Compassion that drives the humanitarian service of Christian, faith-based agencies transcends process and policy through informed practices leading to positive and compassionate engagement bringing transformational change among people in calamity and unjust systems. This dissertation explores the transformative role that faithbased agencies need to play in contemporary humanitarianism in order to span the gap between procedure and mercy in action. Further, it is an examination of theological, historical and practical applications of compassion at work demonstrating God's unconditional love to all of humanity. Faith-based humanitarian agencies struggle to serve marginalized communities and people groups, but are pulled in different directions by stakeholders. Donors who are highly motivated toward proclamation, expect a strong Gospel message. Local communities desire significant inputs to bring visible and tangible change. Institutional donors expect clear goals and outputs that belie evidence-based results. Local governments may welcome faith-based agencies but forbid religious proclamation especially where Christianity is a minority religion. Faith-based agencies are held to the same standards which govern all humanitarian agencies, creating new and complex challenges to serving the poor as ambassadors of God's good will and love. Part One deals with the unique historical and contemporary context within which faith-based humanitarian agencies operate. The reality and complexity of structure and policy, and the demand to meet greater humanitarian needs creates an environment of scrutiny and competition to fund, staff, resource and implement larger and more complex interventions. These developments are examined and reviewed in the light of contemporary agencies that have developed along parallel paths yet compete for resources. Part Two reviews theological underpinnings of faith-based humanitarianism. Beginning with a biblical reflection on the design and concept of neighborliness and concludes with three case studies along the themes of Justice, Policy and Mission providing a framework for understanding practical applications of mercy in action. Content Reader: Kurt Fredrickson, PhD
Comments and reflections on Lisa Ann Richey (ed), Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations: Politics, Place and Power (London: Routledge, 2016), and Ilan Kapoor, Celebrity Humanitarianism: The Ideology of Global Charity (London: Routledge, 2013).
This publication expands on the briefing paper on Afghanistan issued in March 2009, taking into account developments in the past year. It is based on some 40 interviews with UN and NGO aid agency staff, donors, a selection of Afghan government officials, and Afghan intellectuals and analysts in Kabul in January and March 2010. An earlier draft was circulated in Kabul in late March 2010 as an input into a workshop for aid agencies and donors hosted by ACBAR and supported by OFDA and UN-OCHA.
Comments and reflections on Lisa Ann Richey (ed), Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations: Politics, Place and Power (London: Routledge, 2016), and Ilan Kapoor, Celebrity Humanitarianism: The Ideology of Global Charity (London: Routledge, 2013). ; Published version
Based on extensive field interviews in Afghanistan, this briefing paper is an update of a 2006 study on perceptions of humanitarian action in Afghanistan, which was part of the Humanitarian Agenda 2015 research program. The paper highlights critical issues affecting the provision of humanitarian action and suggests how they could, partially at least, be redressed. Building on data collected through interviews in the aid community as well as with ordinary Afghans, the briefing paper finds that humanitarianism is under deep threat in Afghanistan because of the perceived association of aid agencies with the US-led intervention. Humanitarian actors and the principles they profess are under attack. The ability of humanitarian agencies to address urgent need is compromised by internal and external factors, i.e., both by the organization and modus operandi of aid agencies on the ground, and by an extremely volatile and dangerous operating environment.The aid community in Afghanistan faces severe challenges that need to be urgently addressed so that civilians in need can be protected and assisted and the credibility of the humanitarian enterprise restored. Opportunities for more principled humanitarian action, by separating or insulating it from political and military agendas, should not be missed. Failure to do so will have dire consequences for Afghans and for the future of humanitarianism worldwide.
The main claim in this article is that humanitarianism can be depicted as an attempt at establishing a realistic utopia. This is supported by a comparison between More's Utopia and Dunant's A Memory of Solferino. Despite the differences in style and context, both authors demonstrate a sensitive understanding of human nature and war. They both show that war should be conducted in a way that reduces suffering. Several of their ideas that seemed far-fetched at the time have entered the political mainstream. This, in turn, demonstrates that some visions of utopia can turn out to be practical. Dunant's text illustrates this by making concrete proposals that brought about long lasting changes in the way war is carried out. Despite coming short of abolishing war, his text presents a realistic utopia that broadened ideas around what may be politically possible. ; peer-reviewed
The main claim in this article is that humanitarianism can be depicted as an attempt of establishing a realistic utopia. The claimed is supported by comparison between More's Utopia and Dunant's A memory of Solferino. Despite the differences in style and context, both authors show a sensitive analysis of human nature and war as a phenomenon. They both show that war should be conducted in a way that reduces suffering. It is also important that several of their ideas that were far flung at the time have become political mainstream. This in turn illustrate that some utopian depictions can turn out to be realistic. Dunant's text illustrates this by making concrete proposals that brought about long lasting changes in the conduct of war. Despite coming short of abolishing war his text represent a realistic utopia that expanded the field of what was politically possible.
Abstract: This report focuses on the lives and vulnerabilities of those affected by the crisis and on the attempts by local and international agencies to mitigate these vulnerabilities within the fraught and volatile Afghan context. It presents an analysis of the humanitarian situation on the ground and of the challenges and constraints faced by the humanitarian community in a fast-moving environment. Its conclusions point to urgent changes required to improve the response to a severe and deepening humanitarian crisis and to protect humanitarian agencies, to the extent possible, from overt politicization and manipulation.
This article discusses some questions concerning the humanitarian approach to "solving" the so called refugee crisis in Europe in autumn 2015, when thousands of refugees headed on the journey to EU, most of them to Germany, by the so called Balkan migrant route. When some European states like Slovenia started to place razor wire on their southern borders, the others resumed the control of their inner EU borders and almost all introduced more restrictions on the existing laws on international protection of refugees and asylum. While taking up the question of what is the core element of today's "refugee problem" the main argument relies on Hannah Arendt's concept of superfluousness as the key feature of the new form of global government. There are two sides of the phenomenon of superfluousness that are crucial for understanding the situation in which we find ourselves in regard to the so-called "mass migrations", the problem of "refugees", "migrants" and "us". Regardless of the need for a dose of humanitarianism in such moments, the focus on the humanitarian "solving" of the problem conceals the key question: how to enable, as soon as possible and in the long term, those who are excluded from political units and the law to be included (have the right to have rights) in a political community? ; ***Refugiados hoy: superfluidad y humanitarismo***En este artículo se describen algunos problemas relacionados con enfoque humanitario para "resolver" la llamada crisis de los refugiados en Europa, en el otoño de 2015, cuando miles de refugiados partieron hacia la UE, la mayoría de ellos a Alemania, la llamada ruta migratoria de los Balcanes. Mientras que algunos países europeos, como Eslovenia, comenzaron a colocar cercas de alambre de púas en sus fronteras del sur, los otros volvieron a tomar el control de sus fronteras interiores de la UE y casi todos han introducido más restricciones a las leyes vigentes en materia de protección internacional de los refugiados y asilados. Al abordar la cuestión de cuál es el elemento ...
There is as yet no collection that examines the longer histories of global humanitarianism and media culture, which would enable readers to consider the various continuities, as well as the differences, characterising the mass media's relationship with international humanitarian crisis and relief. This collection examines this relationship from the 1950s to the present, from Marshall Plan documentaries and the promotion of the Peace Corps in the decades following the Second World War to the role of Facebook in the work of NGOS and the media's response to the current refugee crisis. The majority of the contributors to the proposed volume are specialists in the fields of media, film and cultural studies and approach the question of humanitarianism-media culture relations from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives, and draw on other disciplines such as sociology, journalism, politics and anthropology.
The humanitarian sector has emerged as a powerful mechanism of legitimation for blockchain technology. Platform developers in the aid sector have been eager to showcase the promise of decentralization and encrypted blockchain data as the inheritance of the world's poor and developing nations. This article claims that humanitarian blockchain projects are inextricably linked to the politics of the crypto-economy, proprietary platforms, and a class of solutionists championing Silicon Valley's cultural values. Blockchain humanitarianism has emerged through a private-public partnership (PPP) model in the non-governmental organization (NGO) sector that embraces tech disruption and innovation. Ethically sound blockchain humanitarian projects are precluded by the inherent obscurantism of the technology, the inability to transpose blockchain's governance logic in the social realm, and inextricable ties to the political economy of cryptocurrencies. Projects in the developing world have thus embodied a colonial logic of techno-experimentation for platform developers and imbricate the NGO sector into the PR logic of blockchain solutionism.
In this article, we trace the interconnections between humanitarianism and militarism. We highlight the significance of a geographical perspective in emphasizing the spatial and multiscalar dimensions of this changing relationship, particularly in Western states. In doing so, we reveal the violent geographies produced through militarized humanitarianism and demonstrate the ways political violence can be obscured through invocations of humanitarianism. We look at five overlapping lines of enquiry: the way humanitarianism is used to modulate war; the rationalization of military intervention as humanitarian; military deployment in response to humanitarian crises; the military take-up of humanitarian-style practices; and weapons development and humanitarianism.
This article surveys the wave of new historical and political-science literature exploring humanitarianism and the 'pre-history' of human rights in the long nineteenth century, noting the presentist assumptions underpinning much of this literature. On the one hand, histories of humanitarianism have focused on the origins of present-day humanitarian concerns, paying particular attention to the anti-slavery movement. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of this literature has explored Anglo-American (and usually Protestant) humanitarianism to the exclusion of the humanitarian campaigns and ideologies of other nations and faith traditions. A more properly historical approach is required, which would pay greater attention to the fusion of religious and secular traditions of activism, to the particular role of women in constituting these traditions, and to the different national contexts in which they bore fruit. Such an approach would also expand our understanding of 'humanitarian' activity to incorporate causes with less obvious present-day relevance, such as the temperance movement and Josephine Butler's campaign against the state regulation of prostitution. It would certainly prompt deeper reflection on the contingency of humanitarianism as a topic of historical inquiry, at least as currently constructed.
Summary: This paper critically analyses from a political sociology standpoint the international conceptualization of war-affected populations as traumatized and in need of therapeutic interventions. It argues for the importance of looking beyond the epidemiological literature to understand trauma responses globally. The paper explores how the imperative for international psychosocial programmes lies in developments within donor countries and debates in their humanitarian sectors over the efficacy of traditional aid responses. The aim of the paper is threefold. First, it discusses the emotional norms of donor states, highlighting the psychologising of social issues and the cultural expectations of individual vulnerability. Second it examines the demoralization of humanitarianism in the 1990s and how this facilitated the rise of international psychosocial work and the psychologising of war. Third, it draws attention to the limitations of a mental health model in Croatia, a country which has been receptive to international psychosocial programmes. Finally it concludes that the prevalent trauma approaches may inhibit recovery and argues for the need to re-moralize resilience. Please note this is not a final proofed version.A final proofed version of this paper was published under the following reference: Vanessa Pupavac (2004) 'Psychosocial Interventions and the Demoralisation of Humanitarianism.' Journal of Biosocial Science, Vol. 36 pp. 491-504. Special issue on Mental Well-being in Complex Emergencies edited by Astier Almedom at Tufts University.
Celebrity Humanitarianism: The Ideology of Global Charity.By ILAN KAPOOR. Routledge, 2013. $44.95Reviewed by Sonja Killoran-McKibbinThe back cover promised a "hyper-critical porpoise with a purpose," and though I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, I was not disappointed by this book. In Celebrity Humanitarianism: The Ideology of Global Charity, Ilan Kapoor cleverly and humorously attacks the celebrity charity peddlers, the "coffee-pusher philanthropists," and the NGO superstars who dominate our conception of international aid. Using a Žižekian framework to carry out a refreshing ideology critique, Kapoor prods the assumptions implicit within celebrity humanitarianism to reveal its ideological basis and the underlying interests such actions serve. While Kapoor focuses on only a handful of notorious celebrity humanitarians, he insists that the individual celebrities in his book are merely some of the more colourful examples of a broader trend. Most importantly, Kapoor avoids the trite and banal and refuses to return to the all too easy suggestion that something is better than nothing. Instead, Kapoor's text skilfully addresses the role of celebrity charities by systematically deconstructing the manner in which they justify and support the very inequities that they purport to challenge.By asking "Do they know that it's Christmas?" almost thirty years ago, Band Aid set off the growing role of celebrities as an authoritative voice on global poverty. Yet the issue is under-discussed and rarely critiqued, making Kapoor's cutting and insightful analysis long overdue. The book begins by exploring the hyper-celebrities who claim to speak for, witness, or represent poverty. Using Bono, Bob Geldof, Madonna, and Angelina Jolie as examples, Kapoor demonstrates how such celebrity charity work is used for individual profit and to mask the root causes of inequality. By offering the opportunity to do good through consumerism, such work feeds into the capitalism's elusive promise of jouissance—or the eternal promise of enjoyment. Celebrity humanitarianism showcases the excessive lifestyles of celebrities, supporting their individual brand but also glorifying and marketing their excessive lifestyles as the ultimate promise of capitalism. Celebrities in this way are used to embody a justification of the current economic system at the same time as they claim to work to change it. Support for the decadence of the rich glorifies the inequality on which capitalism is based and obfuscates the very conditions that create poverty. Moreover, these stars act as witnesses and authorities on the poverty of the third world and situate third world subjects as victims, perpetuating the issues of inclusion and exclusion within such actions.Next to come under Kapoor's gaze are the private foundations established and maintained by billionaires, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and George Soros' Open Society Institute. Calling such endeavours "decaf capitalism," Kapoor argues that they allow people to continue with business as usual and that "it is charity that helps decaffeinate capitalism. It masks and purifies corporate ills, acting as a countermeasure to socioeconomic exploitation." Foundations highlight the benevolence of corporate moguls and effectively hide the mechanisms through which they obtain such wealth. These acts keep people engaged and complicit with the corporate order and effectively depoliticize systems of inequality while undermining public mechanisms to improve social conditions and situating private initiatives as appropriate solutions.Finally, the book addresses those non-governmental organizations that have situated themselves as types of celebrities in their own right. From Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to Oxfam, such charities not only seek celebrity endorsements but have also developed their own personae and brand. Kapoor suggests that such charities, in many ways, represent an element of commodity fetishism in our late capitalist culture—distancing ourselves from elements of poverty while at the same time providing us with an outlet for our anxieties about global injustice. By constructing a "permanent emergency regime" these charities thrive on the spectacle of disaster and demand immediate action. They cultivate an anti-theoretical activism by suggesting that crisis makes immediate action essential—and unquestionably benign — leaving no time for analysis and portraying such reflection as inactive and necessarily detrimental. In this fashion such organizations encourage us to allow them to do the work for us, effectively delegating our beliefs to commodities. The absence of theorizing and the urgency of action effectively glosses over the manner in which the forms of new humanitarianism that such charities engage in are neoimperial endeavours. The complicity of NGOs in "humanitarian war" is made invisible by the parade of spectacularized emergencies.While Kapoor points to some of the ways the celebrity charity regime might be transformed, he is also quite clear that these reformist proposals are limited. They result in nothing more than a compromise with the system and do not address the depoliticizing tendencies of such international action. Drawing again on Žižek, Kapoor calls for an uncompromising politics that demands revolutionary change. While I welcome Kapoor's call for a revolutionary overthrow of the current global order and his rejection of sanctioned resistance, I must admit that I was left feeling somewhat unsatisfied by his insistence on revolutionary inaction. What of confronting antagonisms through unsanctioned resistance? While Kapoor advocates the imagining of new political possibilities that are distinct from inaction, as they ultimately must be followed by the material work for their creation, Kapoor deals with a lot in his last few pages, and perhaps that is part of the problem. While he urges the reader to see the opportunities in the contradictions it is difficult not to wish for more than a few pages to bring together his revolutionary proposal. Nonetheless, this could also be seen as Kapoor not letting his readers off the hook for their own complicity by pushing them to consider these tendencies beyond the bound pages. Overall Kapoor has crafted an engaging and entertaining text that deftly employs an all too familiar and visible phenomenon to bring to light the ideology embedded within it.~SONJA KILLORAN-MCKIBBIN is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. Her work explores the intersections of international aid and extractive industries.
