Non-state humanitarianism: From Colonialism to Human Rights
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: History and Cultures
Abstract
From the actions of nineteenth century missionaries and colonial officials to the recent food crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa, non-state humanitarianism has become one of the defining characteristics of international action. But how can humanitarian aid draw on its history to respond to current challenges and present-day norms? The 'Non-state humanitarianism' network investigates humanitarianism's past and the uses of that past in a pan-European framework, while combining it with alternative perspectives of humanitarianism from the global South.
The network connects two emerging strands of historical inquiry - from the academic world and from within the humanitarian sector - in a spirit of conversation and collaboration, to examine these questions in a transnational historical context. Building on the firm belief that history's focus on causality and long-term processes of change is indispensible for appreciating the complex dynamics of socio-cultural change, the network contributes a deeper understanding of modern humanitarianism. It provides an historical complement to the wealth of available analyses - internal and external - of the contemporary humanitarian environment. Its broad spectrum of participants - from network partners in the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the University of Manchester Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) - ensures that the network and its outputs harness the variety of existing historical approaches to humanitarianism.
To achieve its goals, the network brings together participants from across the UK and Europe in a series of virtual discussion groups (via the network website, Twitter feed and email list) and two-day workshops. The network's online activities include the generation of research questions and thematic clusters; the pre-workshop circulation of papers; and on-going discussion before, between, and after the workshops. The involvement of postgraduate and early career researchers - in the form of an online research database, short presentations at the workshops and opportunities for conversation and collaboration with NGOs - will contribute to the sustainability of the network and its outputs.
The first of the workshops, at the University of Birmingham in early 2013, centres on the question of methodologies: how we approach - and should approach - the history of non-state humanitarianism. The second workshop, at University College Dublin in April 2013, explores sources and uses for humanitarian history in a discussion about archival best practice and the value of these archives for NGOs and historians.
The third workshop, at ZZF Potsdam in September 2013, focuses on the co-production of a research framework for the study of non-state humanitarianism. Its aim is not only to create a coherent, collaborative approach to the subject, but also to ensure that its practical relevance and impact are embedded from the outset. The final workshop, a joint meeting (facilitated by web conferencing facilities) between participants at the TATA Institute of Social Science, Mumbai and at the HCRI in December 2013, emphasises approaches to humanitarianism from the global South. It provides an opportunity for network participants to review and revise the research framework to take account of the global (South and North) experience of non-state humanitarianism.
The findings of this final workshop will inform an article outlining a clear research agenda for humanitarian history, to be published in a major peer-reviewed research journal. They will help frame another of the network's outputs: an edited volume of papers based on selected workshop presentations. And they will provide a strong foundation for the network's activities beyond the funding period: as a platform for future transnational conversation, discussion, and collaborative research, and as the basis for stronger ties between the academic and practical worlds of the NGO sector.
The network connects two emerging strands of historical inquiry - from the academic world and from within the humanitarian sector - in a spirit of conversation and collaboration, to examine these questions in a transnational historical context. Building on the firm belief that history's focus on causality and long-term processes of change is indispensible for appreciating the complex dynamics of socio-cultural change, the network contributes a deeper understanding of modern humanitarianism. It provides an historical complement to the wealth of available analyses - internal and external - of the contemporary humanitarian environment. Its broad spectrum of participants - from network partners in the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the University of Manchester Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) - ensures that the network and its outputs harness the variety of existing historical approaches to humanitarianism.
To achieve its goals, the network brings together participants from across the UK and Europe in a series of virtual discussion groups (via the network website, Twitter feed and email list) and two-day workshops. The network's online activities include the generation of research questions and thematic clusters; the pre-workshop circulation of papers; and on-going discussion before, between, and after the workshops. The involvement of postgraduate and early career researchers - in the form of an online research database, short presentations at the workshops and opportunities for conversation and collaboration with NGOs - will contribute to the sustainability of the network and its outputs.
The first of the workshops, at the University of Birmingham in early 2013, centres on the question of methodologies: how we approach - and should approach - the history of non-state humanitarianism. The second workshop, at University College Dublin in April 2013, explores sources and uses for humanitarian history in a discussion about archival best practice and the value of these archives for NGOs and historians.
The third workshop, at ZZF Potsdam in September 2013, focuses on the co-production of a research framework for the study of non-state humanitarianism. Its aim is not only to create a coherent, collaborative approach to the subject, but also to ensure that its practical relevance and impact are embedded from the outset. The final workshop, a joint meeting (facilitated by web conferencing facilities) between participants at the TATA Institute of Social Science, Mumbai and at the HCRI in December 2013, emphasises approaches to humanitarianism from the global South. It provides an opportunity for network participants to review and revise the research framework to take account of the global (South and North) experience of non-state humanitarianism.
The findings of this final workshop will inform an article outlining a clear research agenda for humanitarian history, to be published in a major peer-reviewed research journal. They will help frame another of the network's outputs: an edited volume of papers based on selected workshop presentations. And they will provide a strong foundation for the network's activities beyond the funding period: as a platform for future transnational conversation, discussion, and collaborative research, and as the basis for stronger ties between the academic and practical worlds of the NGO sector.
Planned Impact
The significance of this network lies in the close collaboration it fosters between academics and stakeholders from the humanitarian sector. The emphasis on the co-production of network objectives and outcomes will ensure that its impacts are tailored to meet the needs of both communities. The network builds on, and complements, a wealth of historical inquiry from within the NGO sector, including the ODI's on-going 'Global history of modern humanitarian action' project, of whose steering committee Bertrand Taithe is a member. It harnesses academic and stakeholder expertise in pursuit of objectives that are complementary to the ODI's aim 'to help the sector better understand its history and make greater use of historical analysis and lessons in current discussions and debates aimed at improving humanitarian action'.
It does so in a manner that is mutually beneficial and encourages reciprocal learning between academics and practitioners. The workshop programme (see 'Case for Support') marries academic and practitioner priorities, while allowing for the development of additional thematic strands and avenues of investigation. The research register provided on the network's website will help stakeholders and academics to identify sources of expertise and potential future research collaborators. The structure of the network's activities - through online as well as face-to-face discussions, and through the pre-circulation of papers - allows for maximum participation and tailors involvement to meet the humanitarian sector's needs.
The network's outputs will also impact on the NGO sector. The briefing paper prepared in collaboration with, and meeting the interests of, the sector will speak to many of the concerns outlined in the ODI's project, as well as those raised in the course of the network's activities. The follow-on History and Policy article will provide a publicly-accessible resource, along the lines of those prepared by Hilton, for the Cabinet Office and for the History and Policy website, and by O'Sullivan, for Policy and Practice and for Irish Aid (see 'Pathways to Impact'). The fruits of future collaborations within and between academia and sectoral stakeholders will be of interest to practitioners and policy-makers.
The ODI history project and the conclusions of Bayly, Rao, Szreter and Woolcock (eds) offer evidence of history's potential contribution to the sector. By emphasising collaboration and the co-production of research frameworks, priorities and outputs from the outset, this network will impact on these conversations. Doing so when the field of humanitarian history is still in its embryonic stages will allow for the crystallisation of a research agenda that embraces and allies the intellectual priorities of the academic community with the practical requirements of the humanitarian sector.
At a practical level, too, the network's activities will reinforce and expand existing linkages between academia and the humanitarian community - through the HCRI, for example, and O'Sullivan's membership of the cross-sectoral Development Studies Association and DSA-Ireland. They will generate new ones - between Birmingham, Manchester, the TATA Institute and the ODI. And they will encourage strong sectoral 'buy-in' in a manner that echoes the success of inter-disciplinary initiatives like the Development Studies Association, the Institute of Development Studies, and the HCRI. The cross-sectoral and transnational nature of these exchanges will result in sustainable partnerships and the potential for future collaboration beyond the lifetime of the project (and potentially as part of a number of collaborative research projects).
It does so in a manner that is mutually beneficial and encourages reciprocal learning between academics and practitioners. The workshop programme (see 'Case for Support') marries academic and practitioner priorities, while allowing for the development of additional thematic strands and avenues of investigation. The research register provided on the network's website will help stakeholders and academics to identify sources of expertise and potential future research collaborators. The structure of the network's activities - through online as well as face-to-face discussions, and through the pre-circulation of papers - allows for maximum participation and tailors involvement to meet the humanitarian sector's needs.
The network's outputs will also impact on the NGO sector. The briefing paper prepared in collaboration with, and meeting the interests of, the sector will speak to many of the concerns outlined in the ODI's project, as well as those raised in the course of the network's activities. The follow-on History and Policy article will provide a publicly-accessible resource, along the lines of those prepared by Hilton, for the Cabinet Office and for the History and Policy website, and by O'Sullivan, for Policy and Practice and for Irish Aid (see 'Pathways to Impact'). The fruits of future collaborations within and between academia and sectoral stakeholders will be of interest to practitioners and policy-makers.
The ODI history project and the conclusions of Bayly, Rao, Szreter and Woolcock (eds) offer evidence of history's potential contribution to the sector. By emphasising collaboration and the co-production of research frameworks, priorities and outputs from the outset, this network will impact on these conversations. Doing so when the field of humanitarian history is still in its embryonic stages will allow for the crystallisation of a research agenda that embraces and allies the intellectual priorities of the academic community with the practical requirements of the humanitarian sector.
At a practical level, too, the network's activities will reinforce and expand existing linkages between academia and the humanitarian community - through the HCRI, for example, and O'Sullivan's membership of the cross-sectoral Development Studies Association and DSA-Ireland. They will generate new ones - between Birmingham, Manchester, the TATA Institute and the ODI. And they will encourage strong sectoral 'buy-in' in a manner that echoes the success of inter-disciplinary initiatives like the Development Studies Association, the Institute of Development Studies, and the HCRI. The cross-sectoral and transnational nature of these exchanges will result in sustainable partnerships and the potential for future collaboration beyond the lifetime of the project (and potentially as part of a number of collaborative research projects).
Publications
Hilton M
(2015)
Ken Loach and the Save the Children Film: Humanitarianism, Imperialism, and the Changing Role of Charity in Postwar Britain
in The Journal of Modern History
O'Sullivan K
(2016)
Humanitarianisms in context
in European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire
| Description | There are five main findings that will inform the introduction to our special issue in European Review of History: 1. Continuities from imperial to post-imperial contexts The 1940s are usually regarded as a significant moment of change in the history of humanitarianism. The establishment of UNRRA ushered in a new era of official intervention that dwarfed the previous efforts of the voluntary sector. Subsequently, President Truman's Four Point speech of January 1949 introduced the concept of "underdevelopment" and instigated decades of official development planning. What the essays here emphasise is, instead, the ongoing continuities in humanitarian action and thinking. Following Lester and Skinner the essays demonstrate that in non-state organisation there were institutional continuities from the late 19th century onwards. Not only were imperial connections and mindsets allowed to continue, but the interwar period also provbed to be something of an experimental moment for the sort of transnational solidarities that later became far more common Indeed, in terms of the history of unofficial humanitarianism, the moment after the First World War appears just as important as that after the Second. It was then that organisations such as Save the Children appeared, seeking to cross official policies on intervention in order to relieve the suffering of those civilians caught up in conflict. Yet the humanitarians did not operate independently of global power struggles and these helped to shape and direct many humanitarian interventions. 2. Transnationalism Following recent work on transnationalism that destabilises traditional world order assumptions, the essays here shift the focus of the lens away from the west to sites of interconnection appearing across less expected routes. The Red Cross was already a global phenomenon by the end of the nineteenth century and the humanitarian impulse in the twentieth century has not just followed a trajectory from the North to the South. Recent studies have not so much challenged the significance of Cold War binaries to global power dynamics, but the turn to non-state actors has demonstrated the flows of ideas and institutions, care and compassion across many borders and barriers. 3. Internationalism and humanitarianism Non-state actors have had to make very deliberate decisions as to how their work fits in with their goals and beliefs. To act and to intervene involves discussions over the proper roles and sphere of humanitarian agencies. No new humanitarian action is ever the same as that which came before and so organisations must decide whether they can or should act. Perhaps more so than official agencies, non-state actors are prone to soul-searching struggles over the meanings of their interventions. In this sense, they become a particularly rich site for the examination of the ever change sphere and meaning of humanitarianism 4. State and the non-state sectors The dividing line between official and unofficial agencies in humanitarian action is often blurred. The sector itself is constantly engaged in debates as to whether certain organisations have become 'too close for comfort' and have thus lost their independence of thought and action. But too often this 'moving frontier' between the official and the unofficial sectors is only ever analysed at particular moments in time. By contrast the essays in this volume enable us to see the ever changing dynamics between non-state and official humanitarianism, especially as the non-state agencies have continued to grow and expand their scopes and fields of operation. 5. Donors and recipients There is a long-standing critique that charity says more about the donor than the recipient, that it alleviates more the guilt of the advantaged than the poverty of the poor. But too often these judgments are made on assumptions, and we actually know relatively little about the motivations of donors (whether or time or money). Many of the papers here, by either investigating the nature of giving or by looking at who is giving to what, help to uncover the range of reasons why people support and get involved with humanitarian agencies, as well as their support says about their view of the world. |
| Exploitation Route | They have become the basis for a Horizon 2020 grant application, consisting of the key partners in the network |
| Sectors | Other |
| URL | http://nonstatehumanitarianism.com/ |
| Description | The final meeting of the network was held at the offices of the Save the Children Fund. Our partner there, Juliano Fiori, has used the network discussions to inform internal policy development |
| First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
| Sector | Other |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |