This academic seminar aims at fostering a critical research agenda for humanitarian studies by organizing a set of multi-disciplinary panels. The academic seminar is part of the Critical Humanitarian Technology Conference. The conference is in collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies, as part of the Critical Humanitarian Technology Project.
The humanitarian enterprise is characterized by considerable optimism regarding the possibility of improving humanitarian action through technology. The uses of cell phones, social media platforms, geo-spatial technologies and various forms of crowd-sourcing have fundamentally altered how humanitarian crises are detected, analyzed and addressed.
While the “new humanitarianism” of the period 1995-2005 was about human rights based approaches, the contemporary “new humanitarianism” is about technological innovation. Yet, despite the great potential and many positive effects of technological innovation, it can also compromise humanitarian action and humanitarian decision-making, and obscure issues of accountability and legality. It is frequently argued that technology can have a transformative effect for victims of disaster, but is aid becoming more effective, are power relations getting more equal?
To sign up for the conference, please follow the registration link in the section above. Please note that there is only room for a limited number of attendees.
To sign up for the practitioners event on day 2 of the conference, please visit the link below:
Critical Approaches to Humanitarian Technology: Practicing Inside the Humanitarian Cyber Space
