Humanitarian wars are a primary means of globally affirming a specific model of humanity, built according to the cultural, moral, and economic standards of Western democracies. How are forms of ...humanity produced in the context of humanitarian war in Afghanistan? How are notions of freedom mobilized? How does the idea of a prospective humanity relate to the use of military force? In an attempt to reflect on the different configurations of freedom and humanity that emerged in the context of recent Afghanistan conflicts and international interventions, this article addresses the perspective of two key figures: the Taliban and the humanitarian soldier. Building on narratives such as poetry, interviews, and conversations conducted during fieldwork, this angle allows us to observe the complexity of the Afghan humanitarian theatre in a way that goes beyond mere assessments of political and economic interests, revealing a fragment of global contemporaneity that is crucial for understanding how processes of producing humanity combine with war and humanitarian efforts.
To Fail at Scale Cross, Jamie; Street, Alice
Social anthropology,
06/2022, Volume:
30, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
English Abstract:
Humanitarian entrepreneurs seek to do well and do good by developing goods and services that directly address the world’s most intractable problems. In this article we explore the ...expectations built into two of their products: a point-of-care diagnostic device and a solar-powered lantern. We show how these objects materialise both a minimalist ethic of care and a maximalist commitment to universal access for health and energy. Such maximalist commitments, we propose, are fundamentally utopian. The developers of these humanitarian goods do not envision their objects as stop-gap solutions or ‘band-aids’ for entrenched systemic failures but rather as the building blocks for new kinds of universal infrastructures that are delivered through the market. We trace the work involved in scaling-up the humanitarian effects of these devices through processes of design, manufacturing and distribution. For humanitarian entrepreneurs, we argue, to fail at delivering expectations is to fail at scale.
French Abstract:
Les entrepreneurs humanitaires cherchent à faire bien et à faire du bien en développant des biens et des services qui s’attaquent directement aux problèmes les plus insolubles du monde. Dans cet article, nous explorons les attentes intégrées dans deux de leurs produits : un dispositif de diagnostic au point de service et une lanterne à énergie solaire. Nous montrons comment ces objets matérialisent à la fois une éthique minimaliste des soins et un engagement maximaliste en faveur de l’accès universel à la santé et à l’énergie. Nous proposons que de tels engagements maximalistes sont fondamentalement utopiques. Les concepteurs de ces biens humanitaires n’envisagent pas leurs objets comme des solutions provisoires ou des « pansements » pour des défaillances systémiques bien ancrées, mais plutôt comme les éléments constitutifs de nouveaux types d’infrastructures universelles fournies par le marché. Nous retraçons le travail nécessaire pour augmenter les effets humanitaires de ces dispositifs à travers des processus de design, de fabrication et de distribution. Pour les entrepreneurs humanitaires, nous soutenons qu’échouer à répondre aux attentes est un échec à grande échelle.
It is a generally accepted fact that the digital transition in the humanities has already succeeded. The author emphasized the digital technologies impact on the research in humanities. The ways and ...methods of gaining knowledge have changed due to digital transformation at the current stage of society development. It is indisputable that obtaining and processing information have accelerated and it is definitely a positive factor. However, the issues of the digital humanitarianism essence remain debatable according to the author’s research. There is still no accepted definition of the term. The author also emphasized that digital humanitarianism is also an object of research, not only a combination of digital tools for gaining knowledge. The number of software products serving the educational process will increase in the course of time. In addition to increasing in the number of digital products that will be used in humanities, the quality of the products will also improve and they will increasingly adapt to the needs of the educational process. The author pointed the need to introduce Digital Humanity courses for the compulsory study of humanitarian students since obtaining digital skills in humanities will contribute to the graduates’ career growth. Concluding the study, the author emphasized that despite the importance of information that will be obtained using modern digital tools, the value of humanitarian gained knowledge expertise will not decrease.
Abstract
Immediately after Russia commenced aggression against Ukraine, the Polish Psychiatric Association publicly called for humanitarian support for Ukraine and initiated meetings with ...representatives of Psychiatric Societies operating in Ukraine in order to identify current needs in the war-stricken areas and coordinate
aid.
The PPA allocated its financial resources to humanitarian aid and, through the EPA, appealed for condemnation of military operations as well as support for Ukraine by individual NPAs.
According to the UHNR data over 4 million displaced people, refugees, came to Poland so far and some of them benefited from such help.
The Polish Psychiatric Association supports the initiatives of non-governmental organizations supporting refugees and monitors and responds to the needs reported by the Ukrainian side on an ongoing basis. At present, the PPA activities focus on the following priorities:
1. Need-adapted-help: Provision of customized aid - not only medications but also power generators, technical equipment. And so, the PPA shipped to Ukraine some basic equipment, sleeping mats, bedding, mattresses, backpacks, cleaning products, personal hygiene products, as well as tools for renovation and construction.
2. Awareness - highlighting the consequences of Russia’s aggression on people with mental disorders in Ukraine and its impact on the entire population (PTSD, grief
). Inviting and lobbying for dissemination of personal reports of Ukrainian health care workers and patients at international conventions, forums, events
3. Empowerment of personnel - strengthening competences required in provision of assistance in war-related disorders, training, projects of activities both across Poland and Ukraine
4. Supporting and responding to the needs reported by local psychiatric assistance centers facilitating and strengthening the competence of personnel in helping refugees
Disclosure of Interest
None Declared
The grim situation facing Afghans living in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan as well as further afield in other countries, including Turkey, Indonesia, Uzbekistan and elsewhere may be as a direct ...result of recent (geo)political events, including the withdrawal of coalition forces in August 2021, the swift fall of the Afghan government and the equally swift Taliban takeover. However, the longer term human (in) security, development, economic and demographic contexts underpin decades of displacement and migration of Afghans within the immediate region of West Asia as well as further afield to countries, such as Germany, the United States, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands and Canada.
Abstract
There has been an increase of anthropological interest in small-scale humanitarianisms that make situated claims to universality. The articles in this collection demonstrate that some ...genealogies of such situated universalisms have been explored more than others. Focusing on vernacular humanitarianisms, the goal is not to celebrate the standpoint of ‘radical alterity’ but rather to acknowledge that imagining and recognising similarities of people's experiences is not reserved for the Western European epistemology. Anthropological research of small-scale humanitarianisms points to situated, alternative and sometimes even decolonising visions and practices of ‘the humanity’ understood as a framework for imagining and recognising broadly shared experiences. This collection asks how vernacular humanitarianisms are performed in everyday life, enabling particular forms of ethics, power and inequality. Thus, it keeps possibilities of social critique in sight and moves a conversation towards an ethnographically attuned perspective that explores the role of vernacular humanitarianisms in various projects of governance.
Depuis cinq ans, les anthropologues s'intéressent de plus en plus aux formes de l'humanitarisme à petite échelle qui, compte tenu du contexte socio-historique, visent un caractère d'universalité. Les articles publiés dans ce numéro de la revue montrent que quelques généalogies ont été explorées plus que d'autres. Les nouvelles expressions de la vie humanitaire émergent aujourd'hui remettent en question les divisions entre les pays du Nord, les pays du Sud, et les pays de l'Est. En mettant l'accent sur les idées et pratiques de l'humanitarisme vernaculaire, notre objectif n'est pas de célébrer le point de vue d'une ‘altérité radicale’. Il s'agit plutôt d'admettre que la capacité d'imaginer et de reconnaître les similitudes dans l'expérience humaine n'est pas limitée à l’épistémologie de l'Europe occidentale. La recherche anthropologique sur les humanitarismes à petite échelle révèle des visions et des pratiques de ‘l'humanité’ alternatives et sans connotations coloniales, qui sont conçues comme un cadre moral permettant d'envisager et d'identifier des expériences communes. Cet ensemble d'articles offre une approche critique pour étudier comment les humanitarismes vernaculaires sont manifestes dans la vie de tous les jours, et donnent lieu à des différents types d’éthique, pouvoir et inégalité. Nous proposons de concentrer sur les possibilités de critique sociale et d'avancer vers un point de vue ethnologique pour étudier le rôle d'humanitarismes vernaculaires en rapport avec des projets de gouvernance.
InThe Battle for AlgeriaJennifer Johnson reinterprets one of the most violent wars of decolonization: the Algerian War (1954-1962). Johnson argues that the conflict was about who-France or the ...National Liberation Front (FLN)-would exercise sovereignty of Algeria. The fight between the two sides was not simply a military affair; it also involved diverse and competing claims about who was positioned to better care for the Algerian people's health and welfare. Johnson focuses on French and Algerian efforts to engage one another off the physical battlefield and highlights the social dimensions of the FLN's winning strategy, which targeted the local and international arenas. Relying on Algerian sources, which make clear the centrality of health and humanitarianism to the nationalists' war effort, Johnson shows how the FLN leadership constructed national health care institutions that provided critical care for the population and functioned as a protostate. Moreover, Johnson demonstrates how the FLN's representatives used postwar rhetoric about rights and national self-determination to legitimize their claims, which led to international recognition of Algerian sovereignty.
By examining the local context of the war as well as its international dimensions, Johnson deprovincializes North Africa and proposes a new way to analyze how newly independent countries and nationalist movements engage with the international order. The Algerian case exposed the hypocrisy of selectively applying universal discourse and provided a blueprint for claim-making that nonstate actors and anticolonial leaders throughout the Third World emulated. Consequently,The Battle for Algeriaexplains the FLN's broad appeal and offers new directions for studying nationalism, decolonization, human rights, public health movements, and concepts of sovereignty.
