Explore our projects

We are an action research collective on displacement, migration and urban studies. Explore our projects!

Migrant Model of Care

This project examines organizational forms, functions, activities and legitimacy of refugee-led community organisations (RCOs), as they emerge out of refugee camps and places of displacement and then transition to fit into organisational models in places of resettlement. Theoretically, the cultural embeddedness and informality of grassroots RCOs are set against the bureaucratic modalities and science-based expertise of professional social services in the resettlement domain and against the work-first, neoliberal or market-oriented welfare state.

Grand Rapids

MICHIGAN

Local practices and ‘grassroots governance’ in the Philippines

Climate-induced displacement and sustainable development as global issues are anticipated only to intensify over time in tandem with climate change. Practitioners and policymakers are developing responses and interventions. Joining these efforts and drawing from knowledges and practices from the Global South, this project seeks to examine local practices and ‘grassroots governance’ that address environmental displacement and sustainable development.

Manila Bay

PHILIPPINES

Legal Institutions & the Planning Process:

How does the Brazilian Judiciary Power manage disputes between the constitutional rights to housing and a healthy environment in São Paulo’s informal settlements? By contrast, how do planners in city government use the courts to advance and enforce their plans on litigation involving informality and the environment? What are the indicators of access to justice for informal dwellers? Using the city of São Paulo as a field site, Pimentel Walker and Arquero de Alarcón investigate how state agents within the Judiciary Power provide answers to a wicked problem of the Global South.

São Paulo

BRAZIL

Missing migrants of the Mediterranean

Weiser Hall 5th Floor Art Gallery February 7, 2020–March 25, 2020

Missing Migrants of the Mediterranean shares the stories of Tunisia’s missing migrants and the voices of their families through works of data visualization created by students at the School of Information. The exhibition is part of a collaborative action research project by members of The School of Social Work, School of Information, Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and Association La Terre Pour Tout.

Tunis

TUNISIA

Heavy Baggage.
PhotoVoice Project in the Aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Disaster

"In front of the Sendai Station three months after the disasters. My grandson greeted me and carried my backpack. He has avoided direct impact of the disasters. However, when I think of the baggage of burden and responsibility to be shouldered by the next generation concerning nuclear energy plants and radiation, my heart aches and I feel like screaming."
Emi, June 2011

Sendai City

Miyagi Prefecture, JAPAN

Transatlantic Action Research through PhotoVoice

This project addresses an important challenge facing our society today—how to promote social inclusion and justice in the era of increasing diversity and disparity. Using PhotoVoice, a participatory action research methodology , the project provides participants with a unique and challenging opportunity to engage in the examination, documentation, and dissemination of pressing social issues.

Lisboa

PORTUGAL

Decentering Social Work Education through PhotoVoice

Our 3-country project team has been busy creating an interactive online PhotoVoice course in three languages (Portuguese, Spanish, and English). The purpose of this project is to identify and address practice and education challenges faced by social work students and practitioners in different countries and across social work systems and educational contexts.

Castilla–La Mancha

SPAIN

The digital interface
with migration

Our research team delves into the digital space and how it materializes for and interacts with professional immigrants and literacy learners. In a post-COVID era, the online, virtual, remote, digital world has taken on salience and has come to stay. We survey and interview professional immigrants to learn about their digital behaviors, needs, preferences, and tools and develop digital interventions to support immigrants’ success in the workplace and flourishing in their new social, cultural, and political environments.

Calgary, Alberta

CANADA

‘Digital’ intersections with migration

Our research team delves into the digital space and how it materializes for and interacts with professional immigrants and literacy learners. In a post-COVID era, the online, virtual, remote, digital world has taken on salience and has come to stay. We survey and interview professional immigrants to learn about their digital behaviors, needs, preferences, and tools and develop digital interventions to support immigrants’ success in the workplace and flourishing in their new social, cultural, and political environments.

Calgary, Alberta

CANADA

Nakivale Refugee Settlement

Initiating in 2022, this project partners with refugee-led organizations in Nakivale Settlement in Uganda to document the organizational life of refugees. We will use surveys and interviews with refugee leaders to illustrate and analyze various aspects of organizations, including form or structure, modalities, values, challenges and mission/vision.

Isingiro, Uganda

Uganda