Position(s) at the Institute

Professor, Anthropology and Sociology of Development

Professor of Political Sociology
Master's Programme Director

Profile

PhD in Political Science, Sciences Po, Paris
Institute Faculty member since 1986, Professor Bocco’s main geographical area of fieldwork for the last 30 years has been the Near East with a particular focus on Jordan and Palestine. In addition to his PhD, he has degrees in cultural anthropology, development studies and the Arabic language. He is former director of the Centre for Research on the Contemporary Middle East, based in Amman, and was Research Director at the Graduate Institute for Development Studies. He has led large-scale research projects focusing on international aid and the socio-economic conditions of Palestinian refugees for the Swiss Development Agency and United Nations agencies. Three main research topics have successively shaped his work: tribes, nationalism, development policies and state-building; refugees, humanitarian policies and Palestinian identity in the Near East; and the role of international aid in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

Areas of expertise

• Armed conflicts, violence
• Development, cooperation and aid policies
• Humanitarian action, intervention
• Immigrants, refugees, diasporas
• Military occupation
• Peacekeeping, peacebuilding, reconstruction policy
• Reconciliation and conflict mediation
• State-building / sovereignty
• Middle East and North Africa (MENA) - Jordan, Palestine, Middle East

• Armed conflicts and international aid; Refugees and humanitarian aid; Peace processes, development policies and post-conflict reconstruction; Political sociology of State- and Nation-building processes.

Selected publications

• 2010 BOCCO, R. and AL HUSSEINI, J., “Dynamics of humanitarian aid, local and international politics: the Palestine refugees as a case study”, in: P alestinian Refugees. Identity, Space and Place in the Levant , A. Knudsen & S. Hanafi (eds.), London, Routledge.
• 2009-10 BOCCO, R. and TAKKENBERG, L. (eds.), UNRWA and the Palestinian Refugees 60 years later . Special double issue of 'Refugee Survey Quarterly', Oxford University Press, vol. 28, n° 2-3, 434pp.
• 2008 R. BOCCO et D. MEIER (sous la dir. de), La Palestine et les conflits du Moyen-Orient. Numéro spécial de la revue « A contrario », vol. 5, n°2, 208 pp.
• 2007 BIANCHI, S. et BOCCO, R., “Hamas al governo, tensioni intra-palestinesi e tensioni internazionali: preludi a una guerra civile? (marzo 2006-giugno 2007)” in: Hamas alla prova del governo. La Palestina sull’orlo della guerra civile, M. Emiliani (ed.), Bologna, Casa Editirice Il Ponte, 2007, pp. 30-54.
• 2007 BOCCO, R., BRUNNER, M., HUSSEINI, J., LAPEYRE, F., ZUREIK, E., The Living Conditions of the Palestine Refugees registered with UNRWA in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. New York and Jerusalem, UNRWA, and Geneva, IUED.

Publications et documents multimédias téléchargeables

Documents