Aidnography

Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 32 - The Latin American experience: inequality’s role in shaping humanitarianism – contributed by Oscar A. Gómez, Simone Lucatello and Rodrigo Mena. From the introduction  This chapter explores the possible connection between two basic facts about inequality and humanitarianism in Latin America. The first, seemingly incontrovertible fact is how Latin America is one of the world’s most unequal regions. Inequality in the region has been repeatedly highlighted in the development studies literature concerning income and other human development dimensions – i.e., education and gender. Such inequality has been linked to colonial legacies in the distribution of political and economic power, as well as social structures (see Chapter 2 by O’Leary McNeice on Humanitarianism and colonialism in this ...

Welcome back to a new year! Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 31 - Africa’s long fight for humanitarian self-sufficiency - contributed by Oheneba A. Boateng. From the introduction  African civil society and governments have always organised to address their own humanitarian problems. Yet, before the localisation agenda emerged (see Chapter 6 by Youakim and Stephan on Localisation in this volume), even inclusive mainstream research like Barnett (2011) and Everill and Kaplan (2013) prioritised external actors and largely ignored homegrown African capacity, unwittingly implying that the continent does little to help itself. This trope persisted despite research on how homegrown African capacity had been eroded by international organisations ( Juma and Suhrke, 2002 ). This history, however, is essential for understanding th...

Welcome back to a new year! Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 30 - West Asia and North Africa - contributed by Josepha Wessels. From the introduction  West Asia tends to be called ‘Middle East’, a term embedded in Eurocentric geopolitics and colonialism, whereby the region is referred to in relationship to their proximity to Europe. The region has large quantities of the most vied natural resources on this planet: oil and gas. The role and power of energy supply systems cannot be ruled out in defining international diplomacy ( Jones, 2012 ; Mammadov, 2018 ). Countries and nation-states of Europe, the US, China, and Russia, have a vested strategic military and geopolitical interest in this region (Jones, 2012; Mammadov, 2018). Diplomatic ties with fossil fuel producing countries in the region, that are far from liberal demo...

Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 29 - International humanitarianism in East Asia - contributed by Alistair D.B. Cook, Lina Gong and Oscar A. Gómez. From the introduction  The aim of this chapter is to explore how humanitarianism is manifested in Asia to contribute an alternative approach and challenge the dominant understanding of humanitarianism. In describing this alternative approach, we highlight two principal observations.  First, regional institutions in East Asia play a buffer role in contesting international interventionism while benefiting and, indeed, depending on traditional international humanitarian resources for its functioning. This dependence however constrains how and to what extent East Asian countries can change the inequality in power in the global humanitarian system.  Second, the rise of st...

Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 28 – Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Regions - contributed by Agnieszka Sobocinska. From the introduction  This chapter argues that humanitarianism in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific has been profoundly imprinted by its roots in settler colonialism. Humanitarianism in Australia and New Zealand grew out of the project of appropriating Indigenous land, and somewhat ironically, facilitated the extension of government control over Indigenous lives. The relationship between humanitarianism, colonialism, and governmentality is by no means unique to Australia or the Pacific; as Didier Fassin notes, the ‘tension between inequality and solidarity, between a relation of domination and a relation of assistance, is constitutive of all humanitarian governance’ ( Fassin, 2012: 3 ). The relat...

Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 27 - Humanitarianism and Native America - contributed by Barbara Gurr. From the introduction This chapter offers consideration of assimilationist and genocidal tactics harbored under the guise of ‘humanitarianism’ in two distinct but inter-related areas. I begin with the role of religion, and particularly Christianity, in providing what might be understood as humanitarian aid long before the abolition movements that so commonly mark the origin point of humanitarianism as a distinct field of endeavor. The work of missionaries, predominantly Jesuit and Franciscan, to convert the Indigenous peoples of what is now called North America to Christianity directly served imperialist purposes, but was performed under the guise of ‘saving souls’ and, later, providing education and even healthcare. This ...