With the Best of Intentions

Abstract

Charities and humanitarian organisations in Singapore that were involved in post-Tsunami relief and reconstruction work are repeatedly queried by volunteers, donors, and journalists. The world has pledged and donated billions to Tsunami relief and reconstruction, and I have personally given money to Singapore charities. Why do I still read about needy people in temporary shelters? Where has the money gone? Another question reflects similar sentiments of puzzlement, even frustration: I am moved by the devastation and would like to help by volunteering my time and expertise. I have signed up to volunteer with several humanitarian organisations. I am highly qualified and could help people. Why am I still not sent overseas?

These are good questions that deserve solid answers. This article discusses the latest thinking in relief circles as to which volunteers are best sent overseas and how donations can most responsibly be used for effective and sustainable reconstruction. The authors draw on Singapore's experience with providing relief in the aftermath of the Tsunami along with Dr. Tay Keong Tan's observations of relief and rehabilitation efforts in the Tsunami-affected areas of Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The article finds that volunteering requires much more than just a giving heart. Also, donations may be used most effectively by thinking long-term rather than just short-term. Further, donations are best administered in a way coordinated with local relief plans and in consultation with local people. The article closes by considering lessons for volunteers, donors, and humanitarian relief agencies from the Tsunami's aftermath.     

Humanitarian response and stress in Kenya: gendered problems and their implications

ABSTRACT

Stress-related conditions such as burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder are a growing concern in the humanitarian sector. Aid workers themselves report not only that mental health problems are common, but that the support they receive from their employers is insufficient. Problematically, the experience of the international aid worker – particularly those who are white and from the global North – is often foregrounded in explaining what constitutes stress and related mental health problems. This indicates a wider problem of what is required of ‘the perfect humanitarian’ – a personality that is gendered and racialised – and how this influences the different experiences and treatment of national and international staff from aid agencies. This article explores the organisational culture and working conditions of humanitarian settings and their impact on the mental health and well-being of staff. It argues that there is a structural dimension to stress that is less to do with external security threats and more to do with the specific infrastructure, policies, and practices of humanitarian operations, with implications for aid workers which cut across dimensions of race, gender, and nationality.     

Doing Culture with Girls Like Me: Why Trying on Gender and Intersectionality Matters

Gendering is not a one‐size‐fits‐all process. Girls try on gender. In particular, girls – conditioned to value connections – search their cultural surroundings for ‘girls like me’ to answer the weighty question, Who am I? However, girls are not simply passive beneficiaries of culture, but actively construct their gendered selves by engaging in or ‘doing’ culture; girls activate certain features salient to their experiences. This paper examines how race, ethnicity, and class arbitrate girls’ gendered identities, emphasizing the concept trying on gender to capture the intersectional and experimental character of these processes. As girls try on gender –a local and culturally specific endeavor – they engage in a fluid, multifaceted, and sometimes tentative gendering process. Cross‐over literature by and for girls lends empirical support to how girls accomplish this multi‐constructed sense of self. The article concludes with implications for studies of girls, including a cautionary note about overemphasis on individualistic agency.     

With the best of intentions: Singapore volunteers and donors and the tsunami reconstruction

Charities and humanitarian organisations in Singapore that were involved in post-Tsunami relief and reconstruction work are repeatedly queried by volunteers, donors, and journalists. The world has pledged and donated billions to Tsunami relief and reconstruction, and I have personally given money to Singapore charities. Why do I still read about needy people in temporary shelters? Where has the money gone? Another question reflects similar sentiments of puzzlement, even frustration: I am moved by the devastation and would like to help by volunteering my time and expertise. I have signed up to volunteer with several humanitarian organisations. I am highly qualified and could help people. Why am I still not sent overseas? These are good questions that deserve solid answers. This article discusses the latest thinking in relief circles as to which volunteers are best sent overseas and how donations can most responsibly be used for effective and sustainable reconstruction. The authors draw on Singapore's experience with providing relief in the aftermath of the Tsunami along with the Dr. Tan Tay Keong's observations of relief and rehabilitation efforts in the Tsunami-affected areas of Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The article finds that volunteering requires much more than just a giving heart. Also, donations may be used most effectively by thinking long term rather than just short term. Further, donations are best administered in a way coordinated with local relief plans and in consultation with local people. The article closes by considering lessons for volunteers, donors, and humanitarian relief agencies from the Tsunami's aftermath.     

Leveraging blockchain technology in humanitarian settings – opportunities and risks for women and girls

ABSTRACT

There is an increasing acknowledgement among policymakers and private-sector partners that we cannot overcome the challenges of our time without harnessing the potential of emerging technologies. As blockchain technology is rapidly being introduced to support work across a wide number of areas of humanitarian action, this article considers its potential impact on women and girls. The article draws on experiences emerging from UN Women’s explorations of blockchain technology and the first gender-responsive pilot targeting Syrian refugee women in UN Women’s cash-for-work programme in Jordan. The article reminds us how important it is to introduce technologies in ways that maximise their potential to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian settings, and minimise the risk of doing harm. Without conscious commitment to these aims, blockchain technology may exacerbate the marginalisation of women and girls.     

Rethinking the Canon: Reflections on a Text That Ought to be Essential Reading

Abstract

The 2006 war in Lebanon that erupted between Hezbollah and Israel marked the largest evacuation of Americans abroad since World War II. This article captures the experiences of Lebanese-American women and investigates how gender identity was expressed during these evacuations. Presented from the point of view of a participant-observer and personal interviews, findings show that gender became a master identity that influenced these women's choices regarding how to escape the country and return to the United States. Some embraced dependency upon masculinist exercises of power while others claimed agency as they determined their own fate and carried out their own evacuation without waiting to be rescued by the state or male kin members. The evacuation stories in this article confirm and illuminate the complexity of ethnic citizenship and gendered agency.     

‘Localising’ humanitarian action: reflections on delivering women's rights-based and feminist services in an ongoing crisis

ABSTRACT

This article shares the experiences of Women Now for Development, a women's organisation working with Syrian women in Syria and neighbouring countries. The key questions under consideration are whether important policy commitments to empower local actors are bearing fruit in practice and identify some of the challenges that still frustrate working with women and girls in humanitarian settings. This article aims to consider whether localisation is more than a current ‘buzz-word’.     

The space between us: feminist values and humanitarian power dynamics in research with refugees

ABSTRACT

International humanitarian and development agencies striving to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment sometimes neglect to recognise the power hierarchies present in their own engagement with communities. Drawing on research on Syrian refugees and humanitarian workers in Jordan, this article explores the research and monitoring and evaluation practices of international humanitarian agencies. It suggests that the emphasis on generating evidence has resulted in more transactional and less relational engagement with refugees. This paper asks how feminist values can inform research with refugees, and explores how these values may provide less-extractive ways of engaging with displaced populations.     

Rapid Gender Analysis and its use in crises: from zero to fifty in five years

ABSTRACT

This article explores how and why the international non-government organisation, CARE, developed its own system of gender analysis, Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA), during the humanitarian response in Syria. The article tracks and reviews a sample of the first 50 CARE RGA reports to share recurrent gender themes that emerge across them, including the lack of women’s meaningful participation in decision-making, limitations on women and girls’ mobility, increased risks of gender-based violence, and recurring issues facing humanitarian organisations in providing a gender-sensitive response. RGA has now been used in more than 50 crises around the world and is featured as a good practice in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Gender Handbook. It is giving humanitarians faster and more complete access to information about gender norms than ever before. But, this article asks, has the RGA made a difference and, if so, to whom?     

Bittersweet and Paradoxical

The American Red Cross is the most active nonprofit organization involved in disaster planning and response in the United States. The organization deployed nearly 50,000 volunteers to provide essential support to victims of some 125,000 domestic disasters, including home fires, hurricanes, wildfires, and floods, in a recent two‐year period. This study asks how American Red Cross disaster response volunteer experiences function to cultivate satisfaction and, at the other end of the spectrum, the kind of dissatisfaction that leads people to quit; it pays particular attention to ways in which volunteer management shapes dissatisfaction and fatigue because of implications for volunteer retention. Paradoxically, the Red Cross facilitates the highly satisfying act of helping victims, but volunteers feel dissatisfied when management practices get in the way of helping. The study suggests voluntary organizations that rely on skilled, long‐term volunteers to deliver services should evaluate and strengthen their communication strategies, recognition practices, and support systems for volunteers in distress.     

Nevertheless They Persisted: Gendered Frameworks and Socialization Advantages in Indian Professional Service Firms

This article uses the Indian case to offer nuance to narratives about the gendered experience of professional work. I find that while gendered constructs certainly infiltrate all workspaces, there remain occupational and organizational differences in the ways in which women experience their environments. Particularly, while Indian women lawyers overall are more disadvantaged than their international counterparts, the experience of women lawyers in very elite law firms is more favorable than both their local and global peers. A confluence of factors might be responsible for this unusual experience of professional work, but this article highlights the importance of one set of supply side dynamics: the variations in socializing experiences and expectations before entry into these firms. In doing so, it adds to the literature that suggests the importance of not just enrollment parity, but also early training and institutional socialization for gender egalitarian professional outcomes.     

e-Social work in practice: a case study

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a theoretical reflection on e-social work by considering a case study: an intervention programme with vulnerable people, included in the services catalogue of a non-governmental organization (NGO), Zaragoza Red Cross Assembly. This programme cares for older people with a home assistance system mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs). The digital convergence of the Spanish Red Cross and the digitalization of internal processes were accelerated by the use of ICTs as a tool in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis: first, to manage bureaucratic matters; second, to coordinate professionals and third, to interact with users. The text is divided into five sections including an introduction and final remarks. The first section describes the intervention programme and its evolution from a traditional social work vision to an e-social work perspective. The second section describes and analyses the intervention programme and the incorporation of ICTs in this NGO, over more than two decades. The third section describes professional contributions to the implementation and adaptation of social work to new social and technological circumstances and users’ requirements based on these intervention experiences.     

Sexual orientation and the European Convention on Human Rights: What of the “L” in LGBT?

Abstract

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has long been celebrated for its role in advancing LGBT rights. This article adopts an intersectional feminist approach in order to critically examine the trajectory of the Court’s LGBT case-law from a gendered perspective. In doing so, it foregrounds the portrayal, experience and, indeed, invisibility of lesbian applicants. Adopting an intersectional approach that considers the gender dimension of sexual orientation claims provides a somewhat different perspective on the struggle for LGBT rights before the ECtHR and suggests that lesbian voices and experiences have been marginalized and excluded in the struggle for LGBT rights.     

Virtual Volunteering: Online Volunteers Providing Assistance to Human Service Agencies

SUMMARY

A growing number of agencies involve volunteers via home or work computers and the Internet. The Virtual Volunteering Project [http://www.serviceleader.org/vv/] has researched and worked with more than 100 organizations involving online volunteers to document the benefits of online service for agencies, volunteers and audiences served, and to disseminate ways agencies can incorporate virtual volunteering into their organizations. This paper describes the Virtual Volunteering Project and summarizes data from a variety of sources that highlight the activities of agencies and volunteers engaged in virtual volunteering and the factors associated with success in virtual volunteering programs.     

A Land of Milk and Honey? Breastfeeding and Identity in Lesbian Families

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationship between breastfeeding and identity in lesbian-identified families based on a pilot study of qualitative interviews and a short survey of six lesbian families in Canada and the United States. Although breastfeeding is assumed to be “natural” and a biological function, we problematize the practice as both gendered and heteronormative. In our research we found that breastfeeding has a complex role to play within the construction of one's identity as a mother, of one's gender, and of one's sexual orientation. These women's experiences offer interesting insights into the nebulous boundaries of biology and the ways in which assumptions about what is “natural” are actually social and cultural constructions.     

Still a “Stalled Revolution”? Work/Family Experiences,Hegemonic Masculinity,and Moving Toward Gender Equality

Hochschild described the “stalled revolution” in the late 1980s: women made great gains in labor force opportunities, particularly in stereotypically “masculine” fields, yet men did not move comparably into “feminine” roles. This article examines the current “stalls” in the gender equality movement regarding gendered experiences at work and home, including occupations, the gender wage gap, career trajectories, and the division of household labor. This article also discusses efforts to “unstall” the gender revolution. Pop culture solutions on the individual‐level and academic research on structural/cultural barriers often focus on women's access to historically “masculine” roles (e.g. representation in STEM fields). There is far less emphasis on men's involvement in historically “feminine” roles. Gender scholars examine hegemonic masculinity as the narrowly constrained expectations for men's “appropriate” behavior. While efforts to “unstall” the gender revolution focus largely on expanding women's opportunities, this article addresses why the gender revolution will remain incomplete and “stalled” without redefining hegemonic masculinity. Cross‐national research demonstrates that changing views of masculinity are critical for greater gender equality at work and home.     

Program Evaluation of “Young at Heart”

Abstract

We conducted a program evaluation study of “Young at Heart,” a Texas (United States) program that places elderly volunteers in childcare settings. The main constructs evaluated in this research-based article are Erikson's generativity (a motivation to guide younger generations) and life satisfaction. We compared four groups of elderly persons on these constructs: Young at Heart volunteers, Meals on Wheels volunteers (who deliver food to other elderly persons and thus gain volunteer experience, but not with children), non-volunteers drawn from the general population of one Texas community, and individuals in the same community who volunteered in a variety of activities (“miscellaneous volunteers”). Our guiding assumption was that volunteering with children would appear to be a clear expression of generativity; we thus hypothesized that YAH volunteers would score highest in it. Contrary to prediction, the miscellaneous volunteers averaged the highest generativity, followed by YAH volunteers. Philosophical and conceptual issues are identified with regard to research on generativity and intergenerational programming.     

'If we only had some of what they have' Ralph Ellison in Wales

Abstract

During his period as a merchant marine in the Second World War, the African American novelist Ralph Ellison was stationed in Swansea, Wales. His short story 'In a Strange Country', collected in Flying Home and Other Stories (1998), is based on these Welsh experiences, and there are two other unpublished Welsh-based stories among the Ellison papers at the Library of Congress: 'A Storm of Blizzard Proportions' and 'The Red Cross at Morriston, South Wales'. This article considers these stories as a basis for exploring the cultural and historical connections and correspondences between African Americans and the Welsh. In drawing inspiration from Ellison's critical writings, the article seeks to substantiate a genuinely comparative, transatlantic approach to literary and cultural texts. This approach leads to an exploration of the ways in which the diversity of the Welsh experience – manifested in language, politics and cultural practice – led Ellison to meditate in new ways on the issues of race, nationhood and identity that he would later famously address in Invisible Man.     

‘Friends that last a lifetime’: the importance of emotions amongst volunteers working with refugees in Calais

The European ‘refugee crisis’ has generated a broad movement of volunteers offering their time and skills to support refugees across the continent, in the absence of nation states. This article focuses on volunteers who helped in the informal refugee camp in Calais called the ‘Jungle’. It looks at the importance of emotions as a motivating factor for taking on responsibilities that are usually carried out by humanitarian aid organizations. We argue that empathy is not only the initial motivator for action, but it also sustains the voluntary activity as volunteers make sense of their emotions through working in the camp. This type of volunteering has also created new spaces for sociability and community, as volunteers have formed strong emotional and relational bonds with each other and with the refugees. Finally, this article contributes to the growing body of literature that aims at repositioning emotions within the social sciences research to argue that they are an important analytical tool to understand social life and fieldwork.     

Cultural production in the working-class resistance: labour activism,gender politics,and solidarities

ABSTRACT

Against the backdrop of China as a seemingly ideal model to justify and normalize capitalist globalization, this article seeks to demonstrate how grassroots and bottom-up resistance can disrupt hegemonic ideologies and dominant values. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with a local NGO and an activist group from March 2016 to July 2017, my study demonstrates that labour activism through cultural production becomes an important constitution of contemporary working-class resistance in China. Collective cultural production, such as advocacy songs, live shows, and writing endorsement articles, expresses a working-class subjective position and an anti-capitalist standpoint. Rural migrant workers’ inequality serves as a political and ideological stance from which different social actors join together in activism and resistance to construct imaginations of a new socialist China where there are equal relations in production and distribution, and social inclusion and respect. In the process of forming solidarities, feminist agendas for gender equality are marginalized in working-class resistance and gendered power relations greatly shape activists’ subjectivities, practices, and experiences. This study contributes to the intersection of labour studies, cultural studies, and feminist studies in China. I argue that grassroots labour cultural production contributes to the discursive formation of counter-hegemonic power; yet a more inclusive activist agenda is still required to imagine and build an equal and just society.