Swiping to end hunger: the problematic politics of humanitarian donation apps

IF 3.9 1区社会学 Q1 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI:10.1093/ia/iiae136

Daniel Møller Ølgaard, Lisa Ann Richey

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Abstract

The emergence of humanitarian donation apps promises to revolutionize aid by making it easier for people to give to humanitarian causes with just a few swipes on the smartphone in the palm of their hands. Yet, little is known about the implications of this for the politics and ethics of contemporary aid. This article explores the politics of humanitarian donation apps through an in-depth study of the World Food Programme's donation app ShareTheMeal. By analysing data from a detailed app walkthrough and documentation in a user journal of the experiences of a sample of app users, the article shows how ShareTheMeal is designed to afford specific forms of everyday humanitarianism, and how users adopt, appropriate or resist these affordances. Doing so we find that, while ShareTheMeal affords a convenient and gratifying donation experience, it also reinvigorates racial and paternalistic divisions between donors as benevolent saviours and recipients as voiceless victims, and integrates users into an extractivist data economy. Hence, rather than revolutionizing aid, ShareTheMeal instead sediments unequal relationships of agency and dependency in and through everyday acts of helping. Yet, because of apps' openness to user resistance and change, another politics of humanitarianism is nevertheless possible.

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刷卡消除饥饿：人道主义捐赠应用程序的问题政治

人道主义捐赠应用程序的出现有望彻底改变援助方式，人们只需在掌上的智能手机上轻扫几下，就能为人道主义事业提供捐赠。然而，人们对其对当代援助的政治和伦理的影响却知之甚少。本文通过对世界粮食计划署的捐赠应用程序 ShareTheMeal 的深入研究，探讨了人道主义捐赠应用程序的政治性。通过分析详细的应用攻略数据和用户日志中对应用用户体验的记录，文章展示了 ShareTheMeal 如何被设计为提供特定形式的日常人道主义，以及用户如何采纳、使用或抵制这些支付能力。我们发现，ShareTheMeal 在提供便捷、令人满意的捐赠体验的同时，也重新激发了种族和家长式的分歧，将捐赠者视为仁慈的救世主，将受助者视为无声无息的受害者，并将用户纳入榨取型数据经济。因此，ShareTheMeal 并没有给援助带来革命性的变化，反而在日常的帮助行为中并通过这些行为加深了代理和依赖的不平等关系。然而，由于应用程序对用户的抵制和改变持开放态度，人道主义的另一种政治也是可能的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Affairs INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS-

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

24.40%

发文量

255

期刊介绍： International Affairs is Britain"s leading journal of international relations. Founded by and edited at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, it has not only developed a much valued insight into European policy debates but has also become renowned for its coverage of global policy issues. Mixing commissioned and unsolicited articles from the biggest names in international relations this lively, provocative journal will keep you up-to-date with critical thinking on the key issues shaping world economic and political change.

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