The social (trans-)formation of risks in humanitarian project networks in South Sudan
Abstract as pdf
Corresponding Author:
Darina Pellowska
Ruhr-University Bochum Germany
darina.pellowska@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Author(s):
In recent years, the body of risk research on humanitarian assistance has grown considerably (e.g. Willitts-King and Harvey, 2005; Duffield, 2010; Arshad et al., 2013; Stoddard, Haver and Czwarno, 2016; Stoddard, Czwarno and Hamsik, 2019).However, most contributions apply a rather technical approach to risks in humanitarian action and focus especially on risk management.
This paper applies a more sociological perspective. It defines organizational risk as a negative form of social capital that is transferred between different actors involved in the implementation of humanitarian aid projects. This includes for example international NGOs, their implementing (national) partner organizations, local authorities, project management committees and project participants, as well as local suppliers, casual workers etc., who all need to work together to achieve the overall project objective(s). Doing so, they create a horizontal “humanitarian project network”, linking different local, regional, and national cultures. Drawing on 9 months of field work in 3 school feeding projects in Greater Bar el-Ghazal in South Sudan, this paper shows how the horizontal transfer of risks between culturally diverse actors triggers the social (trans-)formation of the meaning and the perceived extent of organizational risks in humanitarian assistance. Thereby, it considers both the role of the individual actor in applying new/different local cultural understandings to the concept of risk, and the structure of the humanitarian project network as horizontally enabling or disabling these vertical (trans-)formation processes.
The paper is part of a PhD study and based on semi-structured key informant interviews, long-term participant observation and key document reviews. It generated its findings using qualitative social network analysis. Hence, it also advocates for the use of dedicated qualitative research designs to strengthen the sociological understanding of (organizational risks in) humanitarian action.
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