This is an innovative new history of famine relief and humanitarianism. The authors apply a moral economy approach to shed new light on the forces and ideas that motivated and shaped humanitarian aid during the Great Irish Famine, the famine of 1921-1922 in Soviet Russia and the Ukraine, and the 1980s Ethiopian famine. They place these episodes within a distinctive periodisation of humanitarianism which emphasises the correlations with politico-economic regimes: the time of elitist laissez-faire liberalism in the nineteenth century as one of ad hoc humanitarianism; that of Taylorism and mass society from c.1900-1970 as one of organised humanitarianism; and the blend of individualised post-material lifestyles and neoliberal public management since 1970 as one of expressive humanitarianism. The book as a whole shifts the focus of the history of humanitarianism from the imperatives of crisis management to the pragmatic mechanisms of fundraising, relief efforts on the ground, and finance.
Author(s): Norbert Götz, Georgina Brewis, Steffen Werther
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 320
City: Cambridge
Cover
Half-title
Title page
Copyright information
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
List of
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Famine Relief in Perspective
1.1 Social Origins of Famine
1.2 The Moral Economy of Aid
2 Case Studies
2.1 Three Ages of Humanitarianism
Chronology of Humanitarianism
2.2 The Great Irish Famine and Ad Hoc Humanitarianism
UK Relief
Catholic and Foreign Relief
Ad Hoc Voluntarism
2.3 The Russian Famine of 1921-3 and Organised Humanitarianism
Organised Humanitarianism
The Nationalisation of Universal Causes
Russian Famine Relief
Culmination
2.4 Famine in Ethiopia 1984-6 and Expressive Humanitarianism
An Age of Expressive Humanitarianism
Ethiopia, Famine, and Media-Driven Humanitarianism
International Response
3 Appeals
3.1 The Humanitarian Appeal
Irrational Donors and Rational Fundraisers
Moral Economy Dilemmas
3.2 Empire, Faith, and Kinship: Ireland
Imperial Relief
Catholic Relief
US Relief
3.3 Altruism, Self-interest, and Solidarity: Soviet Russia
Funding Approaches
Morally Worthy Recipients
Mixed Emotions: Children, Horrors, and Holidays
Self-interest as a Fundraising Strategy
Obligation to Give
Solidarity, Not Charity
Direct Appeals from Russians
3.4 Television, Shame, and Global Humanity: Ethiopia
Voluntary Organisations' Appeals
Are We the World? Celebrities and Participative Fundraising
3.5 Arousing Compassion: A Long View on Calls for Famine Relief
Worthy Victims and Guilty Governments
Ethics, Effectiveness, and Efficiency
4 Allocation
4.1 Allocating Gifts
Efficient versus Engaging Allocation
Humanitarian Logistics, Nutrition, and Their Pull-Effect
4.2 Fostering Local Efforts: Ireland
Aid for Sale: The BRA
Soup Kitchens
Money and Aid-in-Kind
Domestic and Overseas Migration
4.3 Live and Let Die: Soviet Russia
Organising Famine Relief
Kitchens and Food
To Feed or Not to Feed
Efficiency and Compassion
More than Food: Communist Relief
Don't Mourn: Organise
4.4 Relief, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement: Ethiopia
Working in Government-Controlled Ethiopia
Allocating Aid to Rebel-Held Areas
Food and Feeding
Resettlement
Rehabilitation and Newcomers to Aid
4.5 Targeting Aid: Realities on the Ground across Two Centuries
Suspicious Minds
Cash versus In-Kind Relief
Aid Agencies, Personnel, and Logistics
5 Accounting
5.1 Humanitarian Accountability
Moral Bookkeeping
Moral Economic Priorities
5.2 Figures, Narratives, and Omissions: Ireland
British Relief
Quaker Relief
US Accounts
Accounting Practices among Catholics
Accounts as Explicit and Implicit Disclosure
5.3 The Power of Numbers: Soviet Russia
Businesslike Relief and Overhead Costs
Two Genres of (Creative) Accounting
All Aid Is Relative
Accounting for Gratitude
5.4 More than 'Dollars' and 'Per Cent': Ethiopia
Impact of the Response on Voluntary Organisations
Expressive Accounting
Accountability and Abuse
Humanitarianism in the 1980s
5.5 Keeping the Record: A Bicentennial Perspective
Shape of Accounts
Impersonalisation and Relativity of Aid
Conclusion: The Moral Economy of Humanitarianism
Moral Economic Structures
Diachronic Perspectives
Whither Expressive Humanitarianism?
Towards a New History of Humanitarianism
References
Archives
Primary and Secondary Literature
Index
