Caught Between Borders: Response Strategies of the Internally Displaced. (Book Reviews).

Caught Between Borders: Response Strategies of the Internally Displaced. (Book Reviews). Vincent, Marc and Sorensen, Birgitte Refslund(eds.) (2001) CaughtBetween Borders: Response Strategies of the Internally Displaced.London: Pluto Press Pluto Press is a progressive, independent publisher based in London. It was founded in 1969 by Richard Kuper and others as an arm of International Socialism, the forerunner of the Socialist Workers Party in the UK. in association with Norwegian Refugee Council The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) (Norwegian: Flyktninghjelpen) is an independent, humanitarian non-governmental organisation which provides assistance, protection and durable solutions to refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide. . ISBN ISBNabbr.International Standard Book NumberISBNInternational Standard Book NumberISBNn abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m0-7453-1818-5 The book consists of 11 chapters covering case studies from thevarious regions of the World. Four of the chapters are dedicated tocases from Africa. One of which is that reflecting upon the case of thedisplaced in Khartoum and the remaining three are viewing cases fromAngola, Burundi and Uganda. The second set of chapters (five, six and seven) are devoted tocases from the Asian continent and a number of chapters are viewingcases from Europe (2), one of Latin America Latin America,the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. and a concluding chapter. The basic issue tackled in the book is the stress and copingstrategies The German Freudian psychoanalyst Karen Horney defined four so-called coping strategies to define interpersonal relations, one describing psychologically healthy individuals, the others describing neurotic states. that displaced communities pursue to lessen the pressures andhelp them cope with file out-comes of the displacement which includeinsecurity, adaptation to new social settings, economic systems and lackof services. The book acknowledges that the responsibility of catering fordisplaced communities lies on the local (national) governments, yet ithighlights the difficulties faced by those governments of the thirdworld to be able to solve these problems. The book acknowledged the roleof the international community to interview and provide both advice andmaterial support. However, it emphasizes the role of the displaced themselves increating coping methods and techniques. These coping methods wereaddresses in the following set questions. (1) What do internally displaced persons do for themselves andamong themselves to survive or cope with the ordeal? (2) How do they address the material and protection needs of thecommunity or individuals? (3) What are their resources and goals? (4) What arc the constraints they face in the different phases ofthe projects? The Book also provides definitions for the terms internallydisplaced' and response strategies'. To allow a degree ofcomparison between the various cases the authors categorized thestrategies into five categories: (1) The protection strategies (2) The subsistence strategies (3) Access to education (4) Civic strategies (5) Property issues. The editors produced a collection of well written studies fromwhich they managed to draw a sound conclusion. I found the book to be very educational and enlightening toresearchers and students interested in studying issues of hazards andvulnerability as well as those concerned with gender studies.