Paper short abstract:

This paper provides an insight into ways in which competing localities are being reconciled in the process of envisioning future in times of sequential crisis. Presented research is based on ethnographical fieldwork conducted in one of the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank.

Paper long abstract:

This paper provides an insight into ways in which competing localities are being reconciled in the process of envisioning future in times of sequential crisis. Presented research is based on ethnographical fieldwork conducted in one of the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank.

Temporality and uncertainty concerning future are inherent in the very idea of being a refugee. The current sociopolitical status is marked by the right to return, both expressed and reconstructed by everyday practices aiming at reproducing 'the old locality' - locality of the place of origin. However, in the case of protracted exile, 'the new locality' is being formed on the basis of shared community life in the camp and collective experience of occupation in the first place.

The question arises if and to what extent the concept of envisioning future is able to reconcile the present dichotomy of local identities.