Paper details

Paper authors	Róisín Read
In panel on	Trust in Humanitarian Numbers? Bringing Critical Data Studies into Humanitarian Studies
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

This paper argues that thinking humanitarian statistics through a logic of scandal can offer valuable insights into the ways in which they uphold particular normative orders. It will suggest that humanitarian statistics, or misery metrics as we term them, create affective snapshots of areas of humanitarian concern which appear to tell us about unacceptable levels of human suffering. Using scholarship on scandals and their logics to interrogate humanitarian statistics points to a critical account of humanitarian responsibility, truth-telling and identity. We ask: what account of humanitarian responsibility is given through humanitarian statistics?; what they tell us about the limits of humanitarian truth telling?; and how, through a scripting of morality they uphold specific humanitarian identities? We argue that humanitarian statistics direct outrage at public indifference, rather than ascribing responsibility to particular actors or structures. In so doing, they re-inscribe a morality tale of indifferent publics, needy recipients and humanitarian saviours.

Back