Time in refugee studies: a conceptual literature review and prospects from a social theory lens
Nanor Karageozian · 2026
Read Time in refugee studies: a conceptual literature review and prospects from a social theory lens by Nanor Karageozian (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13242441.txt.
Description
Nanor Karageozian wrote a conceptual review on how time itself is treated in refugee studies. The article appeared in the Journal of International Humanitarian Action in 2026. Migration research has lately paid more attention to timing, waiting, and speed, but refugee studies has rarely made time its central concept. Karageozian surveys social theory on time and checks how selected refugee research uses, or misses, those ideas.
The review sorts time into timing, sequence, rhythm, speed, duration, and the pull of past, present, and future. Each dimension plays out at personal, community, and policy levels in forced displacement, from asylum waiting rooms to camp routines. Karageozian argues the levels intertwine and should not be studied in isolation. The paper closes by urging balance between movement and stuckness, and between refugee agency and the structures around it. It gives researchers a shared vocabulary for temporality.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Nanor Karageozian |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 80 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |