The 'phantom local' and the everyday distinction practices of humanitarian actors in war : a socio-legal perspective

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dc.contributor.authorSUTTON, Rebecca
dc.date.accessioned2019-02-07T16:36:12Z
dc.date.available2019-02-07T16:36:12Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.descriptionPublished online: 27 Oct 2018en
dc.description.abstractThis article is concerned the everyday practices of international humanitarian actors who deliver assistance in armed conflict zones. Drawing on original fieldwork conducted in South Sudan, it elucidates how humanitarian actors engage with the principle of distinction in international humanitarian law (IHL). The article considers how the desire to enforce distinction impacts humanitarian actors’ relationships with others, and introduces the concept of everyday distinction practices. These practices have an important performance component, designed to appease the “phantom local.” It is proposed that such practices may have adverse implications for the humanitarian– beneficiary encounter. By positioning war-affected populations as an audience for distinction, everyday distinction practices reconfigure the victims of war from being receivers of aid to perceivers of aid. By lumping beneficiaries together with armed actors as part of the “phantom local,” distinction practices also paint the victims of war as an object of mistrust, fear, and potential danger.en
dc.description.sponsorshipThe research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement No 340956 - IOW - The Individualisation of War: Reconfiguring the Ethics, Law, and Politics of Armed Conflict.en
dc.identifier.citationNew political science, 2018, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 640-657en
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/07393148.2018.1528061
dc.identifier.endpage657en
dc.identifier.issn0739-3148
dc.identifier.issn1469-9931
dc.identifier.issue4en
dc.identifier.startpage640en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1814/60941
dc.identifier.volume40en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.orcid.uploadtrue*
dc.publisherRoutledgeen
dc.relationThe Individualisation of War: Reconfiguring the Ethics, Law, and Politics of Armed Conflict
dc.relation.ispartofNew political scienceen
dc.relation.ispartofseries[IOW]en
dc.titleThe 'phantom local' and the everyday distinction practices of humanitarian actors in war : a socio-legal perspectiveen
dc.typeArticleen
dspace.entity.typePublication
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person.identifier.other42257
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