Humanitarianism in the Home

Reviews / Votes

'A groundbreaking study that provides a wealth of original insights into the role that local families and communities play in accommodating refugee and displaced people. Essential reading for researchers and practitioners.'

Dr Jeff Crisp, Visiting Research Fellow, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford and Associate Fellow, Chatham House

'Humanitarianism in the Home makes a powerful case for examining practices of hosting-at-home as revealing the material, emotional and domestic labour which states are increasingly outsourcing to private individuals in both the Global North, and even more pressingly, in the Global South. Drawing on feminist thinking about care, and a challenge to public/private distinctions, this book impels those interested in humanitarianism to rethink the how the boundaries between 'professionalised' and 'everyday' or 'citizen' humanitarian actions are imagined. The book offers a nuanced and thoughtful analysis of the contribution of hosting-at-home to bigger debates about solidarity and power dynamics in the context of responses to displacement, while also paying attention to the intimate details and complex negotiations of home and homemaking which arise through these arrangements. The book is an essential read for anyone interested in the future of humanitarianism, international solidarity and responses to displacement.'

Dr Roisin Read, Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, University of Manchester

'Humanitarianism in the Home is a highly engaging and valuable book that repositions the home as a critical site of humanitarian action. Gabrielle Daoust and Synne L. Dyvik weave together rich conceptual insights and illuminating global examples to show how 'hosting-at-home' can shed new light on hospitality and the politics of international aid. The book provides fresh reflections on how humanitarianism unfolds in often unacknowledged domains, highlighting new actors, motivations, and methods that remain overlooked in contemporary scholarship. Through a series of fascinating cases it shows how private actors have hosted displaced populations, ending up engaged in a common activity with deep and significant roots in the history of relief.'

Professor Tom Scott-Smith, Professor of Political Anthropology and Director of the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford

'This powerful and timely book reorients our understanding of humanitarian action, focusing on the widespread, yet often overlooked, practice of hosting-at-home. By examining the way ordinary people provide shelter to displaced individuals, Daoust and Dyvik challenge traditional notions of who a humanitarian is and where humanitarianism occurs. Humanitarianism in the Home is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of how care, hospitality, and solidarity are practiced in everyday life. It offers a critical and nuanced perspective on this 'everyday humanitarianism', highlighting its potential and limitations.'

Professor Daniel Bulley, Head of School, Law and Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University

'In an age of mass migration, violent displacement, and repressive bordering, it can be easy to ignore the importance of everyday actions of support undertaken by apparently 'ordinary' people. Humanitarianism in the Home offers a vital corrective to this tendency, drawing critical attention to the often-overlooked practices of support and solidarity that constitute 'everyday humanitarian hospitality'. In exploring what Daoust and Dyvik term 'hosting-at-home', this book offers an analysis that is uniquely global in scope but accessible and intimate in its detailing of everyday practices of humanitarianism. From the risks of refugee hosting in conflict zones to the intimate negotiations of domestic space in European cities, Daoust and Dyvik write evocatively of the ethical, political, and social commitments expressed through hosting-at-home. An essential resource for scholars of migration, humanitarianism, and hospitality, Humanitarianism in the Home poses a critical question for our age of displacement - what does it really mean for humanitarianism to begin at home?'

Professor Jonathan Darling, Professor in Human Geography, Durham University, author of 'Systems of Suffering: Dispersal and the Denial of Asylum'.