Localizing Global Solidarity: Humanitarian Aid in Lesvos

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Professorkvalifiseringens affektive økonomi. Styring, følelser og motstand

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Reflections on Gender and Diversity in Cross-Cultural On-line Teaching

This paper is based on the experiences of teaching gender and diversity applying a team based approach. The course ‘gender, culture and everyday life’ is taught as part of an online MA programme on Development Management to a group of international students from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The underlying thinking in the course is that the cultural diversity of the students in terms of nationalities and their different every-day life experiences providea good point of entry for discussing different understandings of gender roles and gender relations across cultures and social groups. In the course we try through the use of experience notes to encourage awareness of embodied and situated knowledge and to stimulate discussions that may move beyond general perceptions of gender relations in the field of development. We arguethat students seem to struggle with transferring such experience-based knowledge into overall discussions and thus also struggle with escaping the confines of dominant narratives. Through examples from the course, we reflect on the use of experience notes in teaching gender, the strengths and weaknesses of a team based approach to teaching gender and diversity, as well as on our own positioning as lecturers in the field of gender and development

Civil Society in Tanzania

There has been a tremendous growth in non-governmental organisations in Tanzania over the last decades, and with the many reforms presently taking place, the civil society is expected to play a central role in both service delivery and the development of democracy. This report provides an overview of the complex civic sector in Tanzania and the dynamics within it. The study focuses on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a special emphasis on advocacy organisations and organisations active in social service delivery (district development trusts and religious organisations). While the former are donor depended, the latter are able to mobilise local resources. Both NGO and CBO activities are concentrated in the areas that were privileged already in the colonial times. As the local government reform may increase regional and religious differences, donors are adviced to pay increased attention to these issues when supporting local organisations. The main challenge in further support to civil society in Tanzania is to enhance popular participation and to support processes which mobilises local resources. The report suggests that mass media and popular culture should be used to disseminate both the new sectoral policies and reforms as well as awareness programmes that may engender increased popular participation in the development process

Civil Society in Tanzania

There has been a tremendous growth in non-governmental organisations in Tanzania over the last decades, and with the many reforms presently taking place, the civil society is expected to play a central role in both service delivery and the development of democracy. This report provides an overview of the complex civic sector in Tanzania and the dynamics within it. The study focuses on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a special emphasis on advocacy organisations and organisations active in social service delivery (district development trusts and religious organisations). While the former are donor depended, the latter are able to mobilise local resources. Both NGO and CBO activities are concentrated in the areas that were privileged already in the colonial times. As the local government reform may increase regional and religious differences, donors are adviced to pay increased attention to these issues when supporting local organisations. The main challenge in further support to civil society in Tanzania is to enhance popular participation and to support processes which mobilises local resources. The report suggests that mass media and popular culture should be used to disseminate both the new sectoral policies and reforms as well as awareness programmes that may engender increased popular participation in the development process

Localizing Global Solidarity: Humanitarian Aid in Lesvos

The so-called “refugee crisis” in Lesvos, Greece provides a poignant example of situated, local suffering that has called for the coordination of global resources to provide relief. Some of the first to respond were local and international Citizen Initiatives for Global Solidarity (CIGS). While a growing role for CIGS has been interpreted as a call for more global involvement, arguments for the increased localization of relief efforts suggest the need for aid agents to maintain a reflexive awareness of the potential for an influx of outside assistance to disempower those most affected. We argue that barriers to implementing the localization of humanitarian aid can be better understood by positioning this localization alongside theories of global solidarity. This paper pairs theoretical contributions from the fields of moral and political philosophy with an analysis of interview material gathered in Lesvos between 2015 and 2019. Our goal is to use narratives of conflicting interests in Lesvos to explore conceptual distinctions concerning solidarity and emphasize the importance of the localization of global solidarity in humanitarian aid. We conclude that while global solidarity represents a demanding effort to identify with distant others and provide aid, the intensity and transformative potential of the process of “making the crisis one’s own” through solidary engagement can overshadow the importance of local ownership of crisis management

Ulike måter å «sikre sted» : flyktningers fortellinger om integrering inn i et lokalsamfunn i Sør-Norge

Gitt forståelsen av integrering som en mangfoldig prosess som kan romme mange ulike praksiser og aktører, diskuterer vi integrasjon som en prosess der mennesker «sikrer sted». Vi utforsker flyktningers integreringsfortellinger, for å forstå hvilke integreringserfaringer disse rommer. Rammeverket til Penninx og Garcés-Mascareñas (2016) brukes til å analysere flyktningers fortellinger om integrering inn i et lokalsamfunn. Gjennom disse erfaringene viser vi et mangfold av integreringsforståelser og praksiser.While understanding integration as a diverse process embedded in a variety of practices and involving different actors, the authors of this chapter employ Penninx and Garcés- Mascareñas’ (2016) understanding of integration as a process of “securing one’s place”. The chapter points to the diversity of the ways in which integration is understood and practiced. The analysis dwells on social relations perceived as important and explores how these are linked to perceptions of integration into a local community in Southern Norway

Et kjønnet rom for akademisk skriving

I denne artikkelen bruker vi institusjonell etnografi til å utforske kvinnelige førsteamanuensers arbeidshverdager og forskningskarrierer ved Universitetet i Agder (UiA) og hvordan disse erfaringene er sosialt organiserte og kjønnede. Vi retter særlig fokus mot en utbredt utfordring med å finne/skape rom for akademisk skriving. Vi viser hvordan kvinnenes «sakte karrierer» er et resultat av et vell av sosialt koordinert «virksomhet» (Smith 2005) som kan forstås som viktig og riktig, både for kvinnene og folk rundt dem, for UiA og for samfunnet for øvrig. Vi viser hvordan kjønnede idealer som brukes lokalt ved UiA inngår i trans-lokale relasjoner. Disse idealene former kvinners hverdager og forskerkarrierer ved og bortenfor UiA. De former deres rom for akademisk skriving, men også nødvendigheten av å skaffe seg slikt rom