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Paper short abstract:

The figure of the 'distant stranger' has been central to many accounts of humanitarianism. This paper explores how distance, geographical and otherwise, matters for intervening in the lives of others.

Paper long abstract:

The figure of the 'distant stranger' has been central to many accounts of humanitarianism. This paper argues that while geographical distance matters, this is often a shorthand for a range of differences enveloped by it, including economic, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural ones. In this context, what role does 'distance' play for intervening in the lives of others? What compels people to support local peers, regional neighbors, or those living on other continents? This paper aims to interrogate the meaning of distance, the intuited value of proximity for moral responsibility, and to disaggregate the notion of the 'distant stranger'. It does so through examining what consequences geographical proximity and distance have, taking as an example international aid workers based in Cambodia. It asks in what ways they are drawn to their work because it is based overseas, and how notions of travel and adventure matter. It emerges that international aid workers occupy shifting positions, and that their distance to needy others is dynamic rather than fixed. The effects of distance and proximity - for example, having face-to-face encounters with people who beg, deciding to stay in remote field sites or central office headquarters, require constant negotiation. The paper charts their movements between distance and proximity, the quandaries which this produces, and their responses. In conclusion, the chapter highlights what aid workers' engagements tell us more broadly about the moral relevance of distance and proximity.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper addresses the workings of the humanitarian impulse and desires in a unique context of a touristic vaccine trial. Through this, it explores contemporary, changing forms of humanitarian desires, actions and subjectivities and asks, how the ethical, affective and epistemic are intertwined.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses the workings of the humanitarian impulse in a unique context of a touristic vaccine trial conducted in Western Africa. Such a context enables addressing the interweaving of different forms of subjectivity - humanitarian, scientific and touristic - and the ways these are constitutive of each other and particular forms of knowledge and action.

This paper draws on field research (2017-2019) on a Nordic based vaccine study aiming to test a vaccine against diarrhea. The vaccine study was conducted in Western Africa (2017-2019), and if successful, the vaccine is said to be intended for both, travelers and children under five in developing countries. This paper demonstrates how the humanitarian impulse is at work on different scales, those of individual(ized) desires to help and institutionalized forms of scientific knowledge production, and how these scales are intertwined. The paper analyses the 'transformation' of a medical study into charity activities, small scale aid initiatives and continuous flow of goods and equipment.

In addition to ethical and affective impasses (Malkki 2015), this paper addresses epistemic ones encountered by 'humanitarian subjects'. This paper underlines that to better understand and engage with the questions of ethics and politics of this form of knowledge production, one needs to engage with the broader notions of humanitarian interests and impulses; and to comprehend the workings of the humanitarian impulse, one needs to be attentive of the very private desires (to know, to help) of ordinary people as well as such more institutional scenes as scientific knowledge production.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores Somali diaspora humanitarianism, taking place in and across entangled spaces and scales. It examines the transnational mobilization of resources to Somalia during complex humanitarian crises and the underlying practices of care and moral obligation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores Somali diaspora humanitarianism as an example of vernacular humanitarianism taking place in and across entangled spaces and scales. Diaspora groups have emerged as key humanitarian actors in situations of protracted displacement and conflict. Somali diaspora organizations and individuals are often among the first to assist in acute emergencies, such as drought or flooding, and remain engaged during lengthy and complex crises. Their engagement is part of long-established practices of affect and care and a sense of moral obligation to help and support, often conducted through networks spanning Somalia, neighbouring countries, the Middle East and Western countries. It thus takes place along transnational and translocal scales.

Based on in-depth interviews with Somali-Danish and Somali-Swedish keypersons as well as NGO and development professionals in Denmark and Sweden, the paper examines how Somali diaspora groups mobilize, channel and deliver humanitarian assistance to Somalia during complex humanitarian crises as well as the often ambiguous relationship between the established humanitarian regime and diaspora actors. It particularly analyzes how affiliation and belonging can be mobilized for humanitarian engagement in different spaces, such as private homes, religious institutions, associations or professionally, and the practices and challenges of crisis relief.

Methodologically, the paper explores how diaspora humanitarianism can be studied through multi-sited fieldwork and proposes the concept of humanitarian infrastructures to refer to material, communicative and social facilitation of humanitarian support.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the 'spaces of aid' inhabited and created by local NGOs in South Sudan and how these overlap with, replicate and challenge the 'auxiliary space' (Smirl 2015) of international humanitarianism. It highlights both the creativity and risks associated with traversing these spaces.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on participant observation and over 50 life history interviews with the founders, leaders and staff of South Sudanese organisations, from small-scale, 'demotic' humanitarians (Taithe 2019) to large national NGOs. It explores how they negotiate their position as both subcontractors for the international humanitarian system, operating on the margins of 'auxiliary space' (Smirl 2015), and as members of extended kinship networks and local and national communities.

The paper highlights how the founders and staff of many South Sudanese NGOs engage in a creative, complex process of bricolage, drawing together resources from professional, domestic, international and local spaces in order to meet the needs of 'beneficiaries' and kin. To sustain activities in the gaps between international projects, local NGO staff frequently work unpaid or draw on income from farms, businesses or loans. These forms of local resources and labour sustaining projects of the international humanitarian system are often unacknowledged. Yet, local aid workers also draw on and repurpose the resources of the international humanitarian system to facilitate everyday, "vernacular" modes of helping. They also frequently engage in forms of moral labour (Fechter 2016), arising from discrepancies between aspiration and reality.

The paper also reveals the frictions between scales, and how the 'humanitarian impulse' of the international often relies on the precarious labour of those locally employed. Local NGO staff operate in very different conditions from the protected 'auxiliary space' of international humanitarianism. Precariousness is manifested both in exposure to physical risk and in unpredictable, short-term contracts and intermittent salaries.