This paper critically examines the 'humanitarian innovation' movement, arguing that it represents a departure from classical principles and the entry of a distinctive new ideology into the sector. Labelling this 'humanitarian neophilia', the paper argues that it has resonances of Barbrook and Cameron's 'Californian Ideology', with its merging of New Left and New Right within the environs of Silicon Valley.Humanitarian neophilia, similarly, comes from a diverse ideological heritage, combining an optimistic faith in the possibilities of technology with a commitment to the power of markets. It both 'understates the state' and 'overstates the object', promoting a vision of self-reliant subjects rather than strong nation-states realising substantive socio-economic rights.'Innovation' is the new buzzword in humanitarianism. Over the past seven years there

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This special issue of Refugee Survey Quarterly presents the experiences of frontline staff in Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as they grapple with the implications of the global refugee crisis. Over the past eighteen months hundreds of thousands of people have moved from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, generating widespread media attention and considerable political wrangling. But for aid workers, this situation raises questions that get to the very heart of humanitarianism and its purpose in the contemporary world. How does an organisation like MSF, the pioneer of 'sansfrontierism', engage with the shifting politics of borders and migration? What, practically, does it mean to be a 'borderless' organisation in a world where migration controls are such a big political issue? What are the implications of the refugee crisis for humanitarian principles and medical care? This introduction to the special issue brings some humanitarian dilemmas into focus, arguing that, in reaction to the migration crisis, aid agencies may have no option but to take a more robustly political approach.

Inspired by de Laet and Mol's classic article on the Zimbabwean Bush Pump and Peter Redfield's revival of fluidity as a central characteristic of humanitarian design, this paper argues that many humanitarian technologies are characterized not so much by fluidity as by stickiness. Sticky technologies lie somewhere between fluid technologies and Latourian immutable mobiles: They work precisely because they are mobile and not overly adaptable, yet they retain some flexibility by reaching out to shape and be shaped by their users. The concept is introduced through a detailed study of Plumpy'nut, a peanut paste for therapeutic feeding that is materially sticky - much firmer than a fluid, yet still mutable - as well as conceptually sticky. 'Stickiness' can have wide utility for thinking through technology and humanitarianism.