Journal
DISASTERS
Volume 34, Issue -, Pages S220-S237Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7717.2010.01155.x
Keywords
humanitarian action; humanitarianism; globalisation
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This paper explores the meta functions of humanitarianism-that is, the functions that, as an ideology, a movement and a profession, it performs, wittingly or unwittingly, in the early twenty-first century.1 The term humanitarianism is used as shorthand to encompass a complex set of currents of thought, actions and institutions of which the boundaries are unclear. The focus is on mainstream humanitarianism, the dominant Northern/Western enterprise. The paper first discusses the relationship between humanitarianism and globalised power. It goes on to examine three types of functions that humanitarianism and humanitarian action perform: 'macro' functions-the deep undercurrents, power relations and values that humanitarianism articulates and transmits; 'meso' functions-those that relate to the political economy of humanitarian action and to the mechanics (rather than to the ideology) of globalisation; and 'micro' functions that relate to the motivations of the individuals who devote their energies to humanitarianism.
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