“The Rational Administration of Compassion”: The Origins of British Relief in War

Gill, Rebecca

doi:10.3917/lms.227.0009

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Arendt [1963]). Thereafter, a humanitarianism that reached out to all life could also be mobilised in the service of particular ambitions for the good life, be it through the morality of the guillotine that Robespierre promoted as revolutionary virtue, or the role of the Red Cross in the restructuring of the state after the Paris Commune of 1871 (Gill , 12; see also Taithe ; for a modern incarnation, see Gourevitch ). Both responded to what were the felt needs of state and society at the time.…”

Section: Political Rationalities and Spaces Of Moral Reasonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The impetus behind the reform was itself subject to a rationalising urge that made possible for the first time, as David Nally writes, ‘an epistemological separation and legal distinction between poverty and indigence’ (Nally , 41). The overall effect was to render compassion party to liberal forms of social regulation and control (something that was also at work on the battlefield: see Gill in particular) at the same time as social control assumed the mantle of ‘improvement’.…”

Section: Political Rationalities and Spaces Of Moral Reasonmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Humanitarianism as liberal diagnostic: humanitarian reason and the political rationalities of the liberal will‐to‐care

Reid-Henry

2013

Trans Inst British Geog

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Images of catastrophe and the suffering of others form an important part of the contemporary western imagination. Such images trace the geography of an uneven world at the same time as they assert the moral and political horizons of liberal forms of care towards it. Drawing upon Foucault's notion of political rationality, I revisit the emergence of this distinctively liberal moral geography to show how a modern form of ‘humanitarian reason’ (Fassin 2011) developed in concert with the rise of capitalism and the liberal state. In particular, I explore the processes that, during the course of the long 19th century, invoked both a market‐driven moral economy and a state‐driven political morality within humanitarian endeavour. The final part of the paper then applies these reflections on humanitarianism's past to its much‐debated present. I move away from what is sometimes a rather binary focus on humanitarianism as a problem of Western intervention in other spaces to draw attention instead to its strategic function as a ‘liberal diagnostic’: a recursive moral practice that helps constitute a liberal politics as much as it projects that politics onto other people and places. I sketch out the implications of this by examining some of the ways that contemporary humanitarianism fulfils this role with respect to issues of global order and capital accumulation.

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Section: Political Rationalities and Spaces Of Moral Reasonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Political Rationalities and Spaces Of Moral Reasonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humanitarianism as liberal diagnostic: humanitarian reason and the political rationalities of the liberal will‐to‐care

Reid-Henry

2013

Trans Inst British Geog

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“…52 Peter Brock and Rebecca Gill argue that the work of the FWVRC among civilians during the Franco-Prussian Wars reflected the Quaker belief in and the practice of peace testimony and a drive to foster international goodwill. 53 Rebecca Gill has termed the ethos of humanitarianism during the Franco-Prussian Wars "rational compassion," which was characterized by the vocation of humanitarianism and the expert, democratic relief, and impartial evaluation of need. 54 For example, following the siege on Paris in 1871, FWVRC Commissioners surveyed sixty surrounding villages, connected with mayors and local leaders, and left a questionnaire that included a series of questions developed in relief work in Great Britain that aided in determining the needs of the respective area and population.…”

Section: Quaker War Reliefmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…53 Rebecca Gill has termed the ethos of humanitarianism during the Franco-Prussian Wars "rational compassion," which was characterized by the vocation of humanitarianism and the expert, democratic relief, and impartial evaluation of need. 54 For example, following the siege on Paris in 1871, FWVRC Commissioners surveyed sixty surrounding villages, connected with mayors and local leaders, and left a questionnaire that included a series of questions developed in relief work in Great Britain that aided in determining the needs of the respective area and population. 55 Following the survey, a committee of locals was established; it comprised Bishops, local leaders, and the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the Société de secours aux paysans, which oversaw the distribution of goods and served as a model for other areas.…”

Section: Quaker War Reliefmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…56 Finally, if the FWVRC utilized new methods from the field of social sciences, the commissioners still incorporated the contemporary belief of "self-help" into their approach in relief work. 57 Bertrand Harris argues that self-help and mutual aid served as the "third arm" of the Victorian welfare state. Harris argues public officials and "other opinion-formers" believed the aim of social policy should be the encouragement of individuals and families to increase their own efforts at providing for themselves [.…”

Section: Quaker War Reliefmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Training Friends and Overseas Relief: The Friends Ambulance Unit and the Friends Relief Service, 1939 to 1948

Aksamit¹

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This transnational case study investigates the establishment and development of training programs by two British faith-based voluntary relief organizations, the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) and the Friends Relief Service (FRS), during the Second World War and explores the implementation of learned skills by members of those organizations working during the immediate postwar period in the British Occupation Zone in Germany. It contributes new perspectives to scholarship on humanitarianism as it highlights both the continuities and ruptures in the approaches to and practices of humanitarian aid. It identifies the Quaker traditions that shaped the work of the FAU and FRS-particularly the core principles of promoting self-help, impartiality, democratic structures, and internationalism-as they delivered relief and fostered the rebuilding of communities in war-torn northern Germany. It demonstrates how small voluntary organizations integrated their values into the new relief structures of planning-mindedness, professionalization and international collaboration that also characterized the larger relief organizations. Although the FAU and FRS shared in their convictions of pacifism, goodwill, and humanitarian service, the two organizations conceptualized their role in relief differently and reflected those differences in their respective training programs and to a substantial extent in their postwar service. The FAU focused on the "first stage" of emergency relief that focused on working alongside military bodies to provide medical and material aid to both civilians and the military. In contrast, the FRS focused on the "second and third stages" that centered on providing impartial relief and rehabilitation to civilian populations that did not require assistance or direction from the military. To provide aid in the "second and third stages," the FRS trained volunteers for postwar emergency relief and rehabilitation as well as how to foster reconciliation among all populations impacted by the war. Training programs for both the FAU and FRS believed that by integrating past experiences as well as contemporary developments to the approach and practice of humanitarian aid, their relief teams would provide efficient and effective relief in the postwar period. By retaining their core principles and traditional approaches to relief work as well as adopting new professional methods to dispense aid, the relief teams sent to the British Occupation Zone in 1945 exhibited an impressive and unique flexibility as they worked with and alongside displaced populations, camp victims, refugees, and Germans in a landscape engulfed with destruction and displacement.

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Humanitarianism in the Modern World

Götz

Brewis

Werther

2020

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“The Rational Administration of Compassion”: The Origins of British Relief in War

Cited by 21 publications

References 1 publication

Humanitarianism as liberal diagnostic: humanitarian reason and the political rationalities of the liberal will‐to‐care

Humanitarianism as liberal diagnostic: humanitarian reason and the political rationalities of the liberal will‐to‐care

Training Friends and Overseas Relief: The Friends Ambulance Unit and the Friends Relief Service, 1939 to 1948

Humanitarianism in the Modern World

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