The study described in this thesis represents one of the first attempts to explore belongingness as a practice among aid workers, and to contribute to our understanding of how people account for belonging in situ. In psychology, belongingness has predominantly been studied in laboratory settings, or among those who report not belonging in some way. This has led to concerns about ecological validity, and a neglect of ‘real world’ contexts in the development of belongingness theory. Through semi‐structured interviews with 25 international aid workers, using web‐based calling software (Skype), a discursive psychological approach was employed to rework belongingness as a discursive practice. Belonging was found to be an activity for which participants made themselves accountable, and in so doing worked to manage issues of blame and justification in their interactions. Aid workers constructed fitting in as necessary, but ultimately futile, formulating accounts around inherent and immutable differences with local people. The analysis also explored the ways in which participants constructed efforts to achieve belonging; much of which involved the manipulation of appearance, particularly the use of strategic dressing. Through analysis of participants’ treatment of belonging in interaction it was found that, in practice, belonging was formulated as a continuum rather than a dichotomy.

Det finns ett stort och konstant behov av sjuksköterskor inom internationellt biståndsarbete. Vad en sjuksköterska gör vid uppdrag skiljer sig från det svenska omvårdnadsarbetet. Arbetet innebär mycket glädje av att göra gott men samtidigt många tragiska upplevelser. Den här studien var empiriskt förankrad med syfte att beskriva sjuksköterskors emotionella upplevelser vid internationellt biståndsarbete för Läkare Utan Gränser. Det empiriska materialet bestod av bloggar, reseberättelser och intervjuer som analyserades och presenterades under kategorierna före, under och efter uppdrag. Under den första kategorin visade det sig att sjuksköterskorna förberedde sig på ett hårt och krävande uppdrag, samtidigt var det svårt att föreställa sig vad som skulle mötas. Under uppdraget upplevdes positiva och negativa känslor relaterade till yrkesrollen. Arbetet var en utmaning och gav en härlig känsla att vara med och påverka. Sjuksköterskorna uttryckte efter uppdraget att det inte gick att förbereda sig på vilka känslor som skulle upplevas. Uppdragen gav energi och känslan av att ha vuxit som människa. Det framkom i studien att det var svårt att vara förberedd inför ett uppdrag, det uttrycktes frustration men ingen stress vilket andra studier visade. Sjuksköterskorna fick lära sig se med nya ögon och interaktionen med patienterna påverkades. / There is a great and constant need for nurses in international aid work. What a nurse does as an aid worker is different compared to the ordinary Swedish nurse. The work involves a lot of pleasure from doing good, but also many tragic experiences. This study is empirically based with a view to highlight nurses emotional perceptions in international aid work for MSF. The empirical data consisted of blogs, travel stories and interviews that were analyzed and presented in categories before, during and after missions. The first category showed that nurses were preparing for a tough and demanding mission, but it was difficult for them to imagine what they were going to meet. During the mission, both positive and negative feelings were related to the professional role. The work was a challenge and it was a great feeling to be able to make a difference. The assignments gave energy and the feeling of having grown as a person. The study revealed that it was difficult to be prepared for a mission, the nurses expressed frustration but no stress, which other studies showed. The nurses had to learn to see with new eyes and the interaction with the patients was affected.

In this auto-ethnography, I use my experience of volunteering during the 'European refugee crisis' to pose a critique of how humanitarian aid is negotiated in its everyday practice. I identify four main groups of actors involved in the negotiation, namely the aid-workers, the volunteers, the locals and the refugees themselves. The goal of this work is to explore the mechanisms and causes of the marginalisation of the locals, and most importantly, of the refugees in this negotiation. Following De Genova's theory of migrant "illegalisation" I argue that the marginalisation of refugees is a result of the way the European border regime operates and I explore both the complicity of humanitarians in this regime and also how they challenged it. Following Agier's theory of the "humanitarian government", I argue that there is very little space for agency of people designated as refugees in humanitarian aid, and I analyse the power of aid-workers over the refugees. Last but not least, I use Pandolfi's concept of the humanitarian apparatus as a form of "migrant sovereignty" to show how humanitarians partly took over the local political practices in a setting of a humanitarian crisis on one of the Greek islands, and I describe the effects of this take-over on the local population.

This thesis aims to explore what factors support aid workers to continue in the humanitarian sector, even with the knowledge that their personal well-being, and sometimes their lives, may be in danger due to risk-filled settings and assignments. To find out what factors that encourage aid workers to continue, the thesis also examines their backgrounds and paths into this profession. It further aims to determine what factors the aid workers find difficult in their work and what coping strategies they use to deal with the difficulties in order to prevent and recover from exhaustion and burnout. Data was derived from semi-structured in-depth interviews with experienced aid workers from both global south[1] and global north[2] countries, working in different organizations, countries and contexts. This material was complemented by an unstructured literature review. The theories that have been used for the analysis and as a guiding framework is mainly the notion of habitus by Pierre Bourdieu (1986, 1996) and, as a complement, the theory of intersectionality (Mattsson, 2010). A number of factors that encourage humanitarian aid workers throughout their careers have been identified. In the research findings, the following themes were distinguished to answer the aim and questions at issue; impeding factors, social background and supporting factors. Impeding factors are included and investigated since they can help to explain what it is that encourage aid workers to persist despite the difficulties they face. Results indicate that the aid workers to a certain extent have been affected by role models and cultural, social and economic conditions and experiences in their upbringing, which have all played a role throughout their careers. Other supporting factors have been gained through the aid work over time, such as developing ways to make it more effective to avoid exhaustion and burnout. The study further shows that a person’s background, as understood via Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, may affect the supporting factors over time. The initial motives to engage in aid work tends to perpetuate throughout the career, and aid workers return back to, and find strength in, such motives after facing burnout. Moreover, it is demonstrated that finding one’s personal coping strategies is essential, such as hobbies and spending time with loved ones. When recovering from exhaustion and burnout, innovations in behavior and more efficient ways to work can be developed. Hence, the supporting factors can change with time.

Bakgrund: Internationellt humanitärt arbete är ett område där sjuksköterskor är aktiva. Att delta i internationella humanitära insatser innebär emellertid att arbeta i miljöer annorlunda från de normala med andra förutsättningar. Miljön där sjuksköterskan arbetar påverkar också omvårdnaden och det ingår tillika i sjuksköterskans yrkeskunskap att ha kunskap om den miljön där arbetet äger rum. Tidigare forskning visar att sjuksköterskor inte känner sig tillräckligt förberedda inför arbetet i dessa sammanhang. Syfte: Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av miljön i internationella humanitära insatser samt hur upplevelser av arbetet i denna miljö, kommer till uttryck i egna berättelser. Metod: Kvalitativ textanalys, enligt Holme och Solvang, av 18 narrativa artiklar skrivna av sjuksköterskor, eller i enstaka fall intervjuer med sjuksköterskor, som deltagit i internationella humanitära insatser. Resultat: Genom analys av de narrativa artiklarna framkom fyra huvudteman: Bristande resurser, Utsatthet, Emotionella möten, samt Coping. I temat Bristande resurser beskrivs miljön. Miljön präglades av resurssvaghet, något som påverkade sjuksköterskornas arbete. Utsatthet skildrar hur sjuksköterskorna utsattes för risker och faror under uppdragen. Under temat Emotionella möten återfinns sjuksköterskornas beskrivningar av betydelsefulla möten med lokalbefolkningen. Coping berör sjuksköterskornas beskrivningar av strategier för att hantera svårigheter, teamets betydelse samt hur uppdragen upplevdes som givande. Slutsats: Resursbristen i arbetet upplevdes som svår. Arbetet i de internationella uppdragen hade stora variationer. Kreativitet, flexibilitet och förståelse var viktiga för att hantera svårigheter i arbetet under uppdragen. Genom att sätta in resultatet av studien i en klassificeringsmodell av omvårdnadsvetenskapens områden kan internationellt humanitärt arbete konceptualiseras utifrån ett omvårdnadsvetenskapligt perspektiv. Klinisk betydelse: Resultatet från denna studie kan användas för att förbättra utbildningen för sjuksköterskor i internationella humanitära insatser. / Background: International humanitarian aid work is a field where nurses are active. Yet, to participate in international humanitarian action is to work in an environment different from what is normal with unlike circumstances. The environment where nurses work also has an effect on the nursing care and it is a part of the nurses’ professional knowledge to have insight of the environment in which the work takes place. Earlier research suggests that nurses feel inadequately prepared for the work in this context. Aim: The aim of the study was to explore in which way nurses’ experiences of the environment in international humanitarian aid work and how experiences of the work in such environment, are expressed in their own narrated texts. Methodology: Qualitative textual analysis, according to the way of Holme and Solvang, of 18 narrated articles written by nurses, or in a few cases interviews with nurses, whom have all participated in international humanitarian aid work. Result: Four main themes emerged from the analysis of the material: Lack of resources, Vulnerability, Emotional meetings, and Coping. The theme Lack of resources describes the environment. The environment was characterized by resource weakness, which affected the nurses' work. Exposure depicts how nurses were exposed to hazards and dangers during the missions. In the theme Emotional meeting the nurses descriptions of meaningful encounters with the locals is to be found. Coping relates to the nurses descriptions of strategies to address difficulties, the importance of the team and how the missions were experienced as meaningful. Conclusions: Lack of resources was perceived as difficult. The work of the international commissions had wide variations. Creativity, flexibility and understanding were important to address difficulties during the missions. By inserting the results of the study in a classification model of nursing science areas, international humanitarian aid work can be conceptualized from a nursing science perspective. Clinical impact: The results of this study can be used to improve education for nurses in international humanitarian aid work.

This thesis is a postcolonial discussion about stereotype imagery of the third world, asconveyed by aid organization, and the implications of such images. Stereotyping is ahuman rights issue because it concerns inferiority and superiority, and can in the end beboiled down to a matter of equality. It is therefore an issue that needs to be up for constant review in aid organizations, who mainly claim human rights as their value base.The thesis is a single case study, looking intensely into the phenomenon of stereotypingas located within aid organizations. It looks through the lens of postcolonial theory,as it is a perspective that revolves mainly around concepts like identity, racism and stereotyping. It is constructed in two major parts, where the first part goes through the history of imperialism and the representations of ‘the Other’ it produced, and the seconddetermines through empirical observations that aid organizations do convey stereotypicimages, albeit more in terms of how they deal with the images than what they contain.The results of the empirical investigation matches well with the explanations of postcolonial theory, as the way the images are dealt with by aid organizations contributes to establish the aid receivers as ‘the Other’. Research also show that advertisement canfunction to both strengthen and alter previously established perceptions, which calls fororganizations to design ads and information material with caution. It is however also agood thing, as it is possible to begin the process of reversing stereotypes.The conclusion is that postcolonial theory can provide awareness for the origins andmechanisms of stereotyping, which is an issue any organization who claim human rightsas their value base should engage in a debate about. If we truly care about equality thisis an area of the work that needs review.

Gender equality and women's rights have long been a prioritised topic for Swedish aid agencies. In this thesis the aim is through qualitative interviews with employees at the Swedish aid organisation Act Church of Sweden, to unravel some of the challenges met when working with this issue. The respondents all worked at the office in Uppsala or with the office in Uppsala, but tightly with partner organisations. Act Church of Sweden works together with partner organisations in every part of the world with different topics, gender equality being one of them. The results of the interviews showed a wide range of challenges related to a local level at the partner organisations, but also at a global level with patriarchal structures and gender backlash, as well as at the organisational level with administration, resources and funding. Unique were aso the faith-based challenges highlighted by the respondents. The results were discussed together with two theories; Intersectional Feminist Theory and Jack Donnelly’s Universality of Human Rights.

A new form of foreign travel called “voluntourism” has emerged in Sweden. In advertisements that invite to “make a difference”, travel agencies promote short- term aid opportunities at for example orphanages or schools in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. International volunteer work is nothing new. Rather, the volunteer agencies have entered an old and established organizational field. Using theories of new institutionalism and the analytical phrase “the story about”, this thesis investigates the way international aid work originated and evolved, and how commercial volunteer agencies entered the field. The thesis is partly based on historical data from organizational reports, biographies of aid work icons, and interviews with volunteers active during the 1960s and 1970s. Additionally, it makes use of contemporary data from interviews with representatives from volunteer travel agencies and volunteers. It also includes an analysis of how the travel agencies present their business operations on their websites. The thesis concludes that travel agencies apply the common perception of international aid work’s characteristics when marketing volunteer travels. This common perception can be traced through the evolution of international aid work. Travel agencies attract volunteers by offering access to this exclusive field. The volunteers are well-educated young women from middle class families. They are looking for experiences from international aid work, perspective on their own lives, and first-hand knowledge of local and traditional societies in poor countries. Nevertheless, due to the esteem in which the organizational field is viewed, a brief period spent as an aid worker is considered a desirable qualification for a job applicant. I interpret volunteer travel as a “grand tour”.

Sammanfattning Studien syftar till att ge fördjupad kunskap om svenskt internationellt biståndsarbete samt hur problem formuleras och lösningar konstrueras av biståndsorganisationernas arbetsätt.  Studien är genomförd med en kvalitativ metod och det empiriska materialet har inhämtats genom intervjuer. Intervjuerna genomfördes med tre ledande personer från två svenska biståndsorganisationer som arbetar på internationell nivå. Vidare inryms i studien observationer från dessa två biståndsorganisationer. Studiens teoretiska perspektiv är den postkoloniala teorin, teorin om konstruktion av sociala problem samt begreppen kolonialism och eurocentrisk diffusion. Resultatet i studien visar att de studerade biståndsorganisationerna i stora drag har ett liknande tillvägagångssätt i sitt arbete med internationellt bistånd. De arbetar utifrån att ha en stödjande roll gentemot mottagarna av biståndet så att mottagarna kan definiera sina behov och vara aktiva i lösningarna tillsammans med de svenska biståndsorganisationerna.  Samtidigt agerar de kontrollerande gällande huruvida biståndsorganisationernas egna visioner och värderingar ska vara styrande i utformningen av hjälparbetet.   De svenska biståndsorganisationernas mål är att kunskapsbilda, medvetandegöra och ombilda befintliga lokala organisationer för att förbättra människors levnadsvillkor till det bättre i utsatta länder. För att detta ska vara möjligt är det avgörande att samarbeta med lokala organisationer som är likasinnade med de svenska biståndsorganisationerna.  Studien påvisar att det finns en idé om att påverka mottagarna av biståndet genom eftersträvan av att de ska anamma de svenska biståndsgivarnas egna visioner och värderingar. Detta framkommer tydligt genom de svenska biståndsorganisationernas arbetsätt samt deras delaktighet vid formuleringar av problem och konstruktioner av lösningar hos biståndsmottagarna. Vidare framkommer att biståndsorganisationernas kunskapsgivande och ombildning av lokala organisationer bidrar med att västerländsk kunskapssyn sprids ut i världen. / The study aims to provide profound knowledge of Swedish international aid work and how problems are formulated and solutions designed by aid organizations working methods. The study is conducted using a qualitative approach and the empirical material has been collected through interviews and observations. The interviews took place with three leading figures from two Swedish aid organizations working at international level. Furthermore, are observations from these two aid organizations part of the studies method. The studies theoretical perspective is the post-colonial theory, the theory of constructions of social problems and the concept of colonialism and eurocentrism diffusion. The result of the study shows that the studied organizations have broadly similar procedures in their work with international aid work. The organizations work on a paradoxical basis. On the one hand they have a supporting role to the recipients of aid so that the recipients can define their own needs and be active in the solutions along with swedish aid organizations. On the other hand, the organizations acts controlling where their own vision and values are guiding the relief effort. The swedish aid organizations aim is to educate, raise awareness and transform existing organizations in the countries they operate in order to improve people's lives for the better in vulnerable countries around the world.  For achieving this purpose, it is crucial for them to work with local organizations that are like-minded the swedish aid organizations.  This study shows that there is an idea to affect the recipients of aid in pursuing them to embrace the Swedish donors' own visions and values. This is clearly shown by the Swedish aid organizations working methods as well as their involvement in the formulation of problems and constructions of solutions of aid recipients. Furthermore, it appears that the aid organizations' knowledge rewarding and transformation of local organizations contribute to Western conception of knowledge spread out in the world.