Voices of Humanitarianism: British Responses to Refugees from Chile

迄今为止，人道主义的历史往往偏重精英观点，侧重于政治人物、外交官和谈判者；大型国际组织(如难民署、红十字委员会、救助儿童会、乐施会)；重大危机时刻(越南、埃塞俄比亚、卢旺达、科索沃)；以及影响行动和应对的国际法律结构。今天，人道主义往往与提供国家援助或人权工作密切相关--甚至被混为一谈。然而，人道主义被设想为“关心遥远的他人”(Haskell 1985)，它的范围比这两种都要广得多，因为它往往依赖于大量的专业实地工作者、草根行动者和社区组织。这些行为者的经验、贡献和远见以及他们所帮助的人的观点在高级别研究中消失了，限制了我们对实地人道主义工作的性质和影响的了解。对人道主义工作的代理人和接受者缺乏关注导致他们沉默，这不仅可能扭曲我们对他们的动机和经历的看法，而且也可能扭曲我们对关键事件、方法及其历史意义的理解。这个项目将提供对人道主义的定性评估，使评估表面上的干预目标可能在多大程度上涉及、修改或背离其对当地生活的影响。研究以1973年智利政变后英国对智利难民困境的反应为例，既可以阐明20世纪末冷战结束关键时刻的英国人道主义，也提供了一个难得的机会来建立一部关于参与这项工作的广泛的行动者、代理人和接受者的内部历史，并因此发出声音。这种方法不仅可以考察他们在激进主义时期的经历和行动，以及他们与英国草根社会运动和智利抵抗运动的关系，还将提供对塑造他们工作的信仰、想法和动机的洞察。该项目将口述历史和对情感研究的关注结合在一起，制定了一种人道主义历史的文化研究方法，以恢复人道主义援助接受者和代理人的声音，并详细了解他们的历史机构。研究通过影响和参与活动进一步深化这一文化视角，这些活动利用实验、物理剧场来探索和传达智利人对镇压和流亡的反应，以及他们处理这种情况的战略。项目团队将与实体剧团短暂乐团合作，在圣地亚哥的MMDH创作一场演出，但不使用剧本。它利用现实生活中的故事、采访和纪录片材料来建立表演，以创造探索社会问题的戏剧表演。它的方法结合了表演者的高技能身体，顽皮的舞台工艺和原创音乐，以一种强大和发人深省的方式与公众交流。

Histories of humanitarianism have to date tended to privilege elite perspectives, focusing on political figures, diplomats and negotiators; large international organizations (e.g. UNHCR, ICRC, Save the Children, Oxfam); high-profile moments of crisis (Vietnam, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kosovo), and international legal structures shaping action and response. Today humanitarianism is often closely associated - even conflated - with the provision of state aid or with human rights work. Nevertheless, conceived as a 'concern for distant others' (Haskell 1985), humanitarianism is much broader in scope than either of these, as it often depends upon large numbers of professional field workers, grassroots actors and community organizations. The experiences, contributions and vision of such actors as well as the perspectives of those they help are lost in high-level studies, limiting our understanding of the nature and impact of humanitarian work on the ground. Lack of attention to the agents and recipients of humanitarian work leads to their silencing, potentially distorting not only our vision of their motivations and experiences, but also our understanding of key events, approaches, and their historical significance. This project will offer a qualitative assessment of humanitarianism, enabling an evaluation of the extent to which the ostensible aims of intervention may relate to, modify, or diverge from, its lived impact on the ground.The research takes the example of UK responses to the plight of Chilean refugees in the wake of the 1973 coup d'état in Chile as a case study which can both illuminate late 20thC British humanitarianism at a pivotal moment towards the end of the Cold War, and offer a rare opportunity to build an internal history of - and thus give voice to - the comprehensive range of actors, agents, and recipients involved in that work. This approach will not only permit an examination of their experiences and actions during a period of intense activism, as well as their relationship to grassroots social movements in the UK and resistance movements in Chile, but will offer insight into the beliefs, ideas and motivations that shaped their work. The project brings together oral history and a concern for the study of the emotions, developing a cultural studies approach to humanitarian history in order to recover the voices of the recipients and agents of humanitarian support and offer a detailed understanding of their historical agency.The research further deepens this cultural perspective through impact and engagement activities which use experimental, physical theatre to explore and convey Chileans' responses to repression and exile, and their strategies for dealing with such scenarios. The physical theatre group, Ephemeral Ensemble, with whom the project team will collaborate to create a performance in the MMDH, Santiago, does not work with scripts. It builds up performances using real-life stories, interviews and documentary materials to create theatrical shows that explore social issues. Its methodology combines the high-skilled physicality of the performers, playful stage craft and original music, to communicate with public audiences in a powerful and thought-provoking way.