Refugee Aid 3.0: Seeking Infrastructure Justice

难民援助3.0：寻求基础设施正义

• 批准号: ES/X004244/1
• 负责人: Margaret Cheesman
• 金额: $ 13.72万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX004244%2F1
• 关键词: Refugee; Aid; 3.0; Seeking; Infrastructure

Major humanitarian organisations are using untested new digital technologies to deliver aid to refugees. My work examines the social and political implications of these experiments. I focus on a United Nations project using the database technology blockchain, coupled with biometric identity checks, to provide Syrian refugees in Jordan with basic needs like food and cash. I use ethnographic methods, which means spending time with people to understand how they think about and work with technology in their everyday lives. In my PhD, I compare how the project is understood and experienced by decision-makers in major institutions (the World Food Programme and UN Women), by aid workers in refugee camps, and by refugees themselves. Very little research has been done on blockchain's implications for real people, least of all Syrian refugee women living in poverty, under government surveillance, and with restricted rights. When humanitarian agencies adopt blockchain, how does it affect the delivery of aid to refugees? How do refugee women incorporate blockchain payments into their everyday financial routines? The agencies and tech companies promoting blockchain promise that it will improve humanitarian aid, but does it?In this postdoctoral fellowship, I will focus on producing publications and organising workshops to connect researchers, aid industry decision-makers, and refugee rights activists. First, I will publish my doctoral study as a book. The book will give a rounded, detailed picture of the places and people involved in making and using experimental technology. It will unpick how blockchain-promoted as an efficient way of cutting out middlemen such as banks-in fact introduces new middlemen and encourages the privatisation of aid. The book will be an accessible guide to blockchain and digital inequality, brought to life through human stories I spent four years gathering. It will be a major contribution to knowledge about aid and refugees and the socio-political implications of digital technology. Second, I will publish an article with a top-ranking, peer-reviewed journal, about Syrian refugee women's experiences with blockchain, and their Islamic cultural conceptualisation of it. With the analysis of religious and gender dynamics, the article will balance colourful detail from my Jordan fieldwork with a strong theoretical contribution that pushes forward understandings of blockchain. Blockchain is widely misconceived as a neutral social development tool. I will bust this myth and show how it is entrenching socio-economic inequality in Jordan, and refugee women are contesting its imposition on their difficult lives.Third, I will organise a workshop series, accompanied by a public-facing research brief. My work has the potential for significant impact beyond academia. I have gathered exclusive evidence on the impacts of blockchain at global margins, and in doing so I have created excellent networks among aid industry policymakers and practitioners, civil society activists, and refugee organisations, as well as academics in several disciplines. The workshops will engage non-academic and academic participants to push forward an agenda for research and action on refugees' digital rights. The new connections and insights from the workshop and research brief will kickstart my future career conducting research at the forefront of humanitarian innovation.Finally, to build on my networks in aid, tech, and academia, I will visit the top research centre on digital justice, the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society, and attend the leading international conference for digital rights, RightsCon. The fellowship will allow me to undertake strategic training to complement my planned activities: the manuscript development course (online, 'Manuscript Works') will formalise my skills base in preparation for a prolific and impactful academic career.

主要的人道主义组织正在使用未经测试的新数字技术向难民提供援助。我的工作是研究这些实验的社会和政治影响。我专注于一个联合国项目，该项目使用数据库技术区块链，加上生物识别身份检查，为约旦的叙利亚难民提供食物和现金等基本需求。我使用人种学方法，这意味着花时间与人们在一起，了解他们在日常生活中如何思考和使用技术。在我的博士学位中，我比较了主要机构（世界粮食计划署和联合国妇女署）的决策者，难民营的援助工作者以及难民本身对该项目的理解和体验。关于区块链对真实的人的影响，很少有研究，尤其是生活在贫困中的叙利亚难民妇女，在政府的监视下，权利受到限制。当人道主义机构采用区块链时，它如何影响向难民提供援助？难民妇女如何将区块链支付纳入其日常财务活动？推动区块链的机构和科技公司承诺，它将改善人道主义援助，但真的吗？在这个博士后奖学金，我将专注于生产出版物和组织研讨会，以连接研究人员，援助行业决策者和难民权利活动家。首先，我将把我的博士研究成果出版成书。这本书将给出一个全面的，详细的图片的地方和人参与制作和使用实验技术。它将揭示区块链是如何被宣传为一种有效的方式来削减中间商，如银行，实际上引入了新的中间商，并鼓励援助的私有化。这本书将成为区块链和数字不平等的一个可访问的指南，通过我花了四年时间收集的人类故事来实现。它将对有关援助和难民以及数字技术的社会政治影响的知识做出重大贡献。第二，我将在一份顶级的同行评审期刊上发表一篇文章，介绍叙利亚难民妇女使用区块链的经历，以及她们对区块链的伊斯兰文化概念化。通过对宗教和性别动态的分析，这篇文章将平衡我在约旦实地考察的丰富多彩的细节，并做出强有力的理论贡献，推动对区块链的理解。区块链被广泛误解为一种中立的社会发展工具。我将打破这一神话，并展示它是如何在约旦巩固社会经济不平等的，难民妇女正在质疑它对她们艰难生活的影响。第三，我将组织一个系列研讨会，并附有面向公众的研究简报。我的工作有可能在学术界以外产生重大影响。我收集了关于区块链在全球范围内影响的独家证据，在此过程中，我在援助行业的政策制定者和从业者、民间社会活动家、难民组织以及多个学科的学者之间建立了良好的网络。研讨会将邀请非学术界和学术界人士参加，以推动关于难民数字权利的研究和行动议程。研讨会和研究简报中的新联系和见解将开启我未来的职业生涯，在人道主义创新的前沿开展研究。最后，为了建立我在援助，技术和学术界的网络，我将访问数字正义的顶级研究中心，蒂尔堡法律，技术和社会研究所，并参加领先的数字权利国际会议RightsCon。奖学金将使我能够进行战略培训，以补充我计划的活动：手稿开发课程（在线，“Mannipt Works”）将正式确定我的技能基础，为多产和有影响力的学术生涯做准备。

项目成果

Digitisation and Sovereignty in Humanitarian Space: Technologies, Territories and Tensions.

• DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2022.2047468
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: GEOPOLITICS
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Martin, Aaron;Sharma, Gargi;de Souza, Siddharth Peter;Taylor, Linnet;van Eerd, Boudewijn;McDonald, Sean Martin;Marelli, Massimo;Cheesman, Margie;Scheel, Stephan;Dijstelbloem, Huub
• 通讯作者: Dijstelbloem, Huub

Web3 tech is putting vulnerable people at risk

Web3 技术将弱势群体置于危险之中

• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Cheesman M

Web3 and communities at risk: Myths and problems with current experiments

Web3 和面临风险的社区：当前实验的神话和问题

• 发表时间: 2022
• 作者: Cheesman M