4th World Conference on Humanitarian Studies: Changing Crises and the Quest for Adequate Solutions

About:

Since the turn of the century, we have not had as many large and concurring crises as today. While some historical conflict areas are slowly emerging from crises, Syria, Iraq, Libya, the Central African Republic, Nigeria, South Sudan, the Ukraine and other incumbent crises continue to spur human suffering, displace millions of people, destroy infrastructure and livelihoods, impair local institutions and create increasingly wicked political problems.

As the number and diversity of crises is increasing, local actors, governments, and humanitarian organizations are struggling to understand what is going on and respond to them. At the same time, many other actors, varying from Private Military Security Companies and private foundations to religious groups have entered the fray. The fourth World Conference of Humanitarian Studies aims to deepen our understanding of how and why crises are changing, which actors play a role in them, how this changes the interplay between humanitarian action and other actors and systems, and how this affects the prospects of prevention, preparedness, response and development.

Conference themes:

Stream 3 - The implications of climate change for humanitarian studies

Accepting the inevitability of climate change and its pervasive implications offers the possibility of reframing research into humanitarian crises, their evolution and response to them. Climate change is not a change from one state to a second. Rather, and particularly for Africa and other tropical areas, it implies a continuous sense of change, with much of that change being rapid and unpredictable as climate changes ripple out to trigger economic, demographic, sociological, political and epidemiological changes. Many of these changes affect men and women differently.

Coping with or adapting to continuous crisis may become the norm. Assumptions about the omnipotence of free market economics, the 20th century welfare model of nation states and the humanitarian response systems these have spawned, can be challenged and shown wanting, raising many questions about alternative ways to understand and response to climate-related crises. The application of psychological and ecological resilience models may shed some light on these new realities, although these may also be criticised as diverting from the political and economic core issues underlying the problems.

This stream invites panels that address theoretical and practical issues regarding the effects of climate change on weather-related disaster, local ecologies and economies, and the ways this changes our response systems.

Stream 4 - New partnerships; new technologies; professionalism in crisis response

There is a growing call for a paradigm shift in the way humanitarian crises and disasters are understood and managed. Central to this is a strong focus on partnerships between humanitarians and the private sector; comprehensive efforts to further humanitarian innovation; and a sector wide attempt to reap the benefits of increased information flows, better and more affordable ICT technology, new media, big data, biometrics and drones, among other.

So far, focus has been on partnerships, innovations and technology-developments aiming to enhance humanitarian and disaster risk management practices (DRM), including logistics and supply chain management. However, increasing attention is being given to partnerships between the aid sector, local communities and local businesses, and to how bottom-up innovation and technology-use shape humanitarian action and DRM. While the use of technology enhances possibilities for improved disaster preparedness, participation, empowerment and resilience, critical attention must be given to the consequences for the nature of principled humanitarian assistance and the future of DRM. There is also a need for a better understanding of the dynamics of the growing humanitarian market, including humanitarian procurement.

This stream invites panels dealing with policies and practices of new partnerships, innovations and new technologies in humanitarian crises, including the increasing instances of urban crises.

For full list of streams visit the event website

Costs and payment:

Early bird (before 1 February 2016):

• €275 for members
• €300 for non-members (including the membership fee for 2015-2017 of €25).

After 1 February 2016

• €300 for members
• €325 for non-members (including the membership fee for 2015-2017 of €25).

Important dates:

• Call for Panels opens: 31 March 2015
• Call for Panels closes: 1 October 2015
• Final Panel acceptance date: 15 October 2015
• Call for Papers opens: 2 October 2015
• Call for Papers closes: 25 December 2015
• Final Paper acceptance date: 1 January 2016