Data hubris? Humanitarian information systems and the mirage of technology

Read, Róisín; Taithe, Bertrand; Ginty, Roger Mac

doi:10.1080/01436597.2015.1136208

Cited by 84 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Humanitarians have developed a range of practices that keep strangers distant while in close proximity including: geographical containment within semi-carceral spaces of the camp through the presence of security forces and carceral architectures; economically distant through the denial of the right to work and a reliance on humanitarianism for the provision of basic needs; and politically distant through the use of a combination of spatial containment, reliance on outside assistance and their legal status as refugees (see Hoffmann, 2017). Within this, new technologies of remote management create increased impressions of distance and proximity to recipients through the use of ever more elaborate big-data systems designed to tailor aid delivery (Hoffmann, 2017; see also Read, Taithe and Mac Ginty (2016)). Meanwhile humanitarian aid is provided through humanitarian organisations to create and maintain the impression that humanitarian assistance is distant from state interests, even while humanitarianism is reliant on the sovereign permission of states to operate and much of the aid distributed is state funded.…”

Section: Saving Distant Strangers Keeping Strangers Distantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hotspots and the geographies of humanitarianism

Pallister‐Wilkins

2018

Environ Plan D

118

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This article focuses on the humanitarian geographies of the hotspots. It argues that hotspots are humanitarian in both idea and practice by raising two fundamental questions that form the basis for the article: what is humanitarianism, and who is it for? The article understands humanitarianism as a logic of government that is more expansive than the mainstream ideal that emerged in the 20th-century. Instead humanitarianism is understood as concerning logics developed to both effectively manage disaster and to secure (in both senses of the word) imminently mobile populations for the maintenance of liberal order alongside and through the securing of life. The article takes an expansive view of humanitarian government to consider genealogies of caring and population security logics in the establishment of modern, western and liberal states. The article unsettles some of the traditional geographical understandings of humanitarianism as care for distant strangers and considers the ways compassion is rationalised by the hotspot approach. This critical reading of humanitarianism and the hotspots offers empirical weight to what has been called 'humanitarianism as liberal diagnostic', through which humanitarianism is deployed to secure both life and a liberal political order across multiple scales. KeywordsHotspots, humanitarianism, mobility, care, control, disasterOn 25 November 2016, in Moria 'hotspot' camp on Lesbos, a woman and child were killed in a fire after a gas canister attached to a hot plate exploded inside their small nylon tent. They were using the hot plate to try and keep warm. As a result of the accident, two people died and many more were injured. . . Later that month, three young men died in Moria camp and a fourth was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Survivors and friends reported that the deceased had no pre-existing medical conditions. To keep warm, the men had been burning cardboard, plastic and scraps of wood in the tents they shared. (MSF, 2017: 12)

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Section: Saving Distant Strangers Keeping Strangers Distantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hotspots and the geographies of humanitarianism

Pallister‐Wilkins

2018

Environ Plan D

118

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“…Where Big Data approaches of data-mining are seen to be passive, and led by the desire to monetise civil networked capacities, citizen-led approaches are seen to be active and transformative (see also McQuillan, 2014;Read et al, 2016;Kitchen, 2014b). More importantly, they are seen to be selftransformative initiatives, not just generating information to be used by others but a different politics: "Recognising a problem is not the same as resolving a problem.…”

Section: Citizen Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Securing the Anthropocene? International policy experiments in digital hacktivism: A case study of Jakarta

Chandler

2016

Security Dialogue

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This article analyses security discourses that are beginning to self-consciously take on board the shift towards the Anthropocene. Firstly, it sets out the developing episteme of the Anthropocene, highlighting the limits of instrumentalist cause-and-effect approaches to security, increasingly becoming displaced by discursive framings of securing as a process, generated through new forms of mediation and agency, capable of grasping inter-relations in a fluid context. This approach is the methodology of hacking: creatively composing and repurposing already existing forms of agency. It elaborates on hacking as a set of experimental practices and imaginaries of securing the Anthropocene, using as a case study the field of digital policy activism with the focus on community empowerment through social-technical assemblages being developed and applied in 'the City of the Anthropocene': Jakarta, Indonesia. The article concludes that policy interventions today cannot readily be grasped in modernist frameworks of 'problem solving' but should be seen more in terms of evolving and adaptive 'life hacks'.

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“…Within this approach, there is an inherent assumption that humanitarian actors collect data to understand populations' needs, without explicit involvement of the target population. 55,56 Big datasets, however, do not necessarily lead to improved response, particularly if data management and analysis capacities are insufficient.…”

Section: 54mentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of digital technology on health of populations affected by humanitarian crises: Recent innovations and current gaps

Mesmar

Talhouk

Akik

et al. 2016

J Public Health Pol

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Digital technology is increasingly used in humanitarian action and promises to improve the health and social well-being of populations affected by both acute and protracted crises. We set out to (1) review the current landscape of digital technologies used by humanitarian actors and affected populations, (2) examine their impact on health and well-being of affected populations, and (3) consider the opportunities for and challenges faced by users of these technologies. Through a systematic search of academic databases and reports, we identified 50 digital technologies used by humanitarian actors, and/or populations affected by crises. We organized them according to the stage of the humanitarian cycle that they were used in, and the health outcomes or determinants of health they affected. Digital technologies were found to facilitate communication, coordination, and collection and analysis of data, enabling timely responses in humanitarian contexts. A lack of evaluation of these technologies, a paternalistic approach to their development, and issues of privacy and equity constituted major challenges. We highlight the need to create a space for dialogue between technology designers and populations affected by humanitarian crises.

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Data hubris? Humanitarian information systems and the mirage of technology

Cited by 84 publications

References 22 publications

Hotspots and the geographies of humanitarianism

Hotspots and the geographies of humanitarianism

Securing the Anthropocene? International policy experiments in digital hacktivism: A case study of Jakarta

The impact of digital technology on health of populations affected by humanitarian crises: Recent innovations and current gaps

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