Paper short abstract:

I analyse a programme ran by the ICRC in Rio's favelas as a humanitarian risk technology which, although aimed at taming future uncertainty, can lead to moments of paralysis when action is necessary to safeguard oneself from violence.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the indeterminacy inherent to risk management as an exercise of classifying reality. Since 2009, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has operated in Rio's favelas to help reduce the impact of armed violence on public services and local residents and. In contrast with war settings, where the organization provides emergency medical relief, in Brazil the ICRC implements a program called Safer Access Framework (SAF), an immaterial form of humanitarian action. SAF consists of a risk management technology that aims to help public healthcare and education staff to manage everyday risks related with armed violence that they might encounter in their daily work. As workers are asked to classify risk in their work surroundings according to colour levels (green to red), uncertainties about the nature of armed violence that can be heard but not seen contribute to make risk indeterminate. Moral uncertainties about enacting advised protocols to mitigate risk (e.g. leaving work early) further contribute to create moments of paralysis at a public clinic in Duque de Caxias, Greater Rio, where fieldwork was conducted. While techniques of risk management aim at taming future uncertainty by foregrounding action in the present, this paper argues that the indeterminacy inherent to risk assessments as a form of classification can lead to states of paralyzing indecision.