Panel details

Panel organiser(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online
Number of paper presentations	4
Location	Bergen

Abstract

This panel advances the conference theme “Humanitarianism in Crisis” by reclaiming the many heritages of aid that have been sidelined by the Euro-Atlantic narrative centred on Dunant, Geneva and liberal universalism. Anchored in Sub-theme 4’s call to confront the coloniality of knowledge, we invite contributors to surface living conceptual frameworks—indigenous, Afro-centric, Islamic, Asian, Latin-American, Pacific, intersectional-feminist and other situated traditions—that already inform practice yet remain undervalued in mainstream scholarship and policy.
Key questions include:
• How have colonial and racial power relations relegated non-Western humanitarian grammars to the margins of scholarship and policy handbooks?
• What intellectual, spiritual, or political resources within majority-world communities can revitalise theory and praxis at scale?
• Where do plural humanitarianisms contest, complement, or transform International Humanitarian Law and professional ethics?
We particularly welcome empirically grounded papers, co-authored where possible by scholars and practitioners rooted in the traditions they analyse, that: (a) excavate historical precedents such as pre-colonial mutual-aid systems; (b) offer contemporary case studies of locally led responses—e.g., Māori manaakitanga in disaster recovery, zakāt-funded anticipatory action, or Ubuntu-inspired refugee hosting; or (c) propose methodological innovations for co-theorising across epistemic boundaries.
By assembling these voices, the panel aims not for symbolic inclusion but for a genuine redistribution of epistemic authority. The ultimate objective is to articulate a multi-centric humanitarian theory flexible enough to navigate compound crises yet grounded in the diverse moral economies of the communities it claims to serve. Outputs will seed a shared research agenda and guidance for educators, agencies, donors, and crisis-affected communities pursuing equitable humanitarianism.

Paper presentations