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Beyond Vulnerability: Everyday Agency among Women in a Women’s Asylum Shelter in Austria

Pellens, Kristina Charlotte LU (2026) MIDM19 20261
Department of Human Geography
LUMID International Master programme in applied International Development and Management
Abstract
iiAbstractThis thesis examines how women living in a women-only asylum shelter in Austria exercise agency in their daily lives amid institutional regulation, legal uncertainty, and prolonged waiting. It explores how residents organise their daily lives, cope with insecurity, and try to maintain a sense of control within institutional settings and social relationships. Agency is not understood as autonomy or overt resistance, but as situated, relational, and temporally embedded within conditions of vulnerability and constraint. The study is based on a qualitative single-case design. It combines semi-structured interviews with five residents and two staff members, participant observation over a period of five months, and qualitative content... (More)
iiAbstractThis thesis examines how women living in a women-only asylum shelter in Austria exercise agency in their daily lives amid institutional regulation, legal uncertainty, and prolonged waiting. It explores how residents organise their daily lives, cope with insecurity, and try to maintain a sense of control within institutional settings and social relationships. Agency is not understood as autonomy or overt resistance, but as situated, relational, and temporally embedded within conditions of vulnerability and constraint. The study is based on a qualitative single-case design. It combines semi-structured interviews with five residents and two staff members, participant observation over a period of five months, and qualitative content analysis.Drawing on the work of Butler, Mahmood, de Certeau, Das and Kabeer, the thesis demonstrates that agency can emerge through the everyday practices of maintenance and endurance. These include daily routines, emotional coping mechanisms, limited autonomy, relationalsupport and modest future aspirations. However, women's opportunities for action are unequally shaped by legal status, prolonged waiting, institutional rules, limited resources and social dynamics. This study contributes to research on forced migration and development by demonstrating that the agency of refugee women is often subtle, relational andmaintenance-oriented yet central to sustaining everyday life under constraint. (Less)
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author
Pellens, Kristina Charlotte LU
supervisor
organization
course
MIDM19 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
language
English
id
9226084
date added to LUP
2026-06-30 15:12:48
date last changed
2026-06-30 15:12:48
@misc{9226084,
  abstract     = {{iiAbstractThis thesis examines how women living in a women-only asylum shelter in Austria exercise agency in their daily lives amid institutional regulation, legal uncertainty, and prolonged waiting. It explores how residents organise their daily lives, cope with insecurity, and try to maintain a sense of control within institutional settings and social relationships. Agency is not understood as autonomy or overt resistance, but as situated, relational, and temporally embedded within conditions of vulnerability and constraint. The study is based on a qualitative single-case design. It combines semi-structured interviews with five residents and two staff members, participant observation over a period of five months, and qualitative content analysis.Drawing on the work of Butler, Mahmood, de Certeau, Das and Kabeer, the thesis demonstrates that agency can emerge through the everyday practices of maintenance and endurance. These include daily routines, emotional coping mechanisms, limited autonomy, relationalsupport and modest future aspirations. However, women's opportunities for action are unequally shaped by legal status, prolonged waiting, institutional rules, limited resources and social dynamics. This study contributes to research on forced migration and development by demonstrating that the agency of refugee women is often subtle, relational andmaintenance-oriented yet central to sustaining everyday life under constraint.}},
  author       = {{Pellens, Kristina Charlotte}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Beyond Vulnerability: Everyday Agency among Women in a Women’s Asylum Shelter in Austria}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}