Paper details

Paper authors	Sonja Hövelmann
In panel on	Children and Improved Crisis Response
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Abstract
Sonja Hoevelmann, Ruhr-University Bochum:

The study explores recent normative and institutional changes within the field of humanitarian action by looking at the changing role of education in emergencies (EiE). I argue that the humanitarian system is currently witnessing a norm change regarding the inclusion and increasing institutionalization of education into humanitarian responses. Conceptualizing institutionalization as a shared definition of reality that actors communicate via texts, the analysis demonstrates that EiE is an emergent normative concept that has received more attention and increasingly institutionalized over the past years. Through a discursive analysis, the study shows that norm entrepreneur elevated the topic on the international agenda via means of framing. Although their framing strategies were successful and an increasing number of actors adopted the norm, these entrepreneurs also lost control over the meaning of the norm, as more agents re-framed it according to their needs. Findings give, on the one hand, a theoretical insight into how norms emerge, are communicated and develop, on the other hand, they demonstrate how a controversial norm within the humanitarian sphere developed.

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