ABSTRACT
Building upon the insight that a problem can only be managed by being known, and the more ‘accurately’ it can be known the more ‘effectively’ it can be managed, this chapter examines the role that knowledge production plays in the effective management of ‘the refugee (as) problem’. Turning to Foucault’s work on the relationship between knowledge, truth, power, and subjectivity, it argues that in order for the international refugee regime to effectively manage ‘the refugee (as) problem’ in line with its principles of burden-limiting/shifting and self-interest, both the individuals and the phenomenon in need of management must be ‘known’, and that the knowledge and management of the one necessitates and facilitates knowledge and management of the other. Two practices, or processes, of knowledge production in relation to ‘the refugee (as) problem’ are examined: the refugee status determination process, and the development of Refugee Studies as a discipline. Beyond exploring how knowledge production facilitates effective management of ‘the problem’, the chapter illuminates how the consequences, for displaced persons, of the operation of this power-knowledge-subject nexus necessitate a rethinking of ‘the problem’ in need of a solution.
