Timothy Wells
Biographic Data
| ID | 96034 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Timothy Wells |
| GIVEN NAMES | Timothy |
| FAMILY NAME | Wells |
| SIGNATURE | WELLS T |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5604-7081 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 56 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Locating the “local” in aid localisation: The case of humanitarian response in Myanmar
Meanings and practices of accountability in the international development sector: The limits of “vernacularization” in rural Cambodia
Motivation Accountability agendas have long been promoted through the policies and programmes of international development organizations around the world. Despite increasing scholarly interest in how political concepts, such as human rights, are “vernacularized” into local contexts, there has been little consideration to date of the vernacularization of ideas and practices of accountability. Purpose This study fills this gap by exploring the vern…
Calibrated engagement: Chronicles of local politics in the heartland of Myanmar
Narratives of Localisation in Times of ‘Crisis: Local Intermediary Actors and the International Aid Industry in Myanmar
This article adopts a narrative analysis to explore contrasting approaches to ‘localisation’, and links with power struggles in an unequal aid industry. Drawing on qualitative research with aid workers in Myanmar, we analyse how ‘crises’ provide opportunities to challenge dominant narratives, but can also be instrumentalised to reinforce existing power inequalities. We show that the humanitarian ‘crisis’ precipitated by Myanmar’s 2021 coup sharpe…
The Elite Paradigm Driving Australian Aid Policy: Learning to Live With the ‘Cautious Consensus
This article explores the underlying reasons for why the Albanese Labor Governmentʼs stated policy ambition to ‘rebuild Australiaʼs international development program’ has not yet been accomplished and is unlikely to be realised, at least in the near‐to‐medium term. Based on interviews conducted with 21 Australian Members of Parliament, we find that the ‘cautious consensus’—a collection of ideas guiding elite perspectives on Australian aid policy …
Compliance and coloniality: Aid bureaucracy and the failures of 'localisation' in Myanmar's complex emergency
In this article, we explore how logics and systems of coloniality are reproduced through the bureaucracy of international aid. Drawing on qualitative research with civil society and international aid workers in Myanmar, we examine tensions between international agencies' 'do no harm' and 'localisation' commitments and their compliance requirements. We demonstrate that international compliance frameworks are experienced as top-down and overly rigi…
Bad adopters or bad proponents of technology? Facebook and the violence against Muslims in Myanmar
The violence towards the Rohingya people in Myanmar has been well documented, with Facebook serving as a key site for the proliferation of anti-Muslim hate speech in the country.There are differing explanations as to the extent and significance of its role in contributing to this conflict.Some analyses have cited Myanmar's internal deficiencies, framing the country as a bad adopter of technologies.These depictions rarely consider the broader cond…
International Aid Partnerships Amidst Myanmar's Revolution: Solidarity or Self-Preservation and Compliance
Along with its broader impact in the country, Myanmar's 2021 coup and subsequent revolution have brought an upheaval amongst international aid agencies. As they have pivoted their programmes in the new context, international agencies have faced criticism from many Myanmar humanitarian and advocacy organisations. Drawing on interviews from 2022, this article argues that the way in which aid is given – in relation to context-specific conventions of…
Seeing like a donor: The Unintended Harms of Rendering Civil Society Legible
Following the Grand Bargain, there has been increasing focus on aid localisation and partnerships between international and local aid agencies. Yet there has been less scholarly attention on how and why international agency policies and partnerships can cause unintended harm to civil society organisations and their staff. Drawing on James Scott’s seminal work Seeing like a State, and interviews with Myanmar civil society organisation leaders in 2…
Chinese aid and new contests over the meaning of human rights in Asia
Speculative methodological subjects
Times of (post) health crisis, global unrest, and political turmoil, a reliance on conventional methods, which potentially lack radical imagination and future orientation, experimentation, and open-endedness, might not be enough. Furthermore, within the discourses of conventional qualitative inquiry, methodological subjects are often seen as overly pre-determined, singular, and static. In this paper, we approach the conceptual and practical chall…
Bright, shiny, inconsequential’? The rise and fall of innovation labs in the aid sector
Within the humanitarian and development sectors over the last 15 years, innovation ‘labs’, ‘units’, ‘spaces’ and ‘exchanges’ have become immensely popular. Yet while hundreds of labs have been formed by non-government organisations, United Nations agencies and bilateral and multilateral agencies, many have now been dissolved. Why did leaders in the humanitarian and development sectors so strongly advocate for creation of labs, and then so quickly…
The imaginary of a modern city: Post-politics and Myanmar’s urban development
Theories of ‘post-politics’ provide a lens through which to analyse contemporary urban development. Yet empirical studies examining this ‘age of post-politics’ are few, especially outside of Europe and North America. This article examines the promise and limits of notions of post-politics through the case of planning for New Yangon City, a multi-billion dollar urban development in Myanmar (Burma). While the 2021 military coup has now made the fut…
The Vernacularisation of Human Rights Discourse in Myanmar: Rejection, Hybridisation and Strategic Avoidance
Violence against Muslim minority communities in Myanmar has brought the issue of human rights to international and domestic attention. Burmese democratic leaders, activists and Buddhist monks have attracted sharp international criticism for their seemingly neglectful responses to widespread human rights violations. Yet little attention has been directed towards understanding how these leaders make sense of "human rights." This article argues that…
How activists are using Facebook in Myanmar for democratic ends, but Facebook itself also facilitated hate speech
At varying times over the past 15 years, Facebook and other social media sites have been idealised by pundits, media, Western governments, and the tech industry as a tool catalysing democratic change during periods of political unrest in authoritarian countries. The events of the Arab Spring, in particular, propelled social media to the front lines of global attention as a potential democratising tool
What parliamentarians think about Australia's post‐Covid‐19 aid program: The emerging ‘cautious consensus’ in Australian aid
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Government has been ambiguous in the way it has communicated the aid budget. On some occasions, it has sought to downplay increases in aid spending, while at other times it has sought to downplay cuts to aid spending. We draw on interviews with federal parliamentarians and key informants to understand these dynamics, in the context of obtaining their views on changes to Australia's post-COV…
Working through the experiences of first-generation students of color, university mission, intersectionality, and post-subjectivity
This qualitative study investigates how first-generation undergraduate students of Color at a historically white institution in the U.S. make sense and process the university’s mission, especially in relation to the theoretical frameworks of intersectionality and post-subjectivity. U.S. universities are often structured on market-driven ideologies. They do not necessarily deeply take into account the experiences of their first-generation students…
Relational spaces: Wit(h)ness-Ing Inwritescapes
This paper might not describe spatial writing or qualitative inquiry. This paper might not express or represent writing in well-defined space by clearly identified scholars or authors. This paper might not write and presented images might not speak. Instead, possibilities in this paper might be stimulated through the acts of reading, writing, thinking, and doing. Writescapes, as lived and discussed in this paper, have potential to create and prod…
Narratives of Donor Accountability in Support to Peace Processes: The Case of the Joint Peace Fund in Myanmar
There is a growing scholarly focus on the accountability of Northern donors in their work in recipient countries. Yet scholarly work on donor accountability has given limited attention to the complex challenges of accountability when donors are engaged in supporting peace processes. Further, literature on donor accountability often focuses on examination of accountability mechanisms and relationships, whilst the way accountability is understood a…
Can advocacy change the views of politicians about aid? The potential and limits of a presence-based approach
Advocates of foreign aid in OECD countries navigate a unique form of politics. The beneficiaries of foreign aid spending have little voice in elite level decision-making about aid commitments from OECD countries. Thus foreign aid spending has a form of politics unlike other areas of policy where there is more direct budget accountability with citizens. Scholarly attention has increased on this unusual domestic politics of aid spending yet there r…
Interpretive Complexity and Crisis: The History of International Aid to Myanmar
Narrative of Amor Fati: Meditations on Life and Death
The purpose of this article is to consider a philosophical concept in terms of narrative inquiry. In this instance, the authors explore the Nietzschean concept of Amor Fati and explore what it means to construct narratives based on this concept. The authors provide a detailed literature review of Narrative Inquiry and align their work with the post qualitative narratives, specifically new materialism based on the work of Rosi Braidotti. The artic…
Narrative and elucidating the concept of democracy: The case of Myanmar’s activists and democratic leaders
Narrative analysis has been widely employed in the social sciences. Yet there has been no systematic application of narrative theory to the study of how the word "democracy" is given meaning by political actors. Using the empirical example of the Burmese democracy movement in the lead up to the historic 2015 election victory of the National League for Democracy, this article argues that narrative analysis can contribute in unique ways to the inte…
Democratic ‘freedom’ in Myanmar
In Robert Dahl’s work on ‘polyarchy’, democratic ‘freedom’ is liberty from the abuses of the state and freedom for citizens to formulate and express their preferences. This meaning of freedom is central to contemporary scholarship on democratization. At the same time, freedom has also been a key concept for activists and leaders involved in Myanmar’s long democratic struggles. Yet, when freedom is referred to by Burmese activists and democratic l…
(De)humanizing the Other and the All
Interpretive Complexity and Crisis: The History of International Aid to Myanmar
Democratic ‘freedom’ in Myanmar
In Robert Dahl’s work on ‘polyarchy’, democratic ‘freedom’ is liberty from the abuses of the state and freedom for citizens to formulate and express their preferences. This meaning of freedom is central to contemporary scholarship on democratization. At the same time, freedom has also been a key concept for activists and leaders involved in Myanmar’s long democratic struggles. Yet, when freedom is referred to by Burmese activists and democratic l…
International Aid Partnerships Amidst Myanmar's Revolution: Solidarity or Self-Preservation and Compliance
Along with its broader impact in the country, Myanmar's 2021 coup and subsequent revolution have brought an upheaval amongst international aid agencies. As they have pivoted their programmes in the new context, international agencies have faced criticism from many Myanmar humanitarian and advocacy organisations. Drawing on interviews from 2022, this article argues that the way in which aid is given – in relation to context-specific conventions of…
Narrative and elucidating the concept of democracy: The case of Myanmar’s activists and democratic leaders
Narrative analysis has been widely employed in the social sciences. Yet there has been no systematic application of narrative theory to the study of how the word "democracy" is given meaning by political actors. Using the empirical example of the Burmese democracy movement in the lead up to the historic 2015 election victory of the National League for Democracy, this article argues that narrative analysis can contribute in unique ways to the inte…
The Vernacularisation of Human Rights Discourse in Myanmar: Rejection, Hybridisation and Strategic Avoidance
Violence against Muslim minority communities in Myanmar has brought the issue of human rights to international and domestic attention. Burmese democratic leaders, activists and Buddhist monks have attracted sharp international criticism for their seemingly neglectful responses to widespread human rights violations. Yet little attention has been directed towards understanding how these leaders make sense of "human rights." This article argues that…
Working through the experiences of first-generation students of color, university mission, intersectionality, and post-subjectivity
This qualitative study investigates how first-generation undergraduate students of Color at a historically white institution in the U.S. make sense and process the university’s mission, especially in relation to the theoretical frameworks of intersectionality and post-subjectivity. U.S. universities are often structured on market-driven ideologies. They do not necessarily deeply take into account the experiences of their first-generation students…
Seeing like a donor: The Unintended Harms of Rendering Civil Society Legible
Following the Grand Bargain, there has been increasing focus on aid localisation and partnerships between international and local aid agencies. Yet there has been less scholarly attention on how and why international agency policies and partnerships can cause unintended harm to civil society organisations and their staff. Drawing on James Scott’s seminal work Seeing like a State, and interviews with Myanmar civil society organisation leaders in 2…
Bad adopters or bad proponents of technology? Facebook and the violence against Muslims in Myanmar
The violence towards the Rohingya people in Myanmar has been well documented, with Facebook serving as a key site for the proliferation of anti-Muslim hate speech in the country.There are differing explanations as to the extent and significance of its role in contributing to this conflict.Some analyses have cited Myanmar's internal deficiencies, framing the country as a bad adopter of technologies.These depictions rarely consider the broader cond…
The imaginary of a modern city: Post-politics and Myanmar’s urban development
Theories of ‘post-politics’ provide a lens through which to analyse contemporary urban development. Yet empirical studies examining this ‘age of post-politics’ are few, especially outside of Europe and North America. This article examines the promise and limits of notions of post-politics through the case of planning for New Yangon City, a multi-billion dollar urban development in Myanmar (Burma). While the 2021 military coup has now made the fut…
What parliamentarians think about Australia's post‐Covid‐19 aid program: The emerging ‘cautious consensus’ in Australian aid
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Government has been ambiguous in the way it has communicated the aid budget. On some occasions, it has sought to downplay increases in aid spending, while at other times it has sought to downplay cuts to aid spending. We draw on interviews with federal parliamentarians and key informants to understand these dynamics, in the context of obtaining their views on changes to Australia's post-COV…
Relational spaces: Wit(h)ness-Ing Inwritescapes
This paper might not describe spatial writing or qualitative inquiry. This paper might not express or represent writing in well-defined space by clearly identified scholars or authors. This paper might not write and presented images might not speak. Instead, possibilities in this paper might be stimulated through the acts of reading, writing, thinking, and doing. Writescapes, as lived and discussed in this paper, have potential to create and prod…
Narratives of Localisation in Times of ‘Crisis: Local Intermediary Actors and the International Aid Industry in Myanmar
This article adopts a narrative analysis to explore contrasting approaches to ‘localisation’, and links with power struggles in an unequal aid industry. Drawing on qualitative research with aid workers in Myanmar, we analyse how ‘crises’ provide opportunities to challenge dominant narratives, but can also be instrumentalised to reinforce existing power inequalities. We show that the humanitarian ‘crisis’ precipitated by Myanmar’s 2021 coup sharpe…
Narratives of Donor Accountability in Support to Peace Processes: The Case of the Joint Peace Fund in Myanmar
There is a growing scholarly focus on the accountability of Northern donors in their work in recipient countries. Yet scholarly work on donor accountability has given limited attention to the complex challenges of accountability when donors are engaged in supporting peace processes. Further, literature on donor accountability often focuses on examination of accountability mechanisms and relationships, whilst the way accountability is understood a…
Can advocacy change the views of politicians about aid? The potential and limits of a presence-based approach
Advocates of foreign aid in OECD countries navigate a unique form of politics. The beneficiaries of foreign aid spending have little voice in elite level decision-making about aid commitments from OECD countries. Thus foreign aid spending has a form of politics unlike other areas of policy where there is more direct budget accountability with citizens. Scholarly attention has increased on this unusual domestic politics of aid spending yet there r…
(De)humanizing the Other and the All
Perceptions of Human Attractiveness Comprising Face and Voice Cues
Perceptions of Human Attractiveness Comprising Face and Voice Cues
(De)humanizing the Other and the All
Narrative of Amor Fati: Meditations on Life and Death
The purpose of this article is to consider a philosophical concept in terms of narrative inquiry. In this instance, the authors explore the Nietzschean concept of Amor Fati and explore what it means to construct narratives based on this concept. The authors provide a detailed literature review of Narrative Inquiry and align their work with the post qualitative narratives, specifically new materialism based on the work of Rosi Braidotti. The artic…
Narrative and elucidating the concept of democracy: The case of Myanmar’s activists and democratic leaders
Narrative analysis has been widely employed in the social sciences. Yet there has been no systematic application of narrative theory to the study of how the word "democracy" is given meaning by political actors. Using the empirical example of the Burmese democracy movement in the lead up to the historic 2015 election victory of the National League for Democracy, this article argues that narrative analysis can contribute in unique ways to the inte…
Democratic ‘freedom’ in Myanmar
In Robert Dahl’s work on ‘polyarchy’, democratic ‘freedom’ is liberty from the abuses of the state and freedom for citizens to formulate and express their preferences. This meaning of freedom is central to contemporary scholarship on democratization. At the same time, freedom has also been a key concept for activists and leaders involved in Myanmar’s long democratic struggles. Yet, when freedom is referred to by Burmese activists and democratic l…
Narratives of Donor Accountability in Support to Peace Processes: The Case of the Joint Peace Fund in Myanmar
There is a growing scholarly focus on the accountability of Northern donors in their work in recipient countries. Yet scholarly work on donor accountability has given limited attention to the complex challenges of accountability when donors are engaged in supporting peace processes. Further, literature on donor accountability often focuses on examination of accountability mechanisms and relationships, whilst the way accountability is understood a…
Can advocacy change the views of politicians about aid? The potential and limits of a presence-based approach
Advocates of foreign aid in OECD countries navigate a unique form of politics. The beneficiaries of foreign aid spending have little voice in elite level decision-making about aid commitments from OECD countries. Thus foreign aid spending has a form of politics unlike other areas of policy where there is more direct budget accountability with citizens. Scholarly attention has increased on this unusual domestic politics of aid spending yet there r…
Interpretive Complexity and Crisis: The History of International Aid to Myanmar
Working through the experiences of first-generation students of color, university mission, intersectionality, and post-subjectivity
This qualitative study investigates how first-generation undergraduate students of Color at a historically white institution in the U.S. make sense and process the university’s mission, especially in relation to the theoretical frameworks of intersectionality and post-subjectivity. U.S. universities are often structured on market-driven ideologies. They do not necessarily deeply take into account the experiences of their first-generation students…
Relational spaces: Wit(h)ness-Ing Inwritescapes
This paper might not describe spatial writing or qualitative inquiry. This paper might not express or represent writing in well-defined space by clearly identified scholars or authors. This paper might not write and presented images might not speak. Instead, possibilities in this paper might be stimulated through the acts of reading, writing, thinking, and doing. Writescapes, as lived and discussed in this paper, have potential to create and prod…
How activists are using Facebook in Myanmar for democratic ends, but Facebook itself also facilitated hate speech
At varying times over the past 15 years, Facebook and other social media sites have been idealised by pundits, media, Western governments, and the tech industry as a tool catalysing democratic change during periods of political unrest in authoritarian countries. The events of the Arab Spring, in particular, propelled social media to the front lines of global attention as a potential democratising tool
What parliamentarians think about Australia's post‐Covid‐19 aid program: The emerging ‘cautious consensus’ in Australian aid
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Government has been ambiguous in the way it has communicated the aid budget. On some occasions, it has sought to downplay increases in aid spending, while at other times it has sought to downplay cuts to aid spending. We draw on interviews with federal parliamentarians and key informants to understand these dynamics, in the context of obtaining their views on changes to Australia's post-COV…
The imaginary of a modern city: Post-politics and Myanmar’s urban development
Theories of ‘post-politics’ provide a lens through which to analyse contemporary urban development. Yet empirical studies examining this ‘age of post-politics’ are few, especially outside of Europe and North America. This article examines the promise and limits of notions of post-politics through the case of planning for New Yangon City, a multi-billion dollar urban development in Myanmar (Burma). While the 2021 military coup has now made the fut…
The Vernacularisation of Human Rights Discourse in Myanmar: Rejection, Hybridisation and Strategic Avoidance
Violence against Muslim minority communities in Myanmar has brought the issue of human rights to international and domestic attention. Burmese democratic leaders, activists and Buddhist monks have attracted sharp international criticism for their seemingly neglectful responses to widespread human rights violations. Yet little attention has been directed towards understanding how these leaders make sense of "human rights." This article argues that…
Chinese aid and new contests over the meaning of human rights in Asia
Speculative methodological subjects
Times of (post) health crisis, global unrest, and political turmoil, a reliance on conventional methods, which potentially lack radical imagination and future orientation, experimentation, and open-endedness, might not be enough. Furthermore, within the discourses of conventional qualitative inquiry, methodological subjects are often seen as overly pre-determined, singular, and static. In this paper, we approach the conceptual and practical chall…
Bright, shiny, inconsequential’? The rise and fall of innovation labs in the aid sector
Within the humanitarian and development sectors over the last 15 years, innovation ‘labs’, ‘units’, ‘spaces’ and ‘exchanges’ have become immensely popular. Yet while hundreds of labs have been formed by non-government organisations, United Nations agencies and bilateral and multilateral agencies, many have now been dissolved. Why did leaders in the humanitarian and development sectors so strongly advocate for creation of labs, and then so quickly…
Bad adopters or bad proponents of technology? Facebook and the violence against Muslims in Myanmar
The violence towards the Rohingya people in Myanmar has been well documented, with Facebook serving as a key site for the proliferation of anti-Muslim hate speech in the country.There are differing explanations as to the extent and significance of its role in contributing to this conflict.Some analyses have cited Myanmar's internal deficiencies, framing the country as a bad adopter of technologies.These depictions rarely consider the broader cond…
International Aid Partnerships Amidst Myanmar's Revolution: Solidarity or Self-Preservation and Compliance
Along with its broader impact in the country, Myanmar's 2021 coup and subsequent revolution have brought an upheaval amongst international aid agencies. As they have pivoted their programmes in the new context, international agencies have faced criticism from many Myanmar humanitarian and advocacy organisations. Drawing on interviews from 2022, this article argues that the way in which aid is given – in relation to context-specific conventions of…
Seeing like a donor: The Unintended Harms of Rendering Civil Society Legible
Following the Grand Bargain, there has been increasing focus on aid localisation and partnerships between international and local aid agencies. Yet there has been less scholarly attention on how and why international agency policies and partnerships can cause unintended harm to civil society organisations and their staff. Drawing on James Scott’s seminal work Seeing like a State, and interviews with Myanmar civil society organisation leaders in 2…
Calibrated engagement: Chronicles of local politics in the heartland of Myanmar
Narratives of Localisation in Times of ‘Crisis: Local Intermediary Actors and the International Aid Industry in Myanmar
This article adopts a narrative analysis to explore contrasting approaches to ‘localisation’, and links with power struggles in an unequal aid industry. Drawing on qualitative research with aid workers in Myanmar, we analyse how ‘crises’ provide opportunities to challenge dominant narratives, but can also be instrumentalised to reinforce existing power inequalities. We show that the humanitarian ‘crisis’ precipitated by Myanmar’s 2021 coup sharpe…
The Elite Paradigm Driving Australian Aid Policy: Learning to Live With the ‘Cautious Consensus
This article explores the underlying reasons for why the Albanese Labor Governmentʼs stated policy ambition to ‘rebuild Australiaʼs international development program’ has not yet been accomplished and is unlikely to be realised, at least in the near‐to‐medium term. Based on interviews conducted with 21 Australian Members of Parliament, we find that the ‘cautious consensus’—a collection of ideas guiding elite perspectives on Australian aid policy …
Compliance and coloniality: Aid bureaucracy and the failures of 'localisation' in Myanmar's complex emergency
In this article, we explore how logics and systems of coloniality are reproduced through the bureaucracy of international aid. Drawing on qualitative research with civil society and international aid workers in Myanmar, we examine tensions between international agencies' 'do no harm' and 'localisation' commitments and their compliance requirements. We demonstrate that international compliance frameworks are experienced as top-down and overly rigi…
Locating the “local” in aid localisation: The case of humanitarian response in Myanmar
Political science (18 works) · Politics (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Law (15 works) · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography (13 works) · Law (13 works) · International Development and Aid (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Democracy (6 works)