Disaster survivors, facing many aspects of mental distress, sometimes are forced to stay in temporary housing for years. Their psychosocial needs have changed after the traumatic event, but existing temporary housing designs do not respond to their real needs, nor acknowledge the capacity within the community as a whole.  This thesis aims to answer the question of how post-disaster temporary housing contributes to psychosocial aspects of community resilience building.  Based on the literature review of existing studies on post-disaster temporary housing, discussions on key factors of community psychosocial resilience and the psychosocial impact of temporary housing were conducted in this thesis. These discussions were followed by a comparative case study on the implementation and follow-up actions of two post-disaster temporary housing projects in China and Japan.  The analysis of these two topics and the case study reveal gaps between humanitarians and architects, when they work together to develop temporary housing, as well as aspects that can be improved for temporary housing to better meet the needs of its inhabitants and empower them for improved recovery.  The results indicate that temporary housing has a psychosocial impact on its inhabitants. By designing the built environment of temporary housing that strengthens shared community identity and promotes mutual help from community members, community resilience can be better fostered. Achieving this will require better coordination between humanitarians and architects, as well as the involvement of other interdisciplinary professionals.

Humanitarian action faces challenges in engaging with LGBTQI+ people. Research has shown that humanitarian response to LGBTQI+ people are solely studied on the issues around resettlement, migration and legal protection of LGBTQI+ people. This study aims to provide a critical analysis to engagement practices of humanitarian actors with LGBTQI+ people in Hatay, Turkey. In order to explore this engagement, this study asks the role of humanitarian actors in identifying the LGBTQI+ community, the strategies used by the humanitarian actors to support the LGBTQI+ community, the consequences of humanitarian professions’ actions in Hatay, Turkey. This research is based on empirical findings of six semi-structured interviews conducted with LGBTQI+ people and humanitarian professionals. The most significant finding of this study is that humanitarian organizations refrain particularly from engaging with LGBTQI+ people because of the existing primary frameworks between LGBTQI+ people and Syrian community, and also between the Government of Turkey and humanitarian organizations. This leads to increased invisibilities, re-stigmatization and dissociation of LGBTQI+ people from the society.

Nuclear weapons pose a threat to humanity and a disaster waiting to happen; should tragedy occur the humanitarian sector will undoubtedly be among the first to respond to the needs of the victims. The scale and scope of a nuclear disaster is bound to be far beyond the capability and capacity of states to adequately address, let alone humanitarian organizations. The thesis therefore explores actions available to the humanitarian sector in the form of advocacy in favour of nuclear disarmament and seeking the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. To achieve this the present work suggests a collective statement supported by humanitarian organizations globally. It describes a novel concept in the form of a posture of peace as possible indicator or descriptor of any actor’s intention based on content of explicit or implicit behaviour. It finds that knowledge around nuclear weapons is well enough established that action, or lack thereof, comes from a lack of political will which here is seen as obstacle that may be addressed by a collective statement by the humanitarian sector. A collective statement is here seen as a course of action that may spur governing actors to abolish nuclear weapons without creating tensions that may lead to further conflicts as well as being one of the few ways the humanitarian sector can, in a sense, protest.

While both localisation and gender were major topics at the World Humanitarian Summit of 2016, they have largely been considered in isolation. Yet, the underlying issue in both cases are power inequalities, which this research seeks to highlight through an intersectional feminist perspective. Based on a qualitative case study on Oxfam Canada, this research thus aims to understand how social locations based on gender and their intersections with other social locations are integrated into Oxfam Canada’s discussions around a feminist approach to localisation. Based on a thematic analysis, this paper evaluates the main proposition that Oxfam Canada’s feminist approach to localisation is largely based on a conceptualisation of gender as a binary and as an isolated category. This was largely confirmed by the empirical findings that revealed that Oxfam Canada’s focus clearly lies on “local” (presumably cis-gender heterosexual) women. Nevertheless, the empirical analysis also showed burgeoning aspects of intersectional feminist perspectives such as the focus on power analyses that at times span across different levels (i.e. household, community, societal, and global), their emphasis on the importance of acknowledging their own positionality, as well as their commitments to coherence between their objectives and ways of working.

This thesis presents how humanitarian aid workers were attracted, motivated, recruited, and prepared for fieldwork, and how they reported their work experience directly from the field and when they returned home. Data were derived from interviews with experienced aid workers, focus group discussions with presumptive aid workers, analysis of letters from aid workers in the field on MSFs homepages in Europe, and from interviews with recruitment officers at some of the main humanitarian organisations. Health professionals were attracted by the positive images of humanitarian action. They wished to work in teams with like-minded people, and to make a difference in the world. However, this image was not supported by the recruitment officers, or experienced aid workers, who described a complex reality in humanitarian action. The experienced aid workers instead had realised they learned more than they contributed. The recruitment system for relief workers would benefit from a more holistic approach, where personalities of the aid workers are more in focus. More time must be spent with the applicants, both recruited and returning aid workers, in order to improve the system. A socialisation approach could help identify the right personnel and to motivate current personnel to continue.

Indigenous communities living in Arauca department, a region located on the Eastern Plains of Colombia, are at an imminent risk of physical and cultural extermination -according to the orders 004 and 382 from the Constitutional Court of Colombia- due to a double vulnerability which stems from a historic structural violence dating from the creation of the nation-state and direct violence as a consequence of armed conflict. The physical extermination refers to the high mortality rates that this population suffers either by violence or natural death, while the cultural extermination is a result of both an accelerated process of acculturation and a progressive loss of culture, territory and respect from traditional authorities. This study, by analyzing the local context and the actions that have done harm, addresses the best practices for humanitarian interventions over the role of territory, culture, governance and autonomy as key factors for empowering community members to overcome, face or diminish the consequences of these vulnerabilities.

Afin d'examiner la réception des publicités sociales et humanitaires, cette étude pluridisciplinaire analyse trois dimensions initiales : savoir avec l'objet, faire/être avec l'objet et analyse de l'objet. Ce choix est justifié sur la base d'une méthodologie pluridimensionnelle basée sur les études culturelles. Nous essayons d'expliquer les processus de réception, d'interprétation, de négociation et les discours des individus. Le comportement des récepteurs des publicités sociale et humanitaire et le rôle de ces derniers sont au centre de notre intérêt. Cette étude est réalisée à deux échelles, une étude monographique basée sur les affiches de l'Unicef France et une étude globalisante sur la réception des publicités sociale et humanitaire au sens large du terme. / In order to study the reception of social and humanitarian advertisements, this pluridisciplinary study analyses three initial dimensions : knowing with the object, doing/being with the object and the analysis of the object. This choice has been justified on the basis of a pluridimensional methodology based on cultural studies. We aim at explaining the processes of reception, interpretation, negotiation and the discourse of individuals. The behavior of the receivers of social and humanitarian advertisements and the rôle of the later are the focal points of our interest. This study has been undertaken on two levels : a monographic study of Unicef France's posters and a more global study on the reception of social and humanitarian advertisements in the broad sense of the term.

This research examines the practice of Female Genital Mutilation/Circumcision (FGM/C) as a social phenomenon in Singida Region, Tanzania. The aim is to contribute to a deepened cultural anthropological understanding of the function and meaning behind the practice in Singida, and how it reacts to external factors of change, such as human rights-based laws and projects aiming to eradicate FGM/C. This was done by conducting an ethnographic field study, with the help of staff members from the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT). Through the theoretical framework, aiming to grasp the complexity of FGM/C, aspects such as visible and invisible violence, patriarchal structures, social schemes, anomalies, change and rites, were analyzed on the collected material consisting of semi-structured interviews and participatory observations. From the conducted analysis, it was shown that FGM/C was a deeply imbedded cultural practice which purpose is to (1) enable women to consolidate to womanhood and ensure a full membership in society and (2) cure girls from a disease known as lawalawa. This is because the clitoris is believed to be connected to diseases and to enhance the risk of abnormal behavior that does not belong to womanhood. The thesis shows how lawalawa was fabricated as a reaction towards the ban on FGM/C in Tanzania and how it was used to (unknowingly or knowingly) justify the continuance of the practice. It was also showed that members of societies who engage in FGM/C, are likely to avoid abandoning FGM/C if possible, however change is achievable if it is implemented in a sensitive way with knowledge on local reaction towards external factors of change.

La perpétuation de l'islam sénégalais repose en grande partie sur l'enseignement musulman, traditionnellement réalisé dans des écoles coraniques (daara) par des maîtres reconnus pour leurs compétences religieuses. Des enfants leur sont confiés par leur famille, souvent pauvre en milieu rural. Une partie de ces écoles migre pour s'installer en ville, suite à divers bouleversements socio-économiques subis par le Sénégal depuis une quarantaine d'années. Certains de ces élèves deviennent alors des taalibe-mendiants : la quête majoritairement monétaire qu'ils pratiquent et les rapports entretenus avec leur maître sont basés sur des principes culturels et cultuels anciens, ayant muté depuis quelques décennies. L'élève coranique se situe au centre de différentes sortes d'échanges de prestations et de dons sur fond de baraka (grâce divine). Ce travail de recherches se propose d'expliciter les stratégies élaborées par les multiples acteurs sociaux – maîtres, chefs religieux, parents, population donnant l'aumône (sarax) suite à l'injonction d'un marabout devin/guérisseur…– interagissant dans ce phénomène, afin de comprendre les changements problématiques subis par ce type d'enseignement. L'utilisation de la théorie du don initiée par Mauss permet d'analyser l'évolution de la fonction sociale du taalibe-mendiant, qui ne doit pas être confondu avec un faxman (enfant des rues), présent lui aussi au Sénégal. / The perpetuation of Senegalese Islam is based in major part on Muslim teaching, traditionally fulfilled in Koranic schools (daara) by masters acknowledged for their religious skills. Children are entrusted to them by their families, often poor in rural environments. A certain amount of these schools migrate to settle in the city, due to various socio-economic changes experienced by Senegal in the last forty years. Some of these students then become taalibe-beggars: the quest mostly monetary they practice and the relationships maintained with their masters are based on ancient cultural and religious principles having mutated in recent decades. The Koranic student is at the center of various kinds of service and gift exchanges based on the baraka (divine grace) principle. This research aims to explain the different strategies developed by the multiple social actors – teachers, religious leaders, parents, people giving alms (sarax) following the injunction of a marabout diviner/healer ... – interacting in this phenomenon, so as to understand the problematic changes went thought by this type of teaching. The gift theory thought out by Mauss permit to analyze the taalibe-beggar social functions' evolution, which should not be confused with a faxman (children of the streets), also present in Senegal.

International negotiation competitions are not a new phenomenon. These competitionshave been growing in popularity worldwide and have several pedagogic benefits forthe participants. Unfortunately, so far have been targeted only to students from the lawor business fields excluding students from other fields, including the humanitarianstudents. These students are likely to follow a career where negotiations play a keyrole, nevertheless, they are not well prepared for it. The purpose of this thesis is toexplore these benefits and the transferability of these competition models to thehumanitarian sector. This thesis, therefore, seeks to answer the research question“What benefits can international negotiation competitions have for participants?” and“Could students in the humanitarian sector benefit from negotiation competitionsadapted to the challenges they are likely to face?”. The study comprises of bothquantitative and qualitative methodological approaches. An analysis of existingliterature was undertaken alongside a pre-study survey to humanitarian students, 15expert interviews and an online survey to participants to negotiation competitions.The thesis presents the opinions of a variety of experts and participants in negotiationcompetitions and reveals several benefits of participation in such events. Thesebenefits include: skill development, multicultural environment, simulation of realemotions, feedback from judges, networking opportunities and promotion of the field.The findings also suggest that the transferability of this model to humanitarian studentscould be not only possible but beneficial, yet some barriers could arise. Explanation ofpossible barriers to this implementation and possible solutions to mitigate them aredisclosed.