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The sufferings of people around the world invite humanitarian intervention, but in practical terms it s not possible to help everyone. Who gets help, and who does not? Krause reveals here the constraints and organizational routines in NGOs that determine the answer to this question. Hers is the first sociological study of NGOs (such as the International Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, Oxfam, CARE, Save the Children). She discovers that the first priority of NGOs is not to help those in need, as such, but to produce projects. Managers try for good projects and, since the setting is organizations, they will sometimes appear to propel the career of humanitarian-relief professionals even more than they benefit those who suffer. Krause sketches in some history of how NGOs have come to play a prominent role in global politics, and she shows how their power operates on a global level: populations in need come to the attention of global civil society only if they re perceived by an organization as an opportunity to do a good project. The market for projects, we learn, produces a form of indirect domination: the poorest of the world are made to compete against each other as part of potential projects. And the fact that humanitarian relief exists in an ambiguous zone between states and markets is one reason why it hasn t been the focus of serious social research until now. This book is a touchstone source for understanding the prominent, ever-growing role of relief NGOs in global politics."
About the author
Monika Krause is associate professor in sociology at the London School of Economics. She is the author of
The Good Project: Humanitarian Relief NGOs and the Fragmentation of Reason and coauthor or coeditor of
Social Theory Now, both also published by the University of Chicago Press. She is the winner of the 2019 Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting in Sociology.
Summary
NGOs set out to save lives, relieve suffering, and service basic human needs. In this book, the author dives into the intricacies of the decision-making process at NGOs and uncovers a basic truth: It may be the case that relief agencies try to help people but, in practical terms, the main focus of their work is to produce projects.
