Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 12 - Subversive humanitarianism

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 12 – Subversive humanitarianism - contributed by Robin Vandevoordt.

From the introduction
In recent years, however, scholars have drawn attention to other actors providing material and social support, often under conditions of – sometimes prolonged – emergencies. They have spawned a whole range of new concepts, some of which are embedded within studies of humanitarianism, such as ‘new’, ‘volunteer’ (Sandri, 2018), and ‘South–South’ humanitarianism (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2015a; 2019), while others have emerged from neighbouring fields such as ‘citizen aid’ from development studies (Fechter and Schwittay, 2019; see also Chapter 13 by Choudhury Lahiri on Citizen’s groups and grassroots humanitarianism in this volume) and ‘inclusive solidarity’ from social movement studies (Schwiertz and Schwenken, 2020; see also Chapter 11 by Martí i Puig and Alberto Martín Álvarez on Political solidarity movements and humanitarianism in this volume). The common thread throughout these studies, is that they show how the involvement of a-typical actors in humanitarian action often implies a departure from universalism and ‘neutrality’ as a guiding principle or hegemonic strategy.

These actors are described as having the potential to put in place a more localised, ‘thick’ form of solidarity with a particular group of people. This means that these relations of support are embedded in social relations that recognize and build on people’s biographical trajectories and socio-political subjectivities, rather than treating them as ‘bodies’ that need to be ‘saved’ (cf. Brun, 2016).

Of course, this chapter has emerged from the specific positionality of its author. As a white, cis-gender man who has received higher education in the Global North, I have conducted research among citizen collectives in West Europe that are, broadly speaking, part of my own social milieu. Without a doubt, this has shaped the fieldwork I conducted, and limited its geographical scope. While my analyses are informed by the perspectives of people on the move, my own positionality – due to issues of access, language, and ethical concerns – has led my research to gravitate towards the strategies of citizen collectives nonetheless. And while this chapter draws extensively on scholars working on places and with actors in the Global South, the reflections I offer here remain inherently partial.

Analytically, this chapter draws on the concept of ‘subversive humanitarianism’, which I developed elsewhere as an ideal type to scrutinise to what extent grassroots forms of support can help us rethinking solidarity with refugees and illegalised migrants (Vandevoordt, 2019; 2021a; Vandevoordt and Verschraegen, 2019a). It is informed by fieldwork with citizen collectives in Europe that consciously try to overcome the challenges posed by humanitarianism and its critiques. In this contribution, however, I further explore whether and how we can reimagine humanitarianism as a moral and political project that has the potential of subverting established power relations between those providing and those receiving support. I do so by re-centring our gaze towards actors located within the Global South, and towards bottom-up or grassroots practices. These lines of inquiry are explored through more specific cases: regional responses to displacement from Syria (see also Chapter 25 by Hashimoto on Refugee protection and assistance and Chapter 30 by Wessels on West Asia and North Africa in this volume), and solidarity with illegalised migrants in Europe. While the social solidarities emerging from these cases do not represent fundamentally novel or unique phenomena, I believe that at the very least, they point towards new scholarly attention for alternative ways of thinking about essential, material support.

Note on contributor
Robin Vandevoordt is an associate professor in migration studies at the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees at Ghent University.
His areas of interest include grassroots humanitarianism, social movements, solidarity, and the politics of borders.
He currently conducts and supervises ethnographic research along two lines: solidarity practices combining humanitarian with political action, and how people on the move experience and navigate migration-related policies. 

Overviews are already available for the following chapters:
Introduction: humanitarianism and inequality – a re-orientation

Humanitarianism and colonialism

Humanitarianism and the global Cold War, 1945–1991

Humanitarianism and the new wars: humanitarianism, security, and securitisation

Humanitarianism, development and peace: a southern perspective

Localisation and the humanitarian sector

Human rights and humanitarianism

Humanitarian organisations: behemoths and butterflies

Faith actors in humanitarianism: dynamics and inequalities

Diaspora assistance 

Political solidarity movements and humanitarianism: lessons from Catalonia, Spain (1975–2020)

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