Carpi, Estella; (2025) The Pragmatics of Alienation: Revisiting Humanitarianism in Lebanon. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 10.1080/14649373.2025.2549648. (In press).

Preview

Text CARPI Pragmatics of Alienation 2025.pdf - Published Version Download (671kB) | Preview

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on my 15-year-long ethnographic research across Lebanon on the lifestyle, practices and ethos of humanitarian professionals. I show how their experience and discourse (the everyday pragmatics of humanitarian work) point to a process of alienation. Approaching alienation as semantically polyhedral and multifaceted and as a key factor determining the interplay between collective and individual identity, I discuss its historical-material dimension, implying both the disconnection of the humanitarian workers from the failures and discontents of humanitarian action, and what I term “organizational amnesia.” Later, I examine alienation as a form of psychological resilience to survive and thrive in the humanitarian sector, where recruitment politics tend to value the accumulation of technical know-how across multiple geographies, and securitized forms of temporary life do not allow for learning local languages and cultures. Finally, I show how not only internationals develop alienation in the contexts in which they operate (as generally seeing crises from a cosmopolitan distance), but so do locals, who often need to abide by foreign agendas while being alienated from their everyday work. Showing how alienation becomes organizational and not merely individual, my analysis ultimately suggests their increasing alienation not only from their own local cultural, linguistic, and epistemic capital, but also from their professional environment.

Download activity - last month

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as JSONXMLCSV

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Archive Staff Only

View Item