Götz, Nobert; Brewis, Georgina; Wether, Steffen; (2025) Humanitarian Action: A Moral Economic Periodization of Famine Relief. In: de Zwarte, Ingrid, (ed.) The Politics of Famine in European History and Memory. (pp. 108-125). Routledge: Abingdon, UK.

Preview

Text (Chapter 6 [Part 2: The International Politics of Famine and Relief]) Brewis_Humanitarian Action- A Moral Economic Periodization of Famine Relief_chapter_VoR.pdf Download (859kB) | Preview

Abstract

The history of humanitarian efforts in times of famine and other emergencies has become a vibrant field of academic study, but there have been few attempts to delineate chronological patterns. This chapter seeks to contribute to a discussion by emphasizing societal factors (including culture, media structures, and economics) to a greater extent than research has hitherto. It illustrates its argument with three cases of famine relief in different periods, geographical locations, and political circumstances: the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s, the famine in Soviet Russia in 1921–1923, and the famine in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s. Through these examples, this research takes a fresh look at humanitarian appeals, the allocation of relief, and aid accounts through the concept of moral economy. This chapter identifies three distinct phases of humanitarian action, which are termed ad-hoc humanitarianism, organized humanitarianism, and expressive humanitarianism.

Download activity - last month

Export as CSVJSONXML

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as JSONXMLCSV

Archive Staff Only

View Item