My and Michael Magcamit’s chapter “Humanitarianism and the new wars: humanitarianism, security and securitization” is out in Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality edited by Silke Roth, University of Southampton, UK, Bandana Purkayastha, University of Connecticut, US and Tobias Denskus, Malmö University, Sweden. Here is a short description of the book, some endorsements, and a discount code!
This prescient Handbook examines inequalities in humanitarianism at multiple levels, highlighting the long- lasting impact of colonialism on contemporary power relations. Silke Roth, Bandana Purkayastha and Tobias Denskus bring together esteemed experts from the global north and south who introduce crucial research ethics frameworks and methodologies in order to study humanitarianism and inequality. Adopting an intersectional approach, this Handbook demonstrates the ways in which race, gender, class and other sources of inequality intersect in relation to a range of contemporary issues including the role of the media and technology, the COVID-19 pandemic, linguistic inequality, trafficking, and refugee protection and assistance. Looking ahead, the contributors stress the need for academics and practitioners to reflect on the inequalities that both underpin and are perpetuated by humanitarian contexts.
Providing a detailed overview of the ways in which inequality has affected the development and transformation of humanitarianism, this Handbook will be essential reading for academics, students and researchers of humanitarian and development studies, international relations, and sociology and social policy. It will also be of interest to public policymakers focussing on humanitarianism and striving for global equality.
‘This Handbook is an excellent addition to the study of humanitarianism as a multifaceted practice with diverse histories, geographies, and indeed inequalities, unsettling conventional narratives of humanitarianism and decentring traditional Global North actors as the guardians of what it means to do humanitarianism and be a humanitarian. It is a timely intervention
as we collectively face the challenges of an uncertain future, ongoing and deepening global inequalities, and demands for justice.’
– Polly Pallister-Wilkins, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
‘Despite according equal value to every life, as implied in the core principle of humanity, humanitarians have developed and sustained many inequalities in their own systems. This Handbook is a wonderful addition to the growing field of humanitarian studies and the chapters from the Global South and North highlight many long-standing, but also emerging aspects
of such inequalities which deserve attention from researchers, practitioners and students of humanitarian aid.’
– Dorothea Hilhorst, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands