The overarching objective of this thesis is to explore the warehouse location decision problem by considering regional and specific site attributes in the unique context of humanitarian relief organisation. This is to fill the gaps the revealed in the current understanding of location decision problem, particularly the lack of studies attempting to investigate humanitarian pre-positioned location decision problem with qualitative attributes opposed to the many previous studies focused on computerised optimisation model absence of the human judgements. Specifically, this research develops into case studies of the international humanitarian organisations selecting the warehouse attributes and locating the alternative warehouse locations. International humanitarian relief organisation aiding the refugees participated in the case study of the regional location selection problem for pre-positioned warehouse with five major attributes and 25 sub-attributes. Six international humanitarian relief organisations based in Dubai, UAE participated for specific warehouse location selection problem with five major attributes and 30 sub-attributes. The overall research design adopted in this thesis is as follows. First, the coherent humanitarian warehouse location decision attributes were developed in the basis of a literature and semi-structured interviews with practitioners whose organisation practice pre-positioned warehouse operation system. Secondly, two case studies were conducted for constructing the hierarchy structure for warehouse evaluation for regional and specific site location. In the first case study, 11 managerial level officers participated to construct the regional warehouse location decision attributes and evaluated the warehouse location for the organisation. In the second case study, panel members were form by 11 decision-makers from six different organisations constructed the hierarchical structure of the specific site warehouse location attributes for the evaluation. Thirdly, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is executed to acquire criteria weights and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is employed to obtain the final ranking of the warehouse locations. Fuzzy set theory is adopted in the evaluation to deal with the fuzziness of decision-makers‟ preferences in decision making. In conclusion, this thesis extends the body of knowledge in pre-positioned warehouse location problem in the humanitarian relief logistics context by suggesting a MADM location method, AHP and TOPSIS, integrated with fuzzy set theory to understand the priority preference of regional (macro) and specific site (micro) warehouse location attributes and the selection of the optimal warehouse.

The objective of this thesis is to provide both empirical evidence and theoretical explanations that will show the positive and negative effects of intrinsic motivation and reputational concerns in the public sector. The thesis argues that by having intrinsically motivated individuals in the public sector (i.e. individuals that are public service motivated), the government can provide higher quality public goods and services at a lower cost. The thesis finds empirical evidence for the existence of public service motivation and also finds that high extrinsic rewards in the public sector deter individuals with high levels of public service motivation from joining the public sector. There is also empirical evidence showing that individuals remain public service motivated in the long term. This thesis also investigates whether the reputational concerns of a principal (government) can lead to under provision of quality improving effort by contracted firms in procurement contracts. The thesis finds that reputational concerns cause the decision maker to intervene in procurement projects more frequently than is optimal. This then results in the contracted private firm exerting less effort to produce quality improving firm specific investments. Since public service motivation can improve the delivery of public goods and services, these findings lead us to conclude that governments must find ways to recruit a larger proportion of public service motivated individuals into the public sector. These findings also highlight the importance of reputational concerns in the decision making process of governments. They show us that reputational concerns can have very negative effects on procurement contracts.

This qualitative, phenomenological study focuses on the social construction of bereavement support in voluntary organisations. Three organisations were selected for the research project. These were an adult hospice, a local branch of Cruse, and PEAL (Parents Experiencing Adult Loss); an organisation unique to the locale at the time that the research for this study was conducted. Grounded theory research methodology was used to identify how these organisations construct their services. A key feature of this is their use of volunteers as bereavement supporters. The prime objective of the study was identification of the social construction of these three agencies. In particular the intention was to reveal features contributing to the shaping of their service provision. To this end the research design was developed with the aim of allowing respondents scope for self-expression. Twenty, one-to-one, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted and audio-taped with self-selected respondents from the three agencies. The core category to emerge from the data was „boundaries‟ which was further divisible into commonly held properties classifiable as personal, professional, organisational and societal. Each of these were sub dividable, forming what might be referred to as a family tree. Underpinning this framework of boundaries is a common psychological approach to service provision which draws on the Freudian tradition in counselling. A further feature in their commonality is that of the profile of the volunteer workforce which is drawn largely from a mono-cultural, middle class sector of the community. The central contention of the thesis is that in this instance, boundaries have become a significant influence on the shaping of service provision. It is argued that an overriding individualist perspective can serve to ensure that traditional boundaries are established and maintained, making a more diverse approach to service provision difficult to attain. Key words: boundaries (personal, professional, organisational, societal); social construction; bereavement support; grounded theory; individualism; power; culture; volunteer motivation.

The flight of two million anti-Bolshevik refugees from Russia's new Soviet regime during the late 1910s and early 1920s caused a major refugee crisis that was the first in twentieth-century Europe ultimately to require significant governmental intervention and resolution. Large international charitable organisations, especially from America, worked in Europe to administer a professional and scientific solution on the colossal post-war humanitarian emergency. However, among the Russian refugees were active members of the former Unions of Zemstva, Union of Towns and the Russian Society of the Red Cross who were able to pool their own considerable collective expertise to provide significant practical humanitarian aid as well as to advocate 'from the inside' for the rights of the refugees on the national and international stage. In the refugee camps of Constantinople the activists used multiple, often creative, methods to deliver relief aid while struggling with a limited budget and overwhelming numbers of needy refugees. In Paris, Zemgor, under the chairmanship of Prince G. E. L'vov, negotiated funding and international support for the exiled Russians, keeping the refugee crisis in plain sight of a sometimes impassive world. As refugees themselves, the professional and intellectual members of the former Russian public organisations were able to present and validate the unheard voices of the most vulnerable displaced people on a broad platform which began with, but was not limited to, emergency food aid in 1920-21.

A massive open-cast coal mine was proposed for Phulbari in 1994, with the support of the government and international financial organisations. Threatened by displacement, the apparently powerless community mobilised against the mine. Allied with the national and the transnational activist organisations, they successfully stopped the mine. This remarkable success is the subject of the thesis. This resistance is compared quantitatively with the incidence of protests in 397 other mines in the South Asia. Predictors of protest include density of population, proportion of area under forest cover, and ownership by a multinational company. These factors alone would predict a high probability of protest in Phulbari. To understand how the resistance unfolded and why it was successful, the thesis relies on ethnographic evidence. I conducted participant observation and interviewed sixty-four individuals in Phulbari and Dhaka in Bangladesh and in London. Mobilisation against the mine can be explained in part by dialogic framing. Local challengers continuously opposed the dominant discourse of development. Crucially, they shifted their identity to legitimize their opposition to the mine by tagging it with nationalism. As a result, local resistance established links with national left-wing activists. Mobilisation culminated in a mass march of 70,000 in 2006, which was fired on by government forces, with several casualties. Repression failed to quail the resistance. Continued mobilisation was motivated by emotional responses like anger, and facilitated by cultural practices like the obligatory funeral procession. Media reports of the repression catapulted the resistance on to the global stage. This alone is not sufficient to explain the formation of a transnational alliance against the mine. This was maintained by the presence of a large community of Bangladeshi living in Britain, and the mediating role of the left-wing activists in Bangladesh; both groups could translate between locals and western NGOs. This transnational coalition impeded the mining company by targeting international financial organisations, Western governments, the government of Bangladesh, and investors in London. As a result, the company’s share price has collapsed and there seems little prospect of the project proceeding.

Humanitarian aid faces a crisis of legitimacy in many conflicts as a result of a close relationship with Western power, which can result in both its failure and rejection. The rise of institutional humanitarian aid has been a part of the rise of Western power. Humanitarian aid has been used as a tool to advance hegemonic power and as rhetoric to justify intervention. However, power is changing. Western norms and institutions are being contested in an emerging global multi-polarity and diffusion of power, often misconceived as shrinking humanitarian space. Institutional humanitarian aid has been so intertwined with Western power that as the West declines humanitarian organisations are either retreating with the tide or being left exposed. The relationship between humanitarian aid and Western power means humanitarian space is actually a Western space. In the places where aid can be deployed – within the realms of the West's influence - its effectiveness is in question due to its incorporation into longer-term processes of liberal democratic state-building that overlooks the basics of emergency response. This is demonstrated in the findings of this qualitative doctoral thesis. Case-study research took place in South Sudan and Syria. In South Sudan, a breakdown of emergency-response capacity as a result of the incorporation of aid into a state-building agenda is demonstrated. In Syria, the relationship between humanitarian aid and Western power is a key justification for the Syrian government to limit emergency-response access. However, changing global power is challenging the conceptualisation and practice of humanitarian aid. If liberal democracy underpins current approaches to humanitarian aid, in emerging states like Brazil and South Africa – where interviews were conducted – the politics of aid are linked more to counter-hegemony, both from the state and diffused forms of power. Changes in global power may not present solutions to the challenges of humanitarian effectiveness and access, but the ongoing affiliation between humanitarian aid and Western power hampers its ability to negotiate a dynamic landscape. This research demonstrates that institutional humanitarianism must disentangle itself from Western power to remain effective and to access the most vulnerable.

The international aid sector is a multi-billion dollar industry that has continued to grow in size, influence and complexity since the 1970s. The stakeholders are globalised and diverse, from elite UN politicians in New York and Geneva to malnourished infants in Somalia. This study attempts to focus on the professional development of one category of player in this multifaceted sector, that is the expatriate field leader employed international non-government organisations (INGO) and responsible for the implementation of projects in a cross-cultural environment. The study found that relationships, results, and grit were three foundational traits of exemplary expatriate filed leaders in the international aid sector. This collective case study takes a grounded theory approach to explore the professional journeys of 12 exemplary expatriate field practitioners in the international aid sector who work in Central Asia, Middle East, and North Africa with ten different INGOs and have an average of 12.5 years of field experience. The participants were nominated for the study by their supervisors or peers as being exemplary field leaders. The study purposes to gain insight into the professional journey of exemplary field leaders by examining their work-life experience from age 18 until present. Biographic narrative interviews were conducted and supplemented with professional development timelines to create the initial data set. The study provides insight into the processes of professional identity formation of expatriate aid workers and identifies seven events that shape their professional self-identity. These experiences consist of a variety of reflected appraisals and intrinsic rewards that validated or changed how the research participants saw themselves. Participants credited good relationships and seeing the results of their work as what keeps them going in spite of difficulties. On the other hand, the most difficult work experiences of the aid workers were not carjacking, riots, dust, heat, bugs, strange food, or low funding but relational conflicts and the grief associated with relational disappointments. Interpersonal relationships were core to both the best experiences and the most difficult experiences of the research participants. Gritty appears to be a better construct to describe exemplary field leaders than resilient. Grit is a trait defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. The research participants demonstrated grit in many situations, not least of which was in their commitment to learn the local language in-situ of crisis-affected people. The research participants believed that learning local languages was a key to establish and maintain meaningful relationships and cooperation with local people. The study also includes a discussion of an apparent incongruity in the international aid sector. On one hand the sector promotes the necessity of humanitarian professionals to establish and maintain collaborative relationships with crisis-affected people, but survey evidence suggests most workers in the humanitarian sector put a low priority on learning the languages of crisis-affected people while others do not have sufficient opportunity to learn the local languages because of the well-entrenched tradition of short-term employment contracts of 1-12 months and the practice of churning (rotating experienced staff from project to project). It appears that the current system of doing business in the humanitarian sector may actually obstruct professional competence and contribute to failed outcomes.

Globally, billions of people live in temporary shelters due to poverty, and every year millions of refugees and disaster affected individuals are forced to live in temporary shelters such as Standardised Emergency Relief Tents (SERTs). The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has spent millions of US dollars annually on tents, blankets and mattresses. The tents used are designed as temporary accommodation; in reality they sometimes become homes for a number of years when the return to permanent shelter is slow or unaffordable. While the SERT aims to adhere to humanitarian standards for basic shelter provision, this type of construction is ultimately designed to be quick to deploy, using lightweight and cost effective materials. Consequently, SERTs have been known to provide an extremely thermally uncomfortable place to live in different climates, requiring stove heating in cold climates and being impractical to keep cool in hot climates. Little research has been done to determine whether this situation could be improved. The thermal comfort performance of a real SERT in a known UK climate was investigated, to explore the science behind the experience of real users. Measurements were made in the SERT over a 6 month period and the observations quantitatively analysed in order to characterise and explain the tent s response to a range of outdoor conditions. The predicted thermal comfort in the SERT was calculated using a variety of suitable metrics. The data collected in a UK climate was used to develop and validate computational models of the SERT, which have applications in any world climate. Based on quantitative analysis of the SERT models performances in cold, temperate and hot climates, conclusions were drawn regarding the suitability of the SERT for use in each climate. The computational models of the SERT were modified in geometry and material, with the aim of improving the predicted thermal comfort in the SERT in hot and cold climates. The effectiveness of these design changes was analysed, and recommendations for improvements to the SERT were made. These recommendations could be used by SERT manufacturers and key humanitarian organisations in order to facilitate design modifications.

A côté des grandes ONG qui bénéficient d'une visibilité dans l'espace public national, de nombreux citoyens décident, suite à une expérience vécue dans ou avec le Sud (voyage, résidence, adoption, etc.), de « faire quelque chose » pour améliorer les conditions de vie des populations rencontrées et, avec le concours de quelques amis, créent leur propre association de solidarité internationale. Dans un contexte marqué par la recherche d'une meilleure efficacité des interventions menées dans les pays du Sud, leitmotiv de l'injonction à plus de professionnalisme de la part des acteurs, cette thèse étudie les discours et les pratiques de ces citoyens « ordinaires » afin de mettre en lumière le rôle qu'ils jouent dans le champ du développement à travers l'animation de ces « initiatives populaires de solidarité internationale » (IPSI). Plus précisément, dans la tradition interactionniste de la sociologie des groupes professionnels, nous nous intéressons au processus dialectique par lequel les responsables salariés des ONG et les responsables bénévoles des IPSl construisent et définissent leur légitimité d'amateur et de professionnel, en tant qu'acteur de développement. La sociologie de l'action publique nous invite également à étudier l'influence que les pouvoirs publics, par leurs instruments, ont sur la responsabilité et la légitimité des acteurs, sur leurs interactions, sur leur reconnaissance mutuelle. L'injonction externe au professionnalisme provenant également des exigences formulées par les partenaires du Sud, nous nous intéressons enfin, de manière transversale, aux perceptions de ces derniers, dans le cas de projets soutenus au Sénégal. / Alongside established, high-profile non-governmental organisations (NGOs), many individuals decide that they need to "do something" to improve the lives of the people they have met (while travelling, living in another country or adopting a child, etc.). These people join forces with a small group of friends to set up their own development organisations (referred, to hereafter as "popular development initiatives", or PDIs). At present, one of the major concerns in international development cooperation is to make development workers more professional in the interest of better aid effectiveness. This thesis therefore looks at the discourses and practices of these "ordinary" citizens, in order to highlight their role and to identify key issues for this sector. More specifically, we study the dialectic process by which NGO staff and PDI volunteers build and define their professional and amateur legitimacy as development actors, through the prism of the interactionist perspective of the sociology of professional groups. We also draw on the sociology of public action to consider how public authorities, through their policy tools, influence the responsibility and legitimacy of these actors, the interactions between them, and their mutual recognition. The need for professionalism also stems from demands by local partners in the developing world, so we have taken an interest in their perceptions in the case of Senegal.

This thesis concerns the history of humanitarian nutrition and its political implications. Drawing on aid agency archives and other historical sources, it examines how food has been delivered in emergencies, from the First World War to the present day. The approach is ethnographic: this is a study of the micro-level practices of relief, examining the objects distributed, the plans made, the techniques used. It is also historical: examining how such practices have changed over time. This thesis makes five interlocking arguments. First, I make a political point: that humanitarian action is always political, and that it is impossible to adhere to ‘classical’ humanitarian principles such as neutrality, impartiality and independence. Second, I make a sociological argument: that the activities of humanitarian nutrition have been shaped by a number of themes, which include militarism, medicine, modernity, and markets. Third, I make a historical argument: that the main features of humanitarian nutrition were solidified between the 1930s and the 1970s, and were largely in place by the time of the Biafran war. Fourth, I make a sociological argument: that these mid-century changes involved a profound redefinition of hunger and food (with hunger conceived as a biochemical deficiency, and food as a collection of nutrients). Finally, I make a normative argument, suggesting that this redefinition has not necessarily benefited the starving: the provision of food in emergencies, I argue, is often concerned with control and efficiency rather than the suffering individuals themselves.