Digitalization of Humanitarian Action: Perspectives on the Information Communication Technologies’ Adaptation to the Humanitarian Action
(2022) SIMZ31 20221Graduate School
- Abstract
- New digital technologies may offer a wide range of opportunities for humanitarian action. Digital technologies also irrevocably changed how we problematize, assess, understand, and design humanitarian responses to crises. Within this digital transformation, new technologies increasingly occupy a central role in the humanitarian response and have been changing even the meaning of humanitarian interventions. More scholarly engagement is necessary to understand this digital transformation of humanitarian action. This paper focuses on one aspect of this digital transformation by focusing on the adaptation of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to humanitarian work. This study seeks to understand how humanitarian workers view... (More)
- New digital technologies may offer a wide range of opportunities for humanitarian action. Digital technologies also irrevocably changed how we problematize, assess, understand, and design humanitarian responses to crises. Within this digital transformation, new technologies increasingly occupy a central role in the humanitarian response and have been changing even the meaning of humanitarian interventions. More scholarly engagement is necessary to understand this digital transformation of humanitarian action. This paper focuses on one aspect of this digital transformation by focusing on the adaptation of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to humanitarian work. This study seeks to understand how humanitarian workers view the adaptation of information and communication technologies to humanitarian action. For this aim, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with ten individuals who have been working as humanitarian workers and utilizing ICT tools in their operations. Analysis of the responses demonstrates that ICT tools adaptation to humanitarian work instilled remoteness to humanitarian action and also had effects on communication and data collection practices of the humanitarian organizations. While the humanitarian workers withdraw from the humanitarian space, digital technologies also created a new dimension for humanitarian action as a digital space. This new settlement also altered the relationship between the humanitarian organizations and affected communities, as people of concern are increasingly seen as data sources in this digital settlement. This research does not offer generalized conclusions considering the sample size. The main aim is to offer insight into the perspectives and experiences of the ten participants of this research. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- Humanitarian crises continue to grow in scale and complexity. As a result, the humanitarian needs also have been growing at an ever-increasing rate. As the humanitarian crises have become increasingly more complex and larger in scale, the humanitarian response is also trying to adapt to this “new normal” (UN OCHA, 2014, p.6) through different means. The utilization of digital technologies for humanitarian purposes especially started to become predominant in the last decade. Digital technologies are increasingly used to design, deliver and evaluate humanitarian actions responding to crises. I argue that the adaptation and appropriation of technology in humanitarian operations play a part in structural transformations in humanitarian space.... (More)
- Humanitarian crises continue to grow in scale and complexity. As a result, the humanitarian needs also have been growing at an ever-increasing rate. As the humanitarian crises have become increasingly more complex and larger in scale, the humanitarian response is also trying to adapt to this “new normal” (UN OCHA, 2014, p.6) through different means. The utilization of digital technologies for humanitarian purposes especially started to become predominant in the last decade. Digital technologies are increasingly used to design, deliver and evaluate humanitarian actions responding to crises. I argue that the adaptation and appropriation of technology in humanitarian operations play a part in structural transformations in humanitarian space. Focusing on the adaptation of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) to humanitarian action, this thesis seeks to understand how the humanitarian workers view the adaptation of information and communication technologies to humanitarian action. For this aim, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with ten individuals who have been working as humanitarian workers and utilizing ICT tools in their operations.
As the theoretical framework, this thesis focuses on a newly emerging concept, technocolonialism. Mirca Madianou developed the concept to “analyze the convergence of digital developments with humanitarian structures and market forces reinvigorate and rework colonial legacies” (Madianou, 2019,p.2). Analysis of the responses demonstrates that ICT tools adaptation to humanitarian work instilled remoteness to humanitarian action and also had effects on communication and data collection practices of the humanitarian organizations. While the humanitarian workers withdraw from the humanitarian space, digital technologies also created a new dimension for humanitarian action as a digital space. This new settlement also altered the relationship between the humanitarian organizations and affected communities, as people of concern are increasingly seen as data sources in this digital settlement. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9096200
- author
- Yildirim, Didem LU
- supervisor
-
- Bo Isenberg LU
- organization
- course
- SIMZ31 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- digitalization, information communication technologies, humanitarian action, humanitarian space, technocolonialism
- language
- English
- id
- 9096200
- date added to LUP
- 2022-08-16 15:20:44
- date last changed
- 2022-08-16 15:20:44
@misc{9096200,
abstract = {{New digital technologies may offer a wide range of opportunities for humanitarian action. Digital technologies also irrevocably changed how we problematize, assess, understand, and design humanitarian responses to crises. Within this digital transformation, new technologies increasingly occupy a central role in the humanitarian response and have been changing even the meaning of humanitarian interventions. More scholarly engagement is necessary to understand this digital transformation of humanitarian action. This paper focuses on one aspect of this digital transformation by focusing on the adaptation of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to humanitarian work. This study seeks to understand how humanitarian workers view the adaptation of information and communication technologies to humanitarian action. For this aim, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with ten individuals who have been working as humanitarian workers and utilizing ICT tools in their operations. Analysis of the responses demonstrates that ICT tools adaptation to humanitarian work instilled remoteness to humanitarian action and also had effects on communication and data collection practices of the humanitarian organizations. While the humanitarian workers withdraw from the humanitarian space, digital technologies also created a new dimension for humanitarian action as a digital space. This new settlement also altered the relationship between the humanitarian organizations and affected communities, as people of concern are increasingly seen as data sources in this digital settlement. This research does not offer generalized conclusions considering the sample size. The main aim is to offer insight into the perspectives and experiences of the ten participants of this research.}},
author = {{Yildirim, Didem}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Digitalization of Humanitarian Action: Perspectives on the Information Communication Technologies’ Adaptation to the Humanitarian Action}},
year = {{2022}},
}