Mind the gap: Documenting and explaining violence against aid workers

Fast, Larissa

doi:10.1177/1354066109350048

Cited by 45 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…This securitisation of risk facilitated the rise of humanitarian security professionals. 4 The extended security approaches also changed understandings of the level of acceptable risk for communities in crisis and aid workers, and consequently the day-to-day interactions between the two groups (Fast, 2010;Duffield, 2012;Dandoy and Pérouse de Montclos, 2013).…”

Section: Risk and Ordermentioning

confidence: 99%

A world in turmoil: governing risk, establishing order in humanitarian crises

Dijkzeul

Sandvik

2019

Disasters

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This special issue of Disasters on humanitarian governance focuses on risk and order. Its contributions show the tensions between humanitarian normative ideals and practical consequences, as many of the ordering effects are associated with either intended or unintended consequences. This introduction offers a conceptual framing of humanitarian governance. Defining humanitarian governance as a subset of global governance, the paper shows how humanitarians have attempted to improve the consequences of their work by fighting instrumentalisation and instituting rationalisation processes. It adapts four questions, originally formulated by Michael Barnett (), to examine the ways in which humanitarian governance functions in more detail: what kind of world is being imagined and produced through the specific concern with order and risk? Who governs? How is this a form of humanitarian governance and how is it organised? And finally, what are the principal techniques of such governance? The conclusion summarises the main findings and sets an agenda for further research.

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Section: Risk and Ordermentioning

confidence: 99%

A world in turmoil: governing risk, establishing order in humanitarian crises

Dijkzeul

Sandvik

2019

Disasters

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“…Smirl ). The dangers and risks posed to aid workers increased due to external and internal causes (Fast ) related to the entangled but conflicting trends of growing securitisation, militarisation of interventions and lack of access. As a result, the humanitarian presence began to withdraw from local realities (Autesserre ; Andersson and Weigand ), ‘a growing remoteness – of international aid workers from the societies in which they work’ (Duffield : 478; original italics).…”

Section: Delivering Aid Into the Syrian Black Box: The Normalisation mentioning

confidence: 99%

Humanitarian remoteness: aid work practices from ‘little Aleppo’

Fradejas-García

2019

Soc Anthropol

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In response to the Syrian conflict, the biggest humanitarian challenge since the Second World War, aid organisations have set up large‐scale cross‐border operations. Aid convoys and workers within Syria have become targets, forcing most operations to be carried out remotely from the Turkish border city of Gaziantep, a ‘little Aleppo’ hosting more than 300,000 Syrians. This produces a transnational humanitarian social field embedded in historical, political and economic relations. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork among aid workers and organisations providing relief assistance remotely, this article analyses the production of humanitarian remoteness, both rhetorically and in practice, shaped by remote technologies and the division of labour. In the case of Syria, the normalisation of remote practices and the dependency on local aid workers and organisations ultimately increases the distance between donors and beneficiaries inside Syria, although it reinforces the illusion of control among aid managers.

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“…As noted above, there is a vigorous academic debate about how the idea of 'aid worker insecurity' has become part and parcel of the broader shrinking humanitarian space narrative, as well as a humanitarian sector subfield in its own right. 71 At the same time, it is clear that a growing number of humanitarian NGOs assume more risk and take on more government work than previously. 72 In parallel to this, we are also seeing the emergence of a cultural and legal conceptualisation of a 'duty of care' as a key value for the sector.…”

Section: Holding Humanitarian Organisations Accountable Through Law: mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing Law into the Political Sociology of Humanitarianism

Lohne¹,

Sandvik²

2017

OLR

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ABSTRACT:Over the past few years, the study of humanitarianism has emerged as an interdisciplinary subfield in international political sociology. This article maps out some preliminary ideas about the role of legal sociology in this project. The study of international humanitarian law has overwhelmingly been the terrain of doctrinal legal scholars, while the apparent lack of other law has meant that, until recently, legal sociologists have paid little attention to the humanitarian sector. There has also been little scholarly concern regarding the consequences of not asking questions about the role of law in the humanitarian project. We argue that legal sociology helps us understand how rules, standards and norms shape and are shaped by practices and interactions within and across humanitarian spaces globally, and how law contributes to humanitarian governance.

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Mind the gap: Documenting and explaining violence against aid workers

Cited by 45 publications

References 19 publications

A world in turmoil: governing risk, establishing order in humanitarian crises

A world in turmoil: governing risk, establishing order in humanitarian crises

Humanitarian remoteness: aid work practices from ‘little Aleppo’

Bringing Law into the Political Sociology of Humanitarianism

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