Camp Time: Heterochronies in ‘Other Spaces'
2026-01-22
Contemporary global apartheid is built upon temporal discord, with refugee camps playing a central role. Yet camp studies have largely neglected the temporal dimensions of displacement, leading to reductive notions of time in the camp as a paradox of permanent temporariness. This article examines two types of 21st century campscapes based on ethnographic research in archetypal humanitarian‐run camps in Jordan and privatized city shelter camps in the US to illustrate the temporal work that camps do in caring for and controlling people on the move. Mapping camp timescapes through Foucault's heterochronies, it argues that camp time is not merely a protraction of temporariness but a collection of futureless temporalities not meant to converge with national time outside the heterotopia. This article contributes to critical camp studies an analytical framework of camp time that exposes an intentional wasting of camp residents' time in a global project of temporal Othering.