I expect the conceptual framework of the Stayer and the interpretive framework of the Social Phenomenology of Disruption to be applicable to various situations where people face the fundamental choice between leaving for safety and remaining in place while their homeworld is disrupted, and preserve their initial identity and sense of belonging even when their familiar world collapses. Potential contexts include:
- Crisis and conflict: war-torn regions, occupied territories, zones under authoritarian control
- Environmental disruption: climate-threatened coastlines, areas affected by slow disasters, exclusion zones
- Social transformation: gentrifying neighbourhoods, depopulated rural areas, communities facing infrastructure projects
- Economic upheaval: regions experiencing deindustrialisation, areas with persistent economic decline
- Cultural pressure: communities resisting assimilation, indigenous groups maintaining traditional lands, informal settlements resisting state relocation efforts
This list is not exhaustive – the framework's boundaries continue to evolve as I encounter new cases and test its analytical limits. I welcome dialogue with scholars working on related phenomena and expect the applicability of the framework will continue to expand.
Moreover, I expect these frameworks to be compatible with various empirical research designs with different populations and samples (civilians in conflict zones, rural communities, etc.), data types (diaries, oral history, interviews, etc.), and methods (various types of qualitative data analysis, phenomenological interpretations, probably grounded theory, and even mixed methods). Currently, I am conducting two distinct empirical investigations under the same theoretical umbrella. Both tracks use the same interpretive framework but different empirical approaches.
- Staying in war-torn cities - a most relevant and even classical case (this is my ongoing doctoral research project). It employs phenomenologically informed thematic analysis of published wartime diaries written by intellectuals.
- Staying under occupation - threshold case for a distinct research starting in January 2026, which may be partly included in my doctoral thesis. It explicates the experience of the general public through in-depth interviews.
These two cases show the framework's universality across different data types (diaries vs. interviews), samples (intellectuals vs. ordinary people), and contexts (war vs. occupation), which increases its theoretical robustness: two parallel tests of one framework strengthen its credibility much more than one case study would.
This work is currently under peer review for publication. To cite this page please use:
Yasna, I. The Stayer Project. Research Website, August 15, 2025. https://thestayer.org