Studies of the International Humanitarian Studies Association in Paris that discussed the findings and insights of the book, Batman Saves the Congo: How Celebrities Disrupt the Politics of Development ( Budabin and Richey, 2021 ). The book critically analyses the case of celebrity humanitarian Ben Affleck and his organisation the Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI). 1 What distinguishes this case of celebrity humanitarianism was the fact that Affleck
assumed gender norms as a more productive lens. Her work emphasises the short-term temporality of humanitarian knowledge, which frames displacement as a moment of extreme disruption and therefore fails to consider evolution of social and gender norms in broader contexts. She opposes her feminist ethnographic approach to that of rapid needs assessments taken by humanitarian actors, and calls into question the utility and intentions of interventions which claim to evaluate ‘change’. The
contribution is to disrupt the often repeated – and far too uncritically consumed – trope of ‘progress’ in the aid sector. Historians’ suspicion of linear narratives, insistence on context and focus on process are all useful tools for challenging the idea that things will/can/could get better. Third, and relatedly, thinking historically also means asking new questions about experiences with which we are familiar. For historians, this involves us in what Catherine Hall calls
Health Atlas 2017 ( Geneva : WHO ), apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/272735/9789241514019-eng.pdf?ua=1 (accessed 4 January 2021 ). World Health Organization News Release ( 2020 ), ‘ COVID-19 Disrupting Mental Health Services in Most Countries, WHO Survey ’, 5
new reliance on, and aspirations for, online and remote livelihood opportunities. The reliance on home-based work has also exposed them to ‘an increased risk of violence in the household’ ( UN Women, 2020b : 3) and diminished their agency as caregivers, breadwinners and business owners. The Way Forward The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the already fragile livelihoods of displaced populations in the region. This is
’, as he said in one conversation. In 2018 Hussein arrived in Sidon, Lebanon and was unable to continue his Arabic literature university degree due to long years of disrupted learning. The DST centre was a safe and friendly learning environment where he thrived, according to his teachers, despite all his traumatic experiences. Many other participants benefited in similar ways even if they remained excluded from the digital economy. Digital Livelihoods Undone
. The Refugee Woman, Her Saviours and Schemes of Improvement In this article we are inspired by postcolonial feminist writings in gender and development, from which we derive a number of theoretical points of departure and analytical strategies. Feminism and postcolonialism are wedded in their efforts to disrupt ‘the boundaries that divide what’s inside from the outside, but also what’s superior from inferior ’ ( Ling, 2017 : 478, emphasis added ). In an early seminal
to success and advanced in times of major disruption and dislocation ( Lindgardt et al. , 2009 ). The humanitarian sector faces a similar period of disruption caused by environmental, climate and population pressures. To succeed in the goal of transformation through innovation, humanitarian actors now need to realign the meaning and practice of innovation towards strategic business models that fit the current and future context complexities, rather than those of
choice. The Nepalese government responded to the widespread destruction of the 2015 earthquake by insisting on seismically resilient house construction as a condition of the grant. Shelter was certainly a high priority for the affected families. Without doubt, much could, and can, be done to improve the level of safety of the rebuilt houses. However, the consequences of this policy were long delays causing families to put off reconstruction for up to two years, little flexibility in the design and limits on the number of storeys, disruption of traditional economic
-defined territories, each under the fairly permanent control of clearly identifiable authorities. Archetypal yet exceptional, such situations are those of enclaves such as in Biafra in 1968, in Bosnia in 1992–95 or in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam-held Vanni in Sri Lanka until 2009. But insofar as they impact the overall dynamic of conflicts by distorting issues of territorial control, contradicting siege strategies and disrupting military operations, the consent of both parties to the opening of corridors is almost always extremely difficult to obtain and fragile, which