Affective practices and liminal space-making in Palestinian refugee camps

In this chapter, we use the concept of affective practice (Wetherell, 2012) to show how kitchens and gardens – usually thought of as humble domestic spaces – can become liminal spaces that enable women to take up public identities as chefs and businesswomen alongside their private identities as wives, mothers and daughters. The contexts of our study are women’s social enterprises in two Palestinian refugee camps (established in 1948-49 following the displacement of Palestinians from what is now the state of Israel and the Occupied Territories). The social and spatial boundaries between the camps and their environs are strong and impermeable, leading to a situation where women are doubly confined, both within the camp and within domestic space and roles. We find that the kitchen and gardens allow the simultaneous enactment of traditional and novel affective practices, providing distinctive forms of reassurance to family members and external stakeholders. The mutability of the spaces makes it possible for women to transgress both domestic and camp boundaries, and simultaneously redefine their gendered identities.