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Power Asymmetries in Humanitarian Aid : A Discourse Analysis of Power Hierarchies between European Citizen Aid Groups and Non-Western People on the Move

In this thesis, I investigate how three European citizen aid groups (Collective Aid, Refugee Women’s Centre, and No Name Kitchen) handle the asymmetrical power relationships between Western volunteers and non-Western people on the move. Inspired by postcolonial international relations literature and previous research on power asymmetries in humanitarian aid, I conduct a discourse analysis guided by the four categories “assuming equality through horizontal discourses”, “reconstituting social subjects”, “putting minds into motion”, and “civil disobedience”. I analyze the citizen aid groups’ online content, mostly social media posts, along with semi-structured interviews which I conducted with representatives from all three citizen aid groups. I conclude that two out of three Western citizen aid groups try to mitigate the interactional power inequalities between themselves and non-Western people on the move through their practices of humanitarian aid. Yet, all three groups show awareness of power hierarchies and attempt to mitigate them on a structural level by being openly political and denouncing the injustices facing people on the move in Europe.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-54844
Date January 2022
CreatorsDahl, Martine
PublisherMalmö universitet, Institutionen för globala politiska studier (GPS)
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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