Frida Bjørneseth
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Frida Bjørneseth was a research fellow with the research group on Global Order and Diplomacy.
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Clear all filtersKoonings, Kees, Dirk Kruijt and Dennis Rodgers (eds.), Ethnography as risky business: field research in violent and sensitive contexts
Ethnography as risky business is a 16‐chapter edited volume, providing its readers with a collection of first‐hand ethnographic experiences gathered in contexts shaped by violence and conflict. The book springs out of a symposium that took place in 2014, at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. The editors are upfront about the fact that the book does not proclaim a one‐size‐fits‐all approach to ethnography (p. 15), but rather seeks to share a collection of some of the practical and ethical reflections generated through the group’s research.
Lessons from the Ebola Crisis in West Africa: Community engagement, crisis communication and countering rumours
What lessons can we draw from the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone? While both the outbreak itself and the context is different, there are enough similarities between the Ebola crisis and COVID-19 to extract useful lessons and best practices. In this research note, the focus is on three key lessons from the Ebola experience: community engagement, crisis communication and countering the rumour mill. In the world’s most fragile states, an uncontrolled outbreak of COVID-19 would have devastating consequences for the population. In a scenario where the spread of the coronavirus is under control in large parts of the world, the survival of COVID-19 in fragile states would also most certainly be a source for new waves of infections to the rest of the world. Not only do fragile states lack capacity to react adequately on their own, but their ability to utilise external support and assistance is limited due to low absorption capacity.
Gender, Parenthood and Feelings of Safety in Greek Refugee Centres
Forced migration and displacement are often associated with increased exposure to various risks that negatively affect personal safety. While experiences of displaced populations are heterogeneous, women have been shown to be exposed to intersecting factors, such as vulnerability to gender-based violence, restricting cultural norms and discrimination. Being a mother—or at least responsible for the care of a child—while en route stands as another marginalizing factor. This article’s point of departure is the so-called European ‘refugee crisis’ that peaked in 2015 and examines the effects of gender and family on the experience of safety among refugees in six refugee centres in Greece. We explore how intersecting issues such as gender roles and being responsible for children impact individuals’ feelings of safety. Using descriptive statistics and regression analyses of survey data on 367 migrants in six Greek refugee centres, we find that female migrants are more likely to feel unsafe compared to males. However, our results indicate that gender differences in feelings of safety are minimal for those without children. While having children affects both genders’ feeling of safety, the effect is much greater for women than for men. Our conclusion is that dissimilar experiences of safety along gender dimension are conditioned by norms and obligations inscribed in social roles of parents and care-givers.
The Faiths for Forests Declaration and Action Agenda: Introduction and context
An introduction and contextualization of the newly launched Faiths for Forests Declaration, outlining current faith-based initiatives for environmental protection and conservation.
Expectations of Change: Development Partnerships in Faith-Based Forest Conservation in Ethiopia
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Ethiopia, this paper explores how local faith communities, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC), and international development organizations cooperate to define knowledge and practices of forest conservation. By following a church forest conservation-project in Ethiopia, in which both faith-based organizations, and the EOC are central stakeholders, this paper explores the intersections of local and international articulations of partnership and development. The church forests of Ethiopia represent some of the last enclaves of Highland and Afromontane forests types in the country, making them an important source of biodiversity. While increasing land cultivation and human settlement have reduced the scope of the forests, the EOC and its monastic communities have long been part of preserving the remaining green areas. As larger global forest conservation initiatives - such as the UN-REDD – emerge, local practices of conservation and development are now faced with the logics of professionalized development organizations. The forest conservation initiative in question aims to integrate theological reflections, technologies for agroforestry and biodiversity conservation, as well as livelihoods-projects. What happens when historically and theologically rooted practices of forest conservation meet the agendas of NGOs driven by narratives of innovation and sustainable development? And more generally, how can we understand how global and local commitments shape different stakeholders’ perceptions of “development” - and how do these connections impact their perceptions of each other as development partners?
Fieldwork on/with/through non-governmental organizations: navigating NGO ethnography
Ethnographic fieldwork among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can provide rich data on the practices and micro-level processes of civil society actors, as well as mechanisms of cooperation or implementation. But ‘doing’ fieldwork is not an analogous process of entering a ‘field’ and collecting data through conversation or observation; as the researcher searches for information and connections, answers and access are likely to be shaped by how she is perceived by other actors in the field. Especially in contexts where the researcher gains access to informants or field sites through the facilitation of an organization – such as the case can be in humanitarian or development research – the researcher must regularly navigate and (re)assert her role in the eyes of both organizations and surrounding communities. The dialectics of perception, role assertion and legitimacy are constant processes. This paper draws lessons from long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted among faith-based NGOs in Ethiopia, as well as interviews with other scholars who have conducted research on and with NGOs. Through this, I seek to critically explore what it means to be researching for, with, and through organizations. Is, for instance, the distinction of doing 'research of development', as compared to doing 'research for development', a viable distinction, or merely a heuristic? And how do researchers navigate this divide, in a context where they often risk being perceived as the organization they are researching, or may take upon themselves smaller tasks in the host organizations, in order to gain further understanding and access to ‘the field’?
Developmentality and the anthropology of partnership (DevAnt)
The concept of partnership is central to the organisation of international development aid. This project will study the concept of partnership in theory and practice....