Cities of refuge and resistance: Everyday urban spaces, social inclusion & the hostile environment. The shaping of the urban lives of people seeking a

The research will explore the factors governing the urban lives of people seeking asylum in London. Using participatory and visual methods, it will identify significant urban spaces and understand how they facilitate and inhibit opportunities for social connectivity, health and wellbeing against the constraints of legal status and an intentionally

exclusionary asylum system. Focusing on the lived experiences of refused and current asylum seekers in two London boroughs, it will explore the spatial dimensions of urban inclusion and exclusion - from uses of public spaces such as urban greenspace, squares and the streets to accessible semi-public spaces such as cafes, libraries and

community centres - and how asylum seekers employ everyday tactics to subvert and resist the effects of precarious legal status and exclusionary policy which manifest psychologically and in the built environment. It seeks to theorise urban spaces as sites of refuge, resistance and hostility and conceptualise how socio-legal

constraints manage and regulate the urban lives of asylum seekers.