A Call For Embedding Dignity In Humanitarian Technologies

Talhouk, Reem; Montague, Kyle; Garbett, Andrew; Araújo‐Soares, Vera; Akik, Chaza; Ghattas, Hala; Ahmad, Balsam; Balaam, Madeline

doi:10.1145/3328320.3328373

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Indigenous Academics like [7,51,114,133,160], and decolonized ethnographers [6] are also references of how to do interventionist research respectfully and for the benefit of the community. HCI researchers have included theories of post-colonialism [93] and decoloniality [4] into the context of computing, and continue to work in postcolonial contexts; exploring the role digital technologies can play (e.g., in relation to women's health [111,144,153], supporting refugees [147,148], or in peoples' digital representations [137]). This kind of work often relates to not only postcolonial contexts or philosophies, but may also relate to justice-oriented work, participatory processes, and emancipation.…”

Section: Epistemological Encounters: What Is An Activist Academic?mentioning

confidence: 99%

On Activism and Academia

Leal

Strohmayer

Krüger

2021

Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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In recent years HCI and CSCW work has increasingly begun to address complex social problems and issues of social justice worldwide. Such activist-leaning work is not without problems. Through the experiences and reflections of an activist becoming academic and an academic becoming an activist, we outline these difficulties such as (1) the risk of perpetuating violence, oppression and exploitation when working with marginalised communities, (2) the reception of activist-academic work within our academic communities, and (3) problems of social justice that exist within our academic communities. Building on our own experiences, practices and existing literature from a variety of disciplines we advocate for the possibility of an activist-academic practice, outline possible ways forward and formulate questions we need to answer for HCI to contribute to a more just world.

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Section: Epistemological Encounters: What Is An Activist Academic?mentioning

confidence: 99%

On Activism and Academia

Leal

Strohmayer

Krüger

2021

Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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“…The aforementioned studies in India contrast with the context of our studies in that: Firstly, they are limited to the introduction of a technology into an already existing food supply chain where beneficiaries continued to interact with the same actors as they had prior to digitisation [40]; Secondly, in refugee contexts interactions are compounded with local actors in host communities viewing refugees to be a separate group, within their towns and cities, than Lebanese [29,64,66]. As such refugee experiences are characterised by navigating the micro-politics of accessing aid that has not been identified in ICT4D literature on food aid.…”

Section: Everyday Security Power Asymmetries and Shifting Responsibilitiesmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…For example, financial and legal regulations in Germany and Austria have been identified as barriers for refugees and asylum seekers to access language classes and professional services [61,74]. Within the context of Lebanon, studies [63,65,66] have discussed how social and political factors contribute to Syrian refugees experiencing loss of dignity and low levels of agency within their interactions with aid, health and food services. Furthermore, language [33,56], integrating into new cultures [2,43] and building social capital [3] have been identified as critical social challenges for refugees and asylum seekers.…”

Section: Refugees and Cscwmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is with this understanding of power asymmetries between refugees and other non-refugee stakeholders that we, as CSCW researchers, can start examining how technologies can be designed to shift power balances in favor of refugee communities. Indeed, by building on existing literature on how technologies can support dignified interactions [8,66] and, the increase of agency [63] and capabilities [36] we can work towards designing humanitarian technologies that contribute to collaborations in which power asymmetries experienced by refugees are mitigated.…”

Section: Interplay Between the E-voucher System And Collaborative Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food Aid Technology

Talhouk

Coles-Kemp

Jensen

et al. 2020

Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact.

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Over half of Syrian refugee households in Lebanon are food insecure with some reliant on an electronic voucher (e-voucher) system for food aid. The interplay between the digitisation of food aid, within the sociotechnical context of refugees, and community collaborative practices is yet to be investigated. Through design engagements and interviews with refugees and shop owners we explore the experiences of a Syrian refugee community in Lebanon using the e-voucher system. We provide insights into the socio-technical environment in which the e-voucher system is dispensing aid, the information and power asymmetries experienced, refugee collaborative coping practices and how they interplay with the e-voucher system. We highlight the need for:(1) expanding refugee digital capabilities to encompass understandings of aid technologies and identifying trusted intermediaries and (2) for technologies to support in upholding humanitarian principles and mitigating power and information asymmetries. Lastly, we call for CSCW researchers and humanitarian innovators to consider how humanitarian technologies can enable refugee collaborative practices and adopt everyday security as a lens for designing aid technologies. The paper contributes to CSCW knowledge regarding the interplay between aid technologies and refugees' socio-technical contexts and practices that provides a basis for future technological designs for collaborative technologies for refugee food security.CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing.

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“…Referring to the concept of inclusive innovation, our findings indicate that refugees are more satisfied with their living conditions if they have been involved in shaping their living environment in the camps and could participate in related decision-making. This means that refugee perspectives should be centrally considered in the design of humanitarian innovations to ensure that changes in camps are perceived as legitimate by refugees, and hence, the dignity is preserved for everyone (Talhouk et al, 2019). Through participatory approaches, refugees are included in the maintenance of innovations (Kreuzer, 2010) and allowed to take up cash-for-work opportunities in order to contribute to the development of the camp.…”

Section: Implications For Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable innovations for humanitarian operations in refugee camps

Seifert

Kunz

Gold

2023

IJOPM

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PurposeAlthough the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize the importance of leaving no one behind, the opposite is happening for the world's 89 million forcibly displaced people who are mostly left out of SDGs’ reporting and progress. A key reason for this poor outcome is that host country governments plan refugee camps as short-term shelters, but refugees stay in these camps for more than a decade on average due to ongoing conflicts in their home country. This disparity between intent and reality prevents sustainable living conditions for refugee populations. Operational innovations are needed to find sustainable solutions that ensure a higher quality of life and progress toward sustainability in refugee camps.Design/methodology/approachThrough an abductive case study, the authors develop a theoretical framework on sustainable operational innovations for refugee camps. The authors use this framework to analyze four sustainable operational innovations implemented in three refugee camps in Jordan.FindingsThe authors develop three research propositions that describe the conditions required for these operational innovations to succeed: they need to include specific needs and cultural preferences of refugees, they must accommodate host governments' restrictions that limit permanent settlement, and finally, technological innovations require careful data management policies to protect refugees. Doing this, the authors account for the broader political-economic and ecological environments that refugee camps are embedded in.Originality/valueThis paper opens a new area of research on sustainable innovation in humanitarian operations. It provides insights into key contingency factors moderating the link between operational innovations and sustainability outcomes. It represents one of the few studies that build their theorizing upon field data collected in refugee camps.

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A Call For Embedding Dignity In Humanitarian Technologies

Cited by 9 publications

References 28 publications

On Activism and Academia

On Activism and Academia

Food Aid Technology

Sustainable innovations for humanitarian operations in refugee camps

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