Being harmed while doing good

Affective injuries in a community development programme, Medan, Indonesia

Bibliographic Data

ID2253247
AuthorsT Jakimow (0000-0002-8780-1753, School of Social Sciences, Morven Brown Building University of New South Wales Kensington NSW, 2052 Australia, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume24
Issue3
Pages550-567
Publication date2018-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9655.12860
OpenAlexW2811050652
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited36

Complaints, accusations, and failures of gratitude are everyday experiences for volunteers in community-driven development in Medan, Indonesia. In this article I develop the analytic of 'affective injury' to describe the force of such encounters: the sensation of having one's ethical self questioned or put at risk that manifests as an immediate force or lingering hurt. While humanitarian and development workers are all susceptible to affective injuries, I argue that they operate on a different register for developers who belong to, and have an enduring relationship with, the 'community'. The ways local volunteers respond to, and seek to recover from, affective injuries are distinct from reflective responses to ethical dilemmas. The suppression of, or diversion from, thoughts that could derail self-understanding is a hindrance to reflexive development practice

Gratitude · Political science · Public relations · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Homelessness and Social Issues · Psychology · Religion, Society, and Development · Social Psychology