Punctuated Humanitarianism

Palestinian Life between the Catastrophic and the Cruddy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8970327
AutoresIlana Feldman (0000-0002-3347-411X, George Washington University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen48
Número2
Páginas372-376
Fecha de publicación2016-04-07
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743816000118
OpenAlexW2324012716
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias 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