The Paradoxes of Aid Work: Passionate Professionals - Routledge Humanitarian Studies 1st edition

While the success and failure of development cooperation and humanitarian aid have found extensive coverage in the academic literature and the public debate, studies that address the experience of aid workers are still rare. This book explores the life worlds of people working in aid and analyses the processes that lead to the involvement in development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights work and what impact aid work has on the life-courses of aid workers, including their relationships with friends, family and partners.

In order to capture the trajectories which lead to "Aidland" a biographical perspective is employed. Rich reflexive data allows the author to theorize about the often contradictory experiences of those involved in development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights work. A life-course perspective on the involvement in "Aidland" reveals that boundary crossing between development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights is not unusual and that considering these fields as separate spheres might overlook important connections. The book addresses power relations not just between aid recipients and donors but also among aid personnel.

This book constitutes an important supplement to existing studies that predominantly focus on the contradictions and dilemmas of aid, but neglect the experiences of aid workers themselves. It contributes to the emerging sociology and anthropology of aid workers and is of great interest to professionals and researchers in Humanitarian and development studies, sociology, anthropology, political science and international relations, international social work and social psychology.