Life Lived in Relief: Experiences with Humanitarianism Since 1948

该项目旨在了解扩大人道主义援助的背景下的政治性质。它探讨了救济做法在发展流亡政治认同方面的重要性。因此，它背离了最近文献中对人道主义非政治化影响的强调，人道主义使难民只关注眼前的生存。研究人员将收集数据来回答三个问题：(1)在为物质生存而斗争的背景下，政治是如何出现的？(2)人们表达政治思想和提出政治主张的非制度化手段是什么？(3)在一个分散的人道主义领域，“社区”是如何产生的？该项目将涉及档案研究、口述历史和民族志实地工作，涉及难民以及向他们提供援助的机构和组织。这项研究既是多地点的，也是长期的，因此有可能跟踪随时间的变化，并确定特定地理位置的差异。这项研究将阐明人道主义干预的长期影响。更好地了解长期人道主义援助对难民社区的影响对学术界和政策界都至关重要。

This project is designed to understand the nature of politics in contexts of extended humanitarian assistance. It explores the importance of relief practices in the development of political identity in exile. As such, it departs from a recent emphasis in the literature on the de-politicizing effects of humanitarianism, which reduces refugees to merely focused on immediate survival. The researcher will collect data to answer three questions: (1) How does politics emerge in the context of a struggle for physical survival?; (2) What are the noninstitutionalized means through which people express political ideas and make political claims?; and, (3) How is "community" produced across a diffuse humanitarian terrain? The project will involve archival research, oral histories, and ethnographic fieldwork with refugees and the agencies and organizations that provide assistance to them. This research is both multi-sited and long-term, making it possible to track change over time and to identify the distinctions of particular geographic locations.The research will shed light on the long-term effects of humanitarian interventions. A better understanding of the impact of long-term humanitarian assistance on refugee communities is vital for both academic and policy communities.