The Power to Count and the Stakes of Counting: An Inquiry into the Quantified Production of Humanitarian Insecurity

Beerli, Monique Jo

doi:10.1163/19426720-02301006

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One of the most prominent findings on the consequences of quantification in humanitarianism is what has been coined as the shift from 'proximity to distance' (Olivius, 2016;Beerli, 2017;Lokot, 2019). This refers more precisely to the way a humanitarian worker becomes, through the application of quantitative logics, 'a distant, detached observer who creates knowledge based on the application of standardized models rather than on experience in the particular local context' (Olivius, 2016: 280).…”

Section: On the Importance Of Quantification Within The Humanitarian ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Humanitarian Workers Really Trust Numbers? An Assessment of the Use of Quantitative Data in the Humanitarian Field

Beaumais

2023

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Do humanitarian workers really trust numbers? In the realm of the DATAWAR research project, this article aims to investigate the interest that humanitarian workers have developed towards quantitative data in the last two decades. The ‘needology’ approach (Glasman, 2020), growing expectations of donors since the 2000s, and the professionalisation and rationalisation of the humanitarian field are all factors that have contributed to the massive use of quantitative data. Discourses promoting ‘evidence-based humanitarianism’ have fostered massive hope in the humanitarian community: a good use of quantitative data could enhance contextual analyses, intervention monitoring or even the safety and security of humanitarian workers. However, this study has discovered that these narratives overestimate the ease with which humanitarian workers deal with numbers. In fact, it shows that the use of quantitative data is mainly determined by a specific, restrictive, hierarchically oriented evidence-based system which nurtures bottom-up accountability rather than day-to-day project management. As a result, the datafication of the humanitarian field does not seem to have been accompanied by an improvement of the data literacy of humanitarian workers.

show abstract

Section: On the Importance Of Quantification Within The Humanitarian ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Humanitarian Workers Really Trust Numbers? An Assessment of the Use of Quantitative Data in the Humanitarian Field

Beaumais

2023

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It also includes the numberbased work of bureaucrats. Beerli (2017b) argues that quantification empowers senior managers and security managers to legitimise organisational change. Drawing on the work of Theodore Porter (1995: 8), Beerli (2017b: 66) argues that these bureaucratic officials do not have the mandate of an elected official, so draw on numbers to rationalise managerial functions.…”

Section: Strand 3: Effects On Humanitarian Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification and Humanitarianism

Lawson

2021

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past 25 years, the humanitarian sector has become increasingly dominated by numbers. This has been reflected in the growth of academic work that explores this relationship between humanitarianism and quantification. The most recent contribution to this literature is Joël Glasman’s Humanitarianism and the Quantification of Humanitarian Needs. Through his empirical and theoretical contributions, Glasman draws our attention to the different ways that academics approach this topic. These four strands structure the literature review: knowledge – the technical difficulties in quantifying phenomena; governance – how numbers help humanitarian organisations manage the sector; effects – the impact that quantification has had on the sector as a whole; meaning – the importance of rhetoric, discourse, representation and communication when it comes to understanding the quantitative. As part of the review, the essay also identifies how academics can better engage with each of the four strands.

show abstract

“…Operating from a historically and structurally privileged position, Western perspectives are often foregrounded against local ones (Roepstorff 2020). What is more, the knowledge-production processes on aid worker security are dominated by a handful of NGOs, privileging expert knowledge against non-expert participation (Weissman 2016;Beerli 2017). Together, these aspects have arguably made the humanitarian security discourse more abstract and detached it from field realities.…”

Section: Section 1 'Doing' Aid Worker Security With Materials Semioticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Politicians, pathogens, and other threats to aid workers: a material semiotic analysis of violence against health care in the Syrian conflict

Tammi

2021

Critical Studies on Security

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper analyses humanitarian security in the framework of Donna Haraway's political material semiotics. It begins by arguing that targeted violence against health care constitutes a trope: a figure of speech that challenges and disrupts the established narrative of humanitarian security. Drawing on 20 in-depth expert interviews, the paper explores a case study of weaponisation of health care in the Syrian conflict (2011-present). It illustrates how different material-semiotic actors -such as politicians, pathogens, and medical infrastructure -condition and shape the security of humanitarian health workers in the opposition-held parts of the country. Taking medical facilities as its key unit of analysis, the paper shows how armed violence is not only directed towards these material-semiotic entities but amplified and transformed as it passes through them. In doing so, the paper sheds light on the formative role that nonhuman materialities play in the protection of aid workers and other civilian entities in armed conflict. The paper's findings also contribute towards an improved understanding of how previously under-appreciated variables impact the delivery of medical aid in complex humanitarian emergencies.

show abstract

The Power to Count and the Stakes of Counting: An Inquiry into the Quantified Production of Humanitarian Insecurity

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Do Humanitarian Workers Really Trust Numbers? An Assessment of the Use of Quantitative Data in the Humanitarian Field

Do Humanitarian Workers Really Trust Numbers? An Assessment of the Use of Quantitative Data in the Humanitarian Field

Quantification and Humanitarianism

Politicians, pathogens, and other threats to aid workers: a material semiotic analysis of violence against health care in the Syrian conflict

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About