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The paradoxes of aid work: Passionate professionals

The paradoxes of aid work: Passionate professionals
The paradoxes of aid work: Passionate professionals
This book explores what attracts people to aidwork and to what extent the promises of aidwork are fulfilled. 'Aidland' is a highly complex and heterogeneous context which includes many different occupations, forms of employment and organizations. Analysing the processes that lead to the involvement in development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights work and tracing the pathways into and through Aidland, the book addresses working and living conditions in Aidland, gender relations and inequality among aid personnel and what impact aidwork has on the life-courses of aidworkers. In order to capture the trajectories that lead to Aidland a biographical perspective is employed which reveals that boundary crossing between development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights is not unusual and that considering these fields as separate spheres might overlook important connections. Rich reflexive data is used to theorize about the often contradictory experiences of people working in aid whose careers are shaped by geo-politics, changing priorities of donors and a changing composition of the aid sector. Exploring the life worlds of people working in aid, this book contributes to the emerging sociology and anthropology of aidwork and will be of interest to professionals and researchers in humanitarian and development studies, sociology, anthropology, political science and international relations, international social work and social psychology.
978-0-415-74592-5
Routledge
Roth, Silke
cd4e63d8-bd84-45c1-b317-5850d2a362b6
Roth, Silke
cd4e63d8-bd84-45c1-b317-5850d2a362b6

Roth, Silke (2015) The paradoxes of aid work: Passionate professionals (Routledge Humanitarian Studies), New York City, US. Routledge, 222pp.

Record type: Book

Abstract

This book explores what attracts people to aidwork and to what extent the promises of aidwork are fulfilled. 'Aidland' is a highly complex and heterogeneous context which includes many different occupations, forms of employment and organizations. Analysing the processes that lead to the involvement in development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights work and tracing the pathways into and through Aidland, the book addresses working and living conditions in Aidland, gender relations and inequality among aid personnel and what impact aidwork has on the life-courses of aidworkers. In order to capture the trajectories that lead to Aidland a biographical perspective is employed which reveals that boundary crossing between development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights is not unusual and that considering these fields as separate spheres might overlook important connections. Rich reflexive data is used to theorize about the often contradictory experiences of people working in aid whose careers are shaped by geo-politics, changing priorities of donors and a changing composition of the aid sector. Exploring the life worlds of people working in aid, this book contributes to the emerging sociology and anthropology of aidwork and will be of interest to professionals and researchers in humanitarian and development studies, sociology, anthropology, political science and international relations, international social work and social psychology.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 24 March 2015
Published date: 6 April 2015
Organisations: Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 375807
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/375807
ISBN: 978-0-415-74592-5
PURE UUID: 689f4d74-d8fd-4945-b336-05dd4720b0cd
ORCID for Silke Roth: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8760-0505

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 17 Apr 2015 08:37
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:25

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