Internally Displaced Children Constructing Identities Within and Against Cultural Worlds: The Case of "Shooting Cameras for Peace" in Colombia.

The escalation of armed conflicts and human rights violations in the
contemporary world has produced massive displacement of civilian populations.
Although children are disproportionately affected by this phenomenon, their
voices are rarely heard. Drawing from sociocultural theories of identity that
emphasize the interplay between structural factors and agency and the role of
discourse as a mediating tool in the construction of identities, this study examines
the ways internally displaced children create and recreate the meanings of their
physical and cultural worlds through participation in an educational photographybased project in Colombia.
The ethnographic data consist of five months of participant observation,
four focus group interviews with children and one with the project staff, twentyfive in depth interviews with children and the analysis of multiple artifacts,
including narratives, photographs, written texts and everyday talk within the program. Since the construction of identity is the main focus of analysis, particular
attention was given to children’s narratives. Placed in their socio-political
contexts, children’s stories provide insights into the ways they construct identities
related to their displacement and settlement experiences. The data suggest that children, rather than being passive victims of
circumstances, are actively involved in making and unmaking categorical
identities. The category of Internally Displaced Person, in addition to being a
humanitarian label, develops into a social category constructed in the course of
daily life. The findings illustrate the ways children reject or negotiate the IDP
category challenging the universalizing and stereotypical descriptions of what it
means to be a displaced person. Displacement is not just about the loss of place,
but about the struggle to make a place in the world. The study addresses the
complexity of children’s reworking of identities within a hostile context of
resettlement. The study also provides evidence of how children’s participation in a
photography-based project empowered and transformed children’s lives. Most
important, by putting the children in charge of representing themselves and their
surroundings, they are given an opportunity to regard themselves in new ways.
This study makes visible the multiple ways in which displaced children’s
identities are constructed, negotiated, and deployed within specific situations,
spaces and circumstances.