Research Seminar in Cultural Anthropology: Living and Dwelling After War: Housing Provision and The Reimagination of “Home” among Internally Displaced People in Ukraine.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine resulted in massive destruction of residential housing stock and the displacement of millions of people. Despite the efforts of state and municipal authorities, the housing situation of a large number of Ukrainians remains unresolved, resulting in significant financial and emotional distress added to the trauma of war. Therefore, it is an urgent task to investigate how the government and its stakeholders address the housing crisis, and how the meanings attached to housing are changing in this situation. This project proposes two work packages (WPs): WP1 examines the “e-Recovery” housing compensation scheme for citizens whose home had been destroyed by Russia, and WP2 follows a social housing development project for internally displaced people in the Kyiv region. Data for this project will be collected both remotely and in person in cooperation with local partners such as municipalities and think tanks. The research presents an important contribution by studying the question of wartime housing provision in Ukraine from an ontological and legal perspective at the same time, producing new knowledge about long-term processes of social change as well as the critical policy challenges of the present.