Silke Roth

Aid work as edgework – voluntary risk-taking and security in humanitarian assistance, development and human rights work

Contemporary societies have been characterized as risk societies. While considerable research on individualized risk and risk management exists, voluntary risk taking has so far found less attention. This article explores the tensions between voluntary risk-taking at the individual level and risk management at the organizational level by analysing aid work as edgework. Between 1990s and 2009, the number of attacks on aid personnel including killing, kidnapping and armed attacks has steadily increased. Security and how to deal with it has become a central concern of aid organizations. While the increased insecurity of aid workers and the responses of aid organizations to security threats have been widely documented, less attention has been paid to the role risk-taking plays in aid workers lives. Edgework is a form of voluntary risk-taking and has been primarily studied in the context of risk-taking leisure such as action and adventure sport. Aid work encompasses a wide range of interventions, including development and emergency relief. Depending on assignment and region, people working in the aid industry find themselves in high- or low-risk situations. Based on biographical interviews with people working in aid, this article addresses motivations for getting involved in aid work and experiences of danger in Aidland. Contrasting individualized risks with security procedures of aid organizations, my article contributes to a better understanding of risk-taking behaviour in general and in the context of overseas aid in particular.

Professionalisation Trends and Inequality: experiences and practices in aid relationships

Abstract This article explores the role that skills and knowledge play in the relationships between national and international volunteers and staff. Based on biographical interviews with people working for a wide range of aid organisations, the experiences and strategies of individuals and organisations dealing with inequality and diversity are explored. In particular, the paper addresses the question of whether professionalisation processes that can currently be observed in the field of humanitarian aid might contribute to minimising or perpetuating the gap between national and international aid personnel. Professionalisation processes can have positive effects not only for aid recipients, who obtain better services, and for the careers of aid personnel, but also for donors and hiring aid organisations, which benefit from a skilled workforce. However, we need to critically reflect on what kind of knowledge is validated, where it can be obtained and whether credentials guarantee hiring and promotion of qualified staff from all regions.

Einleitung zu Transnationale Karrieren: Biographien, Lebensführung und Mobilität

Die gesellschaftlichen Dynamiken der Globalisierung fuhren zu zunehmender inter- und transnationaler Mobilitat. Anders als Migranten und Migrantinnen, die sich dauerhaft in einem Gastland ansiedeln und gegebenenfalls sogar dessen Staatsangehorigkeit annehmen, leben immer mehr Menschen als so genannte Transmigrantinnen2, die von einem Land zum nachsten wechseln oder zwischen ihrem Heimatland und fremden Landern hin- und herpendeln, ohne sich in einem Land auf unbeschrankte Dauer niederzulassen (A. M. Findlay 1995; L. Pries 1997, 2001). Fur diese Transmigrantinnen wird die Erfahrang der wechselnden und vorubergehenden Auslandsaufenthalte zu einem wesentlichen Teil ihres Lebens. Ausma\ und Intensitat transnationaler Praxen variieren jedoch, so unterscheidet P. Levitt die „haufig Reisenden“, die „periodisch Umziehenden“, sowie „diejenigen, die an einem Ort bleiben“ (2001: 198). Je haufiger sich der Wechsel von einem Auslandsaufenthalt zum nachsten wiederholt und so von einer einmaligen zu einer wiederkehrenden Erfahrang wird, desto mehr werden die Biographien und Lebensfuhrang dieser Menschen durch ihre transnationale Mobilitat gepragt.

Kollektive Identität und Organisationskulturen

In der amerikanischen Forschung wird unter dem NSB-Ansatz eher eine bestimmte Richtung der Untersuchung kollektiven Handelns, als die Analyse einer bestimmten Gruppe empirisch identifizierbarer sozialer Bewegungen verstanden (z.B. Buechler 1995). Oft wird diese Perspektive den ‚amerikanischen ‘Ressourcen-Mobilisierungs- und Politischen-Prozes-Ansatzen als ‚europaischer ‘Entwurf gegenubergestellt. Mittlerweile haben aber viele amerikanische Studien sozialer Bewegungen das explizite Ziel, diese beiden Forschungsansatze zu integrieren. Robnett (1996) beispielsweise verknupft ‚amerikanische ‘und ‚europaische ‘Ansatze in ihrer Analyse der Mobilisierung fur die Burgerrechtsbewegung und widerspricht der Behauptung, das die kollektive Identitat afro-amerikanischer Aktivisten unproblematisch gewesen sei. Selbst diejenigen, die am meisten mit den Ressourcen-Mobilisierungs- (RM) und Politischer Prozes- (PP) Ansatzen assoziiert werden, treten fur ein starker integrierendes Modell ein (McAdam et al. 1996).

Occupy as a free space - mobilization processes and outcomes

Although Occupy has received extensive media and scholarly attention, there has not yet been systematic research on its activists’ recruitment pathways and modes of participation. In this article, we focus on the mobilization success (Staggenborg 1995) of Occupy and adopt the concepts of ‘free space’ and ‘modes of association’ (Polletta 1999) to understand how individuals came to participate in Occupy. We consider biographical and structural availability and make distinctions between those more or less involved. By drawing on qualitative and quantitative data gathered in November and December 2011 in London we find that Occupy activists take a range of pathways into differential forms of involvement (more or less visible or time-consuming, offline and on-line). Some participants had previously been involved in social movement and ‘indigenous’ organisations, like the church. Yet at the same time Occupy attracted novices lacking prior engagement in indigenous or social movement organisations. But what Occupy activists shared was an interest in creating inclusive prefigurative structures where the ‘path was the destination’. In contrast to the mass medias scepticism of the success of Occupy, our focus on mobilization processes and outcomes shows Occupy to be successful in this regard.

Zum Verhältnis von Biographie- und Bewegungsforschung

Eine soziale Bewegung kann als ein „mobilisierende(r) kollektive(r) Akteur, der mit einer gewissen Kontinuitat auf der Grundlage hoher symbolischer Integration und geringer Rollenspezifikation mittels variabler Organisations- und Aktionsformen das Ziel verfolgt, grundlegenden sozialen Wandel herbeizufuhren, zu verhindern oder ruckgangig zu machen“ (Raschke 1991: 32) definiert werden. Die Entscheidung fur die Beteiligung an sozialen Bewegungen ist sowohl in biographischen Dispositionen der Akteure, als auch in spezifischen gesellschaftlichen Konstellationen begrundet. Soziale Bewegungen tragen zur Veranderung von Gesellschaften und deren Institutionen bei und beeinflussen damit auch die Lebensumstande und den Lebensverlauf von Menschen, nicht nur derjenigen, die in ihnen aktiv sind. Gerade auch um zu verstehen, warum sich Menschen in bestimmten Situationen Protestbewegungen anschliesen und diese ggf. unter anderen Umstanden wieder verlassen, ist eine biographische Ebene unumganglich. Fur die Untersuchung so fluider und phasenabhangiger Gegenstande wie soziale Bewegungen, die uber einen geringen Grad an Institutionalisierung verfugen, ist die Einbeziehung biographischer Methoden sehr sinnvoll, da gerade uber die Rekonstruktion biographischer Strukturen der Prozesscharakter sozialen Handelns erfasst werden kann (della Porta 1992).

Internet use, in- and exclusion in decision-making processes within political parties

This paper investigates the effect of internet-use on democratic decision-making processes within political parties. Through two case studies of the Green Party and the Pirate Party Germany, the influence of internet-use on these processes and their inclusiveness are shown. We argue that how the internet is used in democratic processes impacts on participation and inclusion. How internet technology interacts with decision making processes within parties depends on the existing party structure and culture. Thus, in order to achieve meaningful and inclusive participation, the institutional framework and the influence it has must be considered in process and tool design. Whereas the affordances of specific online tools have been evaluated, the institutional context in which they are embedded have so far been widely ignored. We offer a structure for analysis of these foundations.

Sociology in the 1980s: The Rise of Gender (and Intersectionality)

The social, economic and political context of the 1980s in Britain shaped the contributions to the journal, and the early part of the decade was marked by emphasis on the interrelations between class and gender. The introduction of this e-special discusses the increasing importance of gender in sociological analysis in the 1980s. This development is related to a shift from production to consumption and a growing interest in life-style leading to the debates around ‘the end of class’, the ‘cultural turn’ and ‘identity politics’. We assess the influence of articles published in the 1980s and how sociology – both the discipline and the journal – have changed since these articles have been published. The selected articles provide a historical perspective and are – as we argue – still highly relevant for the current state of the discipline and sociological debate. They illustrate the evolution of British sociology, from an emphasis on class analysis in the 1970s towards the growing prominence of intersectionality and subjectivity in the 1990s and beyond. Feminist theory and research in the 1980s within and beyond Sociology indicate the importance and utility of intersectionality, even if the terminology has shifted, and the decade resulted in considerable advances in terms of the prominence, legitimacy and sophistication of gender analysis

GENDER, CLASS, AND THE INTERACTION BETWEEN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

From the perspective of gender theory, the intersections among gender, class, and race make it difficult, if not impossible, to assign political issues and identities to just one social movement. Instead, the negotiation of movement ownership of issues and identities occurs through interaction among social movements, including interactions that create denial and distance. This article takes the interaction of labor organizing and feminism as the lens for studying movement interaction at three levels: opportunity structure, organizing practices, and framing ideas. Using a case study of a strike of day care workers in West Berlin in the winter of 1989-90, it contrasts inclusive and exclusive forms of solidarity and their consequences for organizational practices. This particular strike received little support from either feminists or the labor movement and eventually failed, an outcome that can be seen as reflecting the weakness of structural and organizational supports for frames favoring inclusive solidarity.

Bildung und soziale Bewegungen – eine konzeptionelle Einführung

Abstract Der Zusammenhang von Bildung und sozialen Bewegungen wird bislang von der Erziehungswissenschaft wie auch in der Bewegungsforschung weitgehend ignoriert. Wir argumentieren in diesem Beitrag, dass eine stärkere Verschränkung dieser Forschungsperspektiven für beide Seiten fruchtbar wäre. Wir identifizieren individuelle und kollektive, formelle und informelle, intendierte und nichtintendierte Bildungs- und Lernprozesse, die in sozialen Bewegungen und Bewegungsorganisationen stattfinden. Diese Bildungsprozesse analysieren wir in Bezug auf vier Aspekte: 1) Bildung als Gegenstand sozialer Bewegungen, 2) Individuelle Bildung in und durch soziale Bewegungen, 3) Kollektive Bildungsprozesse, 4) Soziale Bewegungsorganisationen als lernende Organisationen.