Dr. Benjamin Etzold, BCDSS Research Group Leader and senior researcher at bicc – Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, has published a chapter titled "Prekäre Arbeit und widerständige Agency im Kontext langanhaltender Vertreibung" in the volume Arbeitswelten: Neue Perspektiven aus Räumen der Re/Produktion, published by Springer Spektrum in February 2026. The chapter appears on pages 121-138 and is available via DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-70955-9_7.
The chapter draws on empirical research from the TRAFIG project (Transnational Figurations of Displacement) to examine the livelihood strategies and working conditions of refugees in protracted displacement situations across Ethiopia, Tanzania, Jordan, Pakistan, Greece, and Italy. Approaching the topic from the perspective of labour geography, it argues that restrictive mobility regimes and territorialised labour markets constrain refugees' agency and contribute to the entrenchment of long-term displacement. In many cases, refugees can only secure their livelihoods through informal practices and what Etzold calls widerständige Agency: resistive modes of agency that circumvent formal rules of reception and asylum.
The volume is edited by Michaela Doutch (University of Bonn), Anne Engelhardt, Tatiana López, Saumya Premchander, and Miriam Wenner. Michaela Doutch has recently joined the BCDSS as a cluster member.