Walking the Line : Brokering Humanitarian Identities in Conflict Research
Increasingly, academic research in conflict-affected contexts relies on support from humanitarian organizations. Humanitarian organizations constitute sites of study in and of themselves; they partner with academics to roll out surveys or randomized program interventions; and they frequently facilit...
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Taylor and Francis
2019
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32602 |
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okr-10986-326022021-05-25T10:54:35Z Walking the Line : Brokering Humanitarian Identities in Conflict Research Lewis, Chloe Banga, Alfred Cimanuka, Ghislain de Dieu Hategekimana, Jean Lake, Milli Pierotti, Rachael HUMANITARIAN AID NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANZIATION HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATION CONFLICT-AFFECTED STATES CONFLICT RESEARCH GENDER INNOVATION LAB AFRICA GENDER POLICY WOMEN AND SOCIAL NORMS Increasingly, academic research in conflict-affected contexts relies on support from humanitarian organizations. Humanitarian organizations constitute sites of study in and of themselves; they partner with academics to roll out surveys or randomized program interventions; and they frequently facilitate security, logistics and transportation for independent researchers. We use a research partnership between IRC, the World Bank, and academic researchers in the UK, the US and eastern DR Congo, to explore the effects of humanitarian affiliation on conflict field research. In investigating when, how and under what conditions humanitarian identities are adopted by researchers (and how these affiliations shape research dynamics) we identify three paradoxes. First, “wearing humanitarian clothes” to facilitate research logistics can both facilitate and constrain access. Second, humanitarian affiliations invoked by researchers to ensure security and protection in volatile research sites can undermine the “insider” status of local staff. Finally, working through humanitarian organizations allows local and international researchers to benefit from the protections and privileges afforded to humanitarian employees without providing any of the services on which privileged access rests. In this article, we map out decisions faced by local and international researchers concerning when to adopt and discard humanitarian identities, and the fraught logistical, ethical and methodological consequences of these decisions. 2019-10-22T20:43:47Z 2019-10-22T20:43:47Z 2019 Journal Article Civil Wars 1369-8249 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32602 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Taylor and Francis Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research |
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Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
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Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
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HUMANITARIAN AID NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANZIATION HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATION CONFLICT-AFFECTED STATES CONFLICT RESEARCH GENDER INNOVATION LAB AFRICA GENDER POLICY WOMEN AND SOCIAL NORMS |
| spellingShingle |
HUMANITARIAN AID NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANZIATION HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATION CONFLICT-AFFECTED STATES CONFLICT RESEARCH GENDER INNOVATION LAB AFRICA GENDER POLICY WOMEN AND SOCIAL NORMS Lewis, Chloe Banga, Alfred Cimanuka, Ghislain de Dieu Hategekimana, Jean Lake, Milli Pierotti, Rachael Walking the Line : Brokering Humanitarian Identities in Conflict Research |
| description |
Increasingly, academic research in conflict-affected contexts relies on support from humanitarian organizations. Humanitarian organizations constitute sites of study in and of themselves; they partner with academics to roll out surveys or randomized program interventions; and they frequently facilitate security, logistics and transportation for independent researchers. We use a research partnership between IRC, the World Bank, and academic researchers in the UK, the US and eastern DR Congo, to explore the effects of humanitarian affiliation on conflict field research. In investigating when, how and under what conditions humanitarian identities are adopted by researchers (and how these affiliations shape research dynamics) we identify three paradoxes. First, “wearing humanitarian clothes” to facilitate research logistics can both facilitate and constrain access. Second, humanitarian affiliations invoked by researchers to ensure security and protection in volatile research sites can undermine the “insider” status of local staff. Finally, working through humanitarian organizations allows local and international researchers to benefit from the protections and privileges afforded to humanitarian employees without providing any of the services on which privileged access rests. In this article, we map out decisions faced by local and international researchers concerning when to adopt and discard humanitarian identities, and the fraught logistical, ethical and methodological consequences of these decisions. |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Lewis, Chloe Banga, Alfred Cimanuka, Ghislain de Dieu Hategekimana, Jean Lake, Milli Pierotti, Rachael |
| author_facet |
Lewis, Chloe Banga, Alfred Cimanuka, Ghislain de Dieu Hategekimana, Jean Lake, Milli Pierotti, Rachael |
| author_sort |
Lewis, Chloe |
| title |
Walking the Line : Brokering Humanitarian Identities in Conflict Research |
| title_short |
Walking the Line : Brokering Humanitarian Identities in Conflict Research |
| title_full |
Walking the Line : Brokering Humanitarian Identities in Conflict Research |
| title_fullStr |
Walking the Line : Brokering Humanitarian Identities in Conflict Research |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Walking the Line : Brokering Humanitarian Identities in Conflict Research |
| title_sort |
walking the line : brokering humanitarian identities in conflict research |
| publisher |
Taylor and Francis |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32602 |
| _version_ |
1764476895223611392 |