2017 Urban Research Awards: Mapping Amman, Jordan

Professor Betty Anderson, in cooperation with Georgetown University Associate Professor Fida Adely, seek to conduct a mapping study in order to understand the modern population of Amman. A growing private sector and Jordan’s status as one of the safest countries in the Middle East has made Amman a safe haven for immigrants and refugees, resulting in an influx of new residents in addition to the thousands who came before them. Due to Jordan’s hospitable immigration policy and stability, non-Jordanians have come to constitute over a third of the population. This study will examine how both long-time Ammanites and new residents move around the city, how they are paying for new services, how they are training for new jobs, and how they are representing themselves and their activities on social media sites.

Anderson and Adely will travel to Amman throughout the next year to conduct focus group interviews, surveys, and geographical analysis of changing neighborhoods. Through their conversations with citizens of Amman, they hope to find answers to how the population of Amman has taken advantage of newly developing opportunities and institutions to suit their needs and, in turn, how they have dealt with the new societal and economic demands of development.

Anderson and Adely plan to present their findings at the World Congress on Middle East Studies in Seville, Spain in summer 2018.

View more projects funded through our Early Stage Urban Research Awards