als hilfebedürftige Opfer gesehen werden, ein alternatives Verständnis zu präferieren ist.

Drawing upon data from a qualitative interview study on the life stories of young women, the aim of this study is to analyze young womens experiences of difficult life events. Special interest is directed to how cultural frameworks are reflected in young women’s stories about themselves and the family and school worlds they have lived in. During a period of almost four years, I conducted deep interviews with ten young women on two to four occasions. They were between the ages of sixteen and twenty at the time of the first interview and of different classes and local origins. The young women were recruited to the study through leaders of a youth detention home and of a girl group activity. Methodologically, the thesis is based in the general field of narrative research and more specifically in the field of feminist life story research. I employed a holistic and thematic content analysis inspired by hermeneutic interpretation and the mainly focus has been on what was told in the stories. The thesis is written in a context of feminist epistemology and from a critical perspective (cf. Harding, 1986, 2004). It includes, among other things, an assumption that there is a social, cultural and historically created imbalance of power between different groups in society (cf. Anderson, 2003). The theoretical concepts that form the basis of this part of the theoretical framework are social worlds (cf. Shibutani, 1955), exclusion (cf. Goffman, 1963; Young, 1990, 2000), belonging (cf. Molin, 2010; Spånberger Weitz, 2011), agency (cf. McNay, 2003, 2004), space of agency (cf. Eduards, 2002) and social positions (cf. Anderson, 2003). The young women´s stories about family gathered around experiences of parents’ separation, family violence, parental substance abuse and the separation from parents. Their stories of school life gathered mainly around experiences of being different and othered, and these experiences of otherness and alienation were closely linked to bullying, school difficulties and to a general unhappiness at school (cf. Andersson, 1995). In contemplation of life as a series of life events, the young womens stories highlight the importance of difficult life events and the impact they have had on their ability to live their lives. The results portray the importance of considering life as a series of moving events, instant and recurring, and of understanding the consequences of social structures on how life and its conditions change and are linked across borders, between different worlds and different times. In a consideration of the life events as variable, instantaneous and sometimes recurring and changing, every life event has to be viewed as new and important to pay attention to, both as an event in itself and also how this event spreads to other moments and contexts than the time and world in which it occurred. In the assumption of life as moving and of life events as essential elements in a changeable life course, available positions and spaces of agency are made visible in the young womens stories. The cultural frameworks of the good family, the real schoolgirl and an authentic I represent structuring principles for how the events are possible to understand and talk about for the young women. They can be considered as ideal images that both increase and limit their opportunities to make difficult life events and their own actions in relation to the events understandable. In this thesis, it becomes visible that, in order to understand young women’s experiences of difficult life events, we need to place experiences in a context where the different circumstances, such as social positions and local structures, are made visible, analyzed and reflected upon.