"Since the early 2010s, humanitarian donors have increasingly contracted private firms to monitor and evaluate humanitarian activities, accompanied by a promise of improving accountability through their data and data analytics. This article contributes to scholarship on data practices in the humanit
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arian sector by interrogating the implications of this new set of actors on humanitarian accountability relations. Drawing on insights from 60 interviews with humanitarian donors, implementing agencies, third-party monitors and data enumerators in Somalia, this article interrogates data narratives and data practices around thirdparty monitoring. We find that, while humanitarian donors are highly aware of challenges to accountability within the sector, there is a less critical view of data challenges and limitations by these external firms. This fuels donor optimism about third-party monitoring data, while obscuring the ways that third-partymonitoring data practices are complicating accountability relations in practice. Resultant data practices, which are aimed at separating data from the people involved, reproduce power asymmetries around the well-being and expertise of the Global North versus Global South. This challenges accountability to donors and to crisis-affected communities, by providing a partial view of reality that is, at the same time, assumed to be reflective of crisis- affected communities’ experiences. This article contributes to critical data studies by showing howmonitoring data practices intended to improve accountability relations are imbued with, and reproduce, power asymmetries that silence local actors." (Abstract)
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"Narratives and frames have greater influence on policy change than facts and figures. They have a critical role to play in leveraging political will for transforming the humanitarian system. Humanitarian organisations have greater power to shape narratives than they are willing to admit. The consta
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nt need to raise funds has given rise to a master frame of exceptionalism. Dominant narratives represent crises as exceptional events that require humanitarian aid as a self-contained solution. The label ‘humanitarian’ is used both to forge a collective identity and to exclude other actors. This frame has Western roots and is increasingly contested by donors, affected governments, national and local aid groups, and international activists who are excluded from it. It helps fuel narratives used to delay transformations towards a more people-centred and locally led model, in particular assertions that the system needs money more than reform." (Key messages)
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"This paper brings together the key findings of research into digital humanitarian action and inclusion, asking what the impact of new digital approaches has been on how inclusion is understood and operationalised in humanitarian action. The Humanitarian Policy Group undertook three thematic case st
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udies considering different technology areas: biometrics, geospatial mapping and social media. A total of 256 interviews were conducted with stakeholders and key informants, along with strategic engagement with the humanitarian and digital sectors. All the case studies drew on both global key informant interviews and country-level perspectives, including from the Rohingya response in camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and interviews with refugees and aid responders in Jordan, Venezuela and Uganda." (Publisher description)
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"The courageous acts of whistleblowing that inspired the world over the past few years have changed our perception of surveillance and control in today's information society. But what are the wider effects of whistleblowing as an act of dissent on politics, society, and the arts? How does it contrib
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ute to new courses of action, digital tools, and contents? This urgent intervention based on the work of Berlin's Disruption Network Lab examines this growing phenomenon, offering interdisciplinary pathways to empower the public by investigating whistleblowing as a developing political practice that has the ability to provoke change from within." (Publisher description)
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"Technology has driven major change in some areas of humanitarian response, but its use can also be biased and blind to risks. A tendency towards techno-optimism risks avoiding fundamental questions around the limits of technology, the role of the private sector (including local and regional technol
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ogy entrepreneurs) and identifying when technology is and is not useful. Technology is not inclusive by nature. The humanitarian digital divide exists and there is growing awareness of this, but the humanitarian system is currently focused mainly on digital risks, meaning insufficient attention is placed on questions of how to root digital tools in a more inclusive framework. We need to go beyond token moves to more inclusive digital approaches and really delve into what is required for genuine change." (Conclusions, page 23)
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"This volume breaks down disciplinary walls in numerous ways. First, it combines information about the intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and societal levels of communication into a single resource. At the intrapersonal level, new issues are raised about communication between individuals and deity
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: Why is religious experience difficult to explain in rational terms? Why is silence more sacred than spoken prayer in some religious communities? What is the nature of “thought communication” in religious meditation? Why is the use of profanity justified in some religious circles? How does idolatry reinforce religious customs and values? Why was chanting one of the first forms of religious communication?
Religious information is also exchanged between individuals at the level of interpersonal communication. This volume identifies rituals that have not been adequately analyzed in terms of communication aspects: Why do some sects require public confession? Why is body decoration an acceptable form of worship in some religious groups, but not in others? How does dance communicate the sacred through metaphoric movement? What are the multiple forms of communication with the dead? Why are feasts a form of religious worship in all major religions? How does the study of organizational communication apply to religion?
This volume also aids study of mediated communication to larger groups both inside and outside religious denominations. Throughout history, technology has simultaneously aided and impeded communication processes; this also applies to religious culture: How did religion change during the historical transition from orality to literacy? How did printing contribute to the diffusion of religious values in the world? Why have religious novels grown in popularity? Is television considered a religious medium? How has the Internet affected religious congregations and communities? What is religious media literacy?
These are only a few of the questions addressed by this encyclopedia. Articles also deal with (1) concepts such as information, communication, and censorship, (2) denominations which exhibit different communication practices, and (3) the various media used in religious worship. Entries were contributed by scholars from various disciplines, including religious studies, communication, anthropology, sociology, ancient studies, religion and modern culture, theology, and many others." (Introduction, page xiii-xiv)
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