The Digital Humanitarian Moment: New Practices, Knowledge Politics, and Philanthro-capitalism
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Digital humanitarianism alters how data is collected and represented in humanitarian responses. It emerges at the intersection of new mapping technologies, practices, and philanthropy-capitalism. Specifically: 1. Social media allows needs to be crowdsourced, but these needs must be "tamed" and filtered for operational use. 2. Needs are represented to construct "needy subjects" through place-based and temporal framings to justify interventions. 3. It enables further private sector involvement through philanthropy-capitalism, which depoliticizes humanitarianism and naturalizes tradeoffs. Digital humanitarianism is shaping the humanitarian sector and broader political and economic relationships through knowledge politics around data collection and
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The Digital Humanitarian Moment: New Practices, Knowledge Politics, and Philanthro-capitalism
- 1. THE DIGITAL HUMANITARIAN MOMENT: NEW PRACTICES, KNOWLEDGE POLITICS, AND PHILANTHRO-CAPITALISM Ryan Burns, doctoral candidate Department of Geography University of Washington @burnsr77 http://burnsr77.github.io
- 2. VIGNETTE #1: HAITI EARTHQUAKE, 2010
- 5. Today
- 7. USHAHIDI [PT 2] 300 reports
- 8. VIGNETTE #2: HOT DATA MODEL “…visible on the ground…” “…average person…” “…my experience with communities… local people know very well where the main hazard zones are located… every year… ‘My father told me…” …”would you see any relevance to develop classes for natural (and man-made?) hazards to be included in HOSM framework?” “top-down information … place-based knowledge systems … counter intuitive to initiatives to 'democratize' data?” “…we should aim at a fork-project…” http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenHazardMap
- 9. How are these technologies influencing aid allocation and distribution? What kinds of organizations are using these technologies, data, and practices? How are they being used? Whose knowledges are left out in this reconfiguration of knowledge encoding? What kinds of relationships are implied between those helping and those being helped?
- 10. Wilson, Gahan. 2014. NewYorker. January 27th.
- 11. critical GIS institutional relationships around data socio-political implications knowledge politics
- 13. urban geography the right to the (digital) city code/space urban redevelopment
- 14. political geography governance (citizen participation, etc) geographies of activism critical humanitarian studies
- 15. critical GIS institutional relationships around data socio-political implications knowledge politics political geography governance (citizen participation, etc) geographies of activism political economy neoliberalism philanthropy & capitalism critical humanitarian studies “contribution” economies urban geography the right to the (digital) city code/space urban redevelopment BROADER IMPLICATIONS
- 16. RESEARCH QUESTIONS What kinds of digital spatial data are relief and redevelopment actors using, and from what sources are they gathering these data? How are needs collected and represented in digital humanitarian contexts, and what are the implications of this shift? What does “crisis mapping” mean and entail for responders, and how does this impact their operations, how they leverage the technology in response strategies? How do geoweb modes of mapping influence the assessment of where resources are needed, the allocation of resources, and the decision-making processes that lead to such resource allocations? How are problems, places, and people represented in the emerging digital spatial data, and what inclusions or exclusions are implied in these representations?
- 17. EXTENDED CASE METHOD “…applies reflexive science to ethnography in order to extract the general from the unique, to move from the ‘micro’ to the ‘macro,’ and to connect the present to the past in anticipation of the future, all by building on preexisting theory.” (Burawoy 1998, 5) Max Gluckman
- 18. 37 in-depth semi-structured interviews 100s archived data artifacts: reports, maps, websites, blog posts, (public) listserve discussions 7 months of participant observation (including some preliminary work) EXTENDED CASE METHOD 1 year research project
- 19. THE ARGUMENT Digital humanitarianism emerges at the nexus of new spatial technologies, practices, and philanthro-capitalism.
- 20. one: alters how data are collected THE ARGUMENT Digital humanitarianism emerges at the nexus of new spatial technologies, practices, and philanthro-capitalism. social media = needs which occupy both “public” and “private” discursive spaces needs must be “tamed”
- 21. one: alters how data are collected THE ARGUMENT Digital humanitarianism emerges at the nexus of new spatial technologies, practices, and philanthro-capitalism. social media = needs which occupy both “public” and “private” discursive spaces needs must be “tamed” two: alters how data are represented needs are represented in order to construct the “needy subject” they are interpolated through place imaginaries and temporal segments of the response the needy subjects help justify digital humanitarianism at large at in particular interventions
- 22. one: alters how data are collected THE ARGUMENT Digital humanitarianism emerges at the nexus of new spatial technologies, practices, and philanthro-capitalism. social media = needs which occupy both “public” and “private” discursive spaces needs must be “tamed” two: alters how data are represented needs are represented in order to construct the “needy subject” they are interpolated through place imaginaries and temporal segments of the response the needy subjects help justify digital humanitarianism at large at in particular interventions represents the further incursion of the private sector into humanitarianism this has taken the form of “philanthro-capitalism” the formal humanitarian sector is turning to digital humanitarianism as its important “innovation” three: represents philanthro-capitalism
- 23. one: alters how data are collected THE ARGUMENT Digital humanitarianism emerges at the nexus of new spatial technologies, practices, and philanthro-capitalism. social media = needs which occupy both “public” and “private” discursive spaces needs must be “tamed” two: alters how data are represented needs are represented in order to construct the “needy subject” they are interpolated through place imaginaries and temporal segments of the response the needy subjects help justify digital humanitarianism at large at in particular interventions represents the further incursion of the private sector into humanitarianism this has taken the form of “philanthro-capitalism” the formal humanitarian sector is turning to digital humanitarianism as its important “innovation” three: represents philanthro-capitalism
- 24. PUBLIC OR PRIVATE? SOCIAL MEDIA AND NEEDS DISCOURSES Jordan: [W]here we're a little not sure where this fits in, in the crowdsourcing sense, [is in] being able to take information from the public and use it for operational decisions - that's different. How do you feel about things? What are you concerned about? The issues we need to address when we talk to the public, that's one thing. But for them to provide us, in a crowdsourcing way, with operational information is the area I'm still struggling with. … But the perception of the danger - the operational issue of where is the fire - I don't think we're at a point where we can ask the public to pin on a map where they think the fire is, because we're going to get a lot of noise in there. public/legitimate formal intervention private/individual private = “noise”? social media occupies both “public” and “private” discursive spaces
- 25. TAMING NEEDS LaurieVan Leuven: “…we in emergency management need to filter those out and listen specifically to actionable pieces of content. So, we’ve got some work to do in how we can build a system to receive that information.” Source: http://youtu.be/vAUt7h4kk0A “[T]hese communities need to get their priorities of what they're working on from enlightened emergency management communities. … I think [emergency managers need to] bring the technology volunteer community into our process. … [T]here should be more integrated planning of using these technology volunteer groups.” -Thomas, personal interview “some … misclassification was deliberate in an attempt to move critical reports into what were perceived to be more closely monitored categories in order to improve the chance that the reports would trigger a response” (Morrow et al., 2011, pp. 24–25)
- 26. one: alters how data are collected THE ARGUMENT Digital humanitarianism emerges at the nexus of new spatial technologies, practices, and philanthro-capitalism. social media = needs which occupy both “public” and “private” discursive spaces needs must be “tamed” two: alters how data are represented needs are represented in order to construct the “needy subject” they are interpolated through place-based imaginaries the needy subjects help justify digital humanitarianism at large and in particular interventions three: represents philanthro-capitalism represents the further incursion of the private sector into humanitarianism this has taken the form of “philanthro-capitalism” the formal humanitarian sector is turning to digital humanitarianism as its important “innovation”
- 27. CONSTRUCTING DIGITAL HUMANITARIANISM’S NEEDY SUBJECTS 1. “Victims” of crises 2. Formal humanitarian sector “…thanks to this map – using this map – every hour of every day [responders] were able to save hundreds of lives” (TEDxTalks 2011). “Ushahidi kept Kenyans current on vital information and provided invaluable assistance to those providing relief” (Ushahidi 2009). “Haiti showed everyone that it is going to be crucial to adopt and use these technologies to make humanitarian work better, faster and more efficient” (Adele Waugaman, quoted in Lohr 2011). interpolated through place- based and temporal imaginaries “That's part of why the preparedness work is to help build communities in places where there isn't one. … if there's a really strong local community then there's not much for the international or OpenStreetMap community to do, which is great.” (Alex, personal interview)
- 28. LEGITIMATION BOTH WRIT LARGE AND AD HOC 1. Individual activations 2. As a whole “On December 12th, 2011, … WHO Mediterranean Center… (WMC) based in Tunisia contacted the SBTF, OSM and GISCorps to request support on a project related to the public health system in Libya. The purpose of the project was to get a final Health Facility Registry GIS layer for Libya. … This was to be the starting point for providing a crucial service to the local community since the public health infrastructure was starting to get back “online” as it’s [sic] capacity was starting to increase again, which would benefit the entire community and citizens” (standbytaskforce 2012). • TED talks • ICCM • Popular press • Hackathons
- 29. one: alters how data are collected THE ARGUMENT Digital humanitarianism emerges at the nexus of new spatial technologies, practices, and philanthro-capitalism. social media = needs which occupy both “public” and “private” discursive spaces needs must be “tamed” two: alters how data are represented needs are represented in order to construct the “needy subject” they are interpolated through place-based imaginaries the needy subjects help justify digital humanitarianism at large and in particular interventions three: represents philanthro-capitalism represents the further incursion of the private sector into humanitarianism this has taken the form of “philanthro-capitalism” the formal humanitarian sector is turning to digital humanitarianism as its important “innovation”
- 30. INNOVATION AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR 1. Drive for efficiency and fewer resources 2. Enter: private sector “Robert Kirkpatrick, who’s now at the U.N. Global Pulse program, used to be at Microsoft. And he used to argue that -- in these discussions, please let the private sector take care of this. We will address this problem for you, we will take the research, we will commercialize it, and we’ll sell it back to you for cheap. Everybody will be happy” (Eric Rasmussen, in WoodrowWilsonCenter 2012). “There wasn't time and resources to work on [digital humanitarian] kind of things. … But I'm allowed to bring in interns. … Now, as soon as I bring in interns I can task them on what I want. … So I tasked them on doing [digital humanitarian] and other things. … Then I have to manage them. So I'm allowed to dedicate time to manage interns” (David, personal interview).
- 31. Comic relief
- 32. PHILANTHRO-CAPITALISM AND NEOLIBERALISM 1. Private-sector rationalities and languages 2. Accumulating capital through philanthropy • Depoliticizes humanitarianism and avoids critique through its appeal to ‘the good’ • Obscures and naturalizes certain tradeoffs/consequences “Well, part of it is just pure manpower. … So say we're working with OCHA in Geneva… when Geneva is asleep and everybody else is still working away, by the time that they wake up they see that a massive amount of work has been done overnight. And it gives them [a] sort of 24/7 workforce … So I think that's not something that a lot of organizations would typically have: … a breadth of really strong technical people that can work across time zones…” (Jasmine, personal interview)
- 33. SIGNIFICANCE AND CONTRIBUTIONS Critical GIS : knowledge politics enacted prior to the visual artifact (map) Political economy : private sector incursions through philanthro-capitalism Urban geography : cities are redeveloped with exclusionary mechanisms Political geography : scaled-up form of humanitarianism that invokes responsibilization of, well, everyone
- 34. CONCLUSION Digital humanitarianism emerges at the nexus of new spatial technologies, practices, and philanthro-capitalism. This has implications for how needs are collected and represented in humanitarian contexts, representing further advance of the private sector into humanitarianism. Digital humanitarianism is shaping humanitarianism, and consequently political and urban geographies, and broader political-economic relations.
- 35. Thank you for your time, attention, and feedback!
Notas del editor
- We could listen to those involved in the development and marketing of these new technologies, who are calling the technologies “revolutionary”, “democratizing”, “promoting ‘the good’”, and increasingly “efficient”. But if we accept these discourses at face value, it feels a bit like…
- what is not known in this area
- governance:
- governance:
- governance:
- governance:
- Max Gluckman, anthropologist at Manchester. Burawoy’s (1998) extended case method is a framework used to generate theoretical propositions from ethnographic evidence, or qualitative case studies more broadly. This approach is based on a theory-driven inductive analysis of evidence, in my case focused on how social relations and structures operate in a given context, and how they respond to observation by researchers. In the extended case method, the researcher continually tacks between theory and empirical observations during the course of fieldwork in order to detect anomalies and “reconstruct” theory recursively. In other words, the extended case method is a framework encompassing observation, analysis, and theory-building or theory-reconstruction.
- My particular case was headquartered, so to speak, at a major policy research institute that has been a crucial actant in the development of the field of digital humanitarianism. While there, I attended important meetings, events, panels, hackathons, and workshops, all oriented around furthering digital humanitarianism and streamlining its integration into the formal humanitarian and emergency management spheres. I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with leaders in the field of digital humanitarianism, but more importantly, I was able to speak to key actors working in the formal sector. Upper-level management of agencies like UN OCHA and FEMA attended meetings where I was able to connect with them through my connections as a digital humanitarian myself and by my work with the research institution. And that really is why this particular case was the most appropriate case for the questions in which I was interested. It allowed me to connect with the decision-makers and the people responsible for managing humanitarian and emergency crises.
- My particular case was headquartered, so to speak, at a major policy research institute that has been a crucial actant in the development of the field of digital humanitarianism. I was fortunate enough to be able to speak with leaders in the field of digital humanitarianism, but more importantly, I was able to speak to key actors working in the formal sector.
- needs are represented in order to construct the “needy subject” of digital humanitarian interventions these are produced partly by interpolating through place imaginaries and temporal segments of the response in the context of increased pressure to perform more “efficiently,” the formal humanitarian sector is increasingly turning to digital humanitarianism to navigate these pressures. Increased private-sector involvement in digital humanitarianism has meant that the formal humanitarian sector is adopting the rationalities, languages, and profit-imperatives of the private sector.
- needs are represented in order to construct the “needy subject” of digital humanitarian interventions these are produced partly by interpolating through place imaginaries and temporal segments of the response in the context of increased pressure to perform more “efficiently,” the formal humanitarian sector is increasingly turning to digital humanitarianism to navigate these pressures. Increased private-sector involvement in digital humanitarianism has meant that the formal humanitarian sector is adopting the rationalities, languages, and profit-imperatives of the private sector.
- needs are represented in order to construct the “needy subject” of digital humanitarian interventions these are produced partly by interpolating through place imaginaries and temporal segments of the response in the context of increased pressure to perform more “efficiently,” the formal humanitarian sector is increasingly turning to digital humanitarianism to navigate these pressures. Increased private-sector involvement in digital humanitarianism has meant that the formal humanitarian sector is adopting the rationalities, languages, and profit-imperatives of the private sector.
- The public sector is struggling with how to address or incorporate what seem to be “private” needs – emotions, concerns, interpersonal networks, empathy. These are all things humanitarian workers encounter on the very public – the very visible – forum of social media. While digital humanitarianism relies on the multitudinous – indeed, the deluge – of personal expressions of need, humanitarian managers have difficulty bringing these expressions into the spaces necessary to justify the needs as legitimate for formal-sector intervention. Thus, social media occupies both “public” and “private” discursive spaces, and as such, the formal humanitarian sector is struggling with how to incorporate these expressions of need. This leads, inevitably, to a paradox at the very heart of digital humanitarianism.
- The paradox at the heart of digital humanitarianism is that, while digital humanitarianism relies on the deluge of laypeople’s knowledges and needs, digital humanitarians must condense, abstract, and categorize the needs in order to make them usable by the formal humanitarian sector. As needs are collected, they must be filtered and categorized, they must adhere to data models and the formal-sector’s workflows. This is where we start to make sense of vignette #2 that I opened with –digital humanitarianism introduces a new dimension of knowledge politics to geoweb research. In this case, here, data models, workflows, legitimacy, they all work to tame knowledges and needs, so that they can be usable by the formal sector. But I want to underscore that this is a new form of knowledge politics taking place through digital technologies.
- needs are represented in order to construct the “needy subject” of digital humanitarian interventions these are produced partly by interpolating through place imaginaries and temporal segments of the response in the context of increased pressure to perform more “efficiently,” the formal humanitarian sector is increasingly turning to digital humanitarianism to navigate these pressures. Increased private-sector involvement in digital humanitarianism has meant that the formal humanitarian sector is adopting the rationalities, languages, and profit-imperatives of the private sector.
- These constructions take place, practically speaking, in listserves, after-action reports, the popular press, white papers, and in in-operation communication spaces like Skype. Further, these people, by virtue of their location, are already positioned as future-victims, and in need of digital humanitarians’ assistance right now. Interestingly in the last quote – as an aside – is a process I saw reflected pretty broadly across the digital humanitarian landscape, and that was the connection of the place – Haiti, in this case – with a disaster – an earthquake, particularly when the place is in the global South.
- Appeals and solicitations take place in digital spaces like listserves and social media, in an effort to construct the subject in need of an individual’s contribution vis-à-vis digital humanitarian technologies. These appeals construct the particular individuals in need at the given moment, normally couched in urgent and altruistic language. But how do digital humanitarians justify their activities when there’s no immediate need? If in humanitarian contexts they are able to easily construct the victim as being on the ground and in desperate and immediate need, what about when these discourses are impossible to invoke? Always invoking the inevitable future context in which they will be activated and the technologies they develop will be needed. One interviewee told me that despite the fact that, according to him, there’s quote: “no evidence digital humanitarian technologies are doing anything,” end-quote, digital humanitarians develop technologies in the background during non-crisis contexts.