On 28 September 2018, an earthquake and tsunami hit West Sulawesi, destroying homes, mosques and livelihoods, displacing 80,000 people and killing at least 2000. Immediately, thousands of volunteers mobilized to offer rescue and relief by providing food, organizing shelter and raising money and relief items through social networks and social media (Morse 2018b). These immediate, spontaneous and localized relief efforts preceded, complemented and partly substituted the more bureaucratic and coordinated response of local authorities (Morse 2018a), as well as interventions by specialized international organizations and large NGOs. While the Indonesian government at first declined international aid on the grounds that it could manage the disaster on its own, it accepted offers of relief assistance after the scale of the destruction became evidentalbeit selectively and strictly regulating the nature of operations, provision of necessities and deployment of foreign personnel (ABC News 2018; Latiff and Kapoor 2018; Loy 2018a). Obviously, as Christina Bennett, an international aid policy analyst, notes, 'gone are the days when you're going to have a humanitarian sector that comes into a disaster situation with a very heavy footprint and sets up as almost an auxiliary, or a replacement of government services' (quoted in Loy 2018b).While there has been speculation about the politics of Indonesia's insistence on being able to help its own citizens, its response actually fits well within a broader trend towards the localization of aid, and the increasing prominence of new actors in the quest to provide relief to, and improve the lives of, people in need (e.g. Charter4Change 2018; Fejerskov, Lundsgaarde, and Cold-Ravnkilde 2017). In the context of the so-called afterlives of development (Rudnyckyj and Schwittay 2014), attempts to provide relief in times of disaster and to better the lives of (marginal) populations are now increasingly relocated to initiatives beyond the state and beyond the 'traditional' development expertise of established international organizations. This special issue focuses on the new assemblage of humanitarian and development actors in South East Asia. It analyses how social entrepreneurs, diaspora groups, religious charities, local self-help groups and private investors are involved in initiatives aimed at overcoming poverty, modernizing infrastructure, providing housing, expanding knowledge, organizing emergency relief and addressing social needs. Our contributions focus on the moral politics behind these on-the-ground assemblages of actors and practices. We ask, which tools, technologies and operative logics do these development actors employ? What are their goals and motivations? What claims do they make? How do their interventions play out in local life
