Punctuated Humanitarianism

Palestinian Life between the Catastrophic and the Cruddy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8970327
AutoresIlana Feldman (0000-0002-3347-411X, George Washington University, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume48
Fascículo2
Páginas372-376
Data de publicação2016-04-07
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743816000118
OpenAlexW2324012716
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11
Referências citadas6

With a more than sixty-seven-year displacement, the Palestinian refugee case is an extreme instance of a widespread phenomenon: the need for humanitarian organizations that are oriented toward emergency to respond to circumstances that are “protracted.” Humanitarian practice does change as needs on the ground change, but long-term need and displacement poses both definitional and practical challenges for this work. The broad trajectory of Palestinian refugee experience has moved from “crisis” to chronic needs—what Elizabeth Povinelli calls “cruddy” conditions. Povinelli specifically contrasts suffering that is “catastrophic, crisis-laden, and sublime” with that which is “ordinary, chronic, and cruddy.” Palestinians share experiences of poverty and immobility with others around the world who are part of what is sometimes referred to as the “precariat.” It is this sort of suffering, which often persists below the threshold of an “event,” that Povinelli terms cruddy

Development economics · Displaced person · Displacement (psychology · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Humanitarian crisis · Phenomenon · Political economy · Political science · Poverty · Psychoanalysis · Refugee · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East Politics and Society · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology