Anthropology and Intercultural Aspects of Humanitarian Action

obligatory courses

Classroom

What are the cultural contexts, political and economic entanglements, and ethical dilemmas of humanitarian aid? What might be its unintended or unexamined effects? And what can an anthropological perspective contribute to addressing these questions? Through a mix of classic and more recent texts, this course explores the anthropology of humanitarian action as well as the prospects for using anthropology in humanitarian action. It covers topics that range from cultural relativism to structural violence; emergency intervention to international development; and forced migration to the global governance of health and disease. Students will be encouraged to develop a critical approach to the uses and abuses of ‘culture’, and to engage in an enquiry into the complexities of ‘doing good’.

Week 1, 20 Oct 2020 – What is Anthropology?

Required reading:

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, 2017, What is Anthropology?, 2nd ed., London: Pluto Press, 340.

Week 2, 27 Oct 2020 – What is Culture?

Required reading:

Baumann, Gerd, 1996, Contesting Culture: Discourses if Identity in Multi-Ethnic London,

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pages TBA.

Week 3, 3 Nov 2020 – Anthropology in/of Humanitarian Action

Required reading:

De Waal, Alex, 2002, Anthropology and the Aid Encounter, in J. MacClancy (ed.), Exotic No

More: Anthropology on the Front Lines, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 251269.

Required video:

Calhoun, Craig, 2012, ‘Human Suffering and the Humanitarian Response’,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbJXaXEjciQ

Recommended additional reading:

Fassin, Didier, 2010, ‘Inequalities of Lives, Hierarchies of Humanity: Moral Commitments and

Ethical Dilemmas of Humanitarianism’, in Ilana Feldman and Miriam Ticktin (eds), In the Name

of Humanity: The Government of Threat and Care, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 238255.

Week 4, 10 Nov 2020 – Society, Structure, Suffering

Required reading:

Farmer, Paul, 1996, ‘On Suffering and Structural Violence’, Daedalus 125(1):261283.

Recommended additional reading:

Messer, Ellen and Parker Shipton, 2002, ‘Hunger in Africa: Untangling its Human Roots’, in J.

MacClancy (ed.), Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines, Chicago, The University of

Chicago Press, 227250.

Week 5, 17 Nov 2020 – Cultural Relativism, Gender, and Human Rights

Required reading:

Wikan, Uni, 2002, Generous Betrayal: Politics of Culture in the New Europe, Chicago: The

University of Chicago Press, 1928, 6988, 91106.

Week 6, 24 Nov 2020 – The Political Economy of ‘Natural Disasters’

Required reading:

Oliver-Smith, Anthony, 2009, ‘Anthropology and the Political Economy of Disasters’, in A.C.

Jones and A.D. Murphy (eds), The Political Economy of Hazards and Disasters, Lanham, MD:

AltaMita Press, 1128.

Marino, Elizabeth K. and A.J. Faas, 2020, ‘Is Vulnerability an Outdated Concept? After Subjects

and Spaces’, Annals of Anthropological Practice, DOI: 10.1111/napa.12132.

Recommended additional reading:

Stirrat, Jock, 2006, ‘Competitive Humanitarianism: Relief and the Tsunami in Sri Lanka’,

Anthropology Today 22(5):1116.

Gamburd, Michele Ruth and Dennis McGilvray, 2010, ‘Sri-Lanka’s Post-Tsunami Recovery:

Cultural Traditions, Social Structures and Power Struggles’, Anthropology News, Oct 2010, 911.

Seal-Feldman, Aidan, 2020, ‘The Work of Disaster: Building Back Otherwise in Post-Earthquake

Nepal’, Cultural Anthropology 35(2):23763.

Sökefeld, Martin, 2020, ‘The Power of Lists: IDPs and Disaster Governmentality after the

Attabad Landslide in Northern Pakistan’, Ethnos,

https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2020.1765833.

Week 7, 1 Dec 2020 – Development and Its Discontents

Required reading:

Ferguson, James and Larry Lohmann, 1994, ‘The Anti-Politics Machine: “Development” and

Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho’, The Ecologist 24(5): 176181.

Li, Tanya M., 2008, ‘Social Reproduction, Situated Politics, and The Will to Improve’, Focaal 52:

111118.

Recommended additional reading:

Mosse, David, 2008, ‘International Policy, Development Expertise, and Anthropology’, Focaal

52: 119126.

Week 8, 8 Dec 2020 – Refugees beyond ‘Crisis’ (part 1)

Required reading:

Malkki, Liisa, 1996, ‘Speechless Emissaries: Refugees, Humanitarianism, and Dehistoricization’,

Cultural Anthropology 11(3):377-404.

Agier, Michel, 2002, ‘Between War and City: Towards an Urban Anthropology of Refugee

Camps’, Ethnography 3(3): 317–341.

Recommended additional reading:

Daniel, E. Valentine, 2002, ‘The Refugee: A Discourse on Displacement’, in J. MacClancy (ed.),

Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press,

270286.

Malkki, Liisa, 2002, ‘News from Nowhere: Mass Displacement and Globalized “Problems of

Organization”’, Ethnography 3(3): 351–360.

Hoffmann, Sophia, 2016, ‘A Sovereign for All: The Management of Refugees as Nation-State

Politics’, in A. De Lauri (ed.), The Politics of Humanitarianism: Power, Ideology and Aid,

London: I.B. Tauris, 147174.

Week 9, 15 Dec 2020 – Refugees beyond ‘Crisis’ (part 2)

Required reading:

Andersson, Ruben, 2017, ‘Rescued and Caught: The Humanitarian–Security Nexus at Europe’s

Frontiers’, in Nicholas De Genova (ed.), The Borders of ‘Europe’: Autonomy of Migration,

Tactics of Bordering, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 6494.

Cabot, Heath, 2015, ‘Crisis and Continuity: A Critical Look at the “European Refugee Crisis”’,

http://allegralaboratory.net/crisis-and-continuity-a-critical-look-at-the-european-refugee-

crisis/

Recommended additional reading:

Cabot, Heath, 2014, On the Doorstep of Europe: Asylum and Citizenship in Greece,

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Vaughan-Williams, Nick, 2015, Europe’s Border Crisis: Biopolitical Security and Beyond,

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Week 10, 22 Dec 2020 Introduction to Ethnographic Methods: Participant Observation and In-

Depth Interviewing

Required reading:

Dewalt, Kathleen M. and Billie R. Dewalt, 2002, Participant Observation: A Guide for

Fieldworkers, Lanham: AltaMira Press, pages TBA.

Practical exercise:

Students will be asked to conduct an in-depth interview with a selected humanitarian

practitioner. Details TBA.

Week 11, 12 Jan 2021 – Governing Health

Required reading:

Brada, Betsey B., 2016, ‘The Contingency of Humanitarianism: Moral Authority in an African

HIV Clinic’, American Anthropologist 118(4):755-771.

Gomez-Temesio, Veronica, 2018, ‘Outliving Death: Ebola, Zombies, and the Politics of Saving

Lives’, American Anthropologist 120(4):738-751.

Recommended additional reading:

Adams, Vincanne, 2020, ‘Disasters and Capitalism... and Covid-19’,

http://somatosphere.net/2020/disaster-capitalism-covid19.html/.

Caduff, Carlo, 2020, ‘What Went Wrong: Corona and the World after the Full Stop’, Medical

Anthropology Quarterly, DOI: 10.1111/maq.12599.

Erikson, Susan, 2019, ‘Global Health Futures? Reckoning with a Pandemic Bond’, Medicine

Anthropology Theory 6(3):77-108.

Kihato, Caroline W. and Loren B. Landau, 2020, ‘Coercion or the social contract? COVID 19

and spatial (in)justice in African cities’, City & Society, DOI: 10.1111/ciso.12265.

Week 12, 19 Jan 2021 – Introduction to Ethnographic Methods: Evaluation of the Practical Exercise

No required reading. The results of the exercise will be evaluated and discussed in the class.

Week 13, 26 Jan 2021 Wrapping Up: Assessing Humanitarianism

Required video:

Fassin, Didier,2010, ‘Critique of Humanitarian Reason’,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDT2mYg6mgo&ab_channel=InstituteforAdvancedStudy

Recommended additional reading:

de Torrenté, Nicolas, 2013, ‘The Relevance and Effectiveness of Humanitarian Aid: Reflections

about the Relationship between Providers and Recipients’, Social Research 80(2):607634.

De Lauri, Antonio (ed.), 2016, The Politics of Humanitarianism: Power, Ideology and Aid,

London: I.B. Tauris.

The course offers an introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, outlining the discipline’s key methods and central problems. It explores the possible relevance of anthropological perspectives and findings in international humanitarian action. It emphasizes the significance of cultural difference and social practice in areas of high relevance to humanitarian action, such as gender, human rights, development, migration and border

control. The course also introduces theoretical and critical reflection on the logic and workings of humanitarianism.

Written essay– 40%;

Practical exercises – 30 %

Participation in discussions – 30 %

Presentations – bonus (one good presentation equals half a grade up on the final score).