The Politics of Aid to Burma: A Humanitarian Struggle on the Thai-Burmese Border

ISBN-13: 9781138320154 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 274 str.

Anne Decobert

Opis

Through an ethnographic study of a cross-border aid organisation working on the Thailand-Burma border, this book focuses on the political and ethical dilemmas of "humanitarian government". It examines the ways in which aid systems come to be defined as legitimate or illegitimate, humanitarian or "un-humanitarian", in an international context that has witnessed the multiplication of often-conflicting humanitarian systems and models. Exploring the history of humanitarianism from the local aid perspective of Burma, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Southeast Asian Studies, Anthropology of Humanitarian Aid and Development Studies.

Spis treści

Introduction: An Ethnography of the Back Pack Health Worker Team’s "Cross-Border Aid" 1. Humanitarianism, Victims and Politics: conceptual debates and approaches 2. From Burma to the Border: historical and political background to the debate around cross-border aid 3. The Back Pack Health Worker Team, Product of Burma’s "Chronic Emergency" 4. Doing our Duty: Back Pack medics and the multi-ethnic victim 5. Back Pack is Something, Back Pack is Nothing 6. International Legitimacy for a "Humanitarian Struggle" 7. Beyond Burma: finding a place in a future Myanmar Conclusion: The Politics of Humanitarian Aid—politics of life and politics of value

O autorze

Anne Decobert is an anthropologist and development professional who has worked with local and international organisations in Southeast Asia since 2007. Her research interests include: the politics of humanitarian aid, applied anthropology and participatory development, and public health in developing and emergency contexts.