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Giving, Receiving and Reciprocating a Qualitative Reanalysis of Articles Studying Disaster Aid Through Gift Exchange

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Giving, Receiving and Reciprocating a Qualitative Reanalysis of Articles Studying Disaster Aid Through Gift Exchange Giving, receiving and reciprocating A qualitative reanalysis of articles studying disaster aid through gift exchange Malin Hedenskog Uppsala University, Autumn 2019 Department of Government Development Studies C (Bachelor Thesis) Supervisor: Hans Blomkvist Word count: 11 594 Pages: 36 Table of contents 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Aim and research question .............................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Disposition ............................................................................................................................................................ 5 2. Theoretical scope and previous research .............................................................................................................. 6 2.1 The Gift ................................................................................................................................................................. 6 2.2 Literature review................................................................................................................................................ 7 2.3 The gift of disaster aid: Giving, receiving and reciprocating............................................................... 10 3. Methodology and Research design ........................................................................................................................ 12 3.1 Qualitative reanalysis ...................................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 Selection of articles .......................................................................................................................................... 12 3.3 Articles ................................................................................................................................................................ 14 3.3.1 Aceh thanks the world ’The possibilities of the gift in a post-disaster society’ ........................14 3.3.2 Humanitarianism and Unequal Exchange ..................................................................................................14 3.3.3 Moral economy reconfigured: philanthropic engagement in post-tsunami Sri Lanka ........14 3.4 Analytical questions......................................................................................................................................... 15 3.5 Reliability ........................................................................................................................................................... 15 4. Results and reanalysis of the articles .................................................................................................................... 16 4.1 Aceh thanks the world’ The possibilities of the gift in a post-disaster society’ ............................... 16 4.1.1 The obligation to Give ...........................................................................................................................................16 4.1.2 The obligation to Receive.....................................................................................................................................17 4.1.3 The obligation to Reciprocate ...........................................................................................................................18 4.2 Humanitarianism and Unequal Exchange ................................................................................................ 19 4.2.1 The obligation to Give ...........................................................................................................................................19 4.2.2 The obligation to Receive.....................................................................................................................................21 4.2.3 The obligation to Reciprocate ...........................................................................................................................22 4.3 Moral economy reconfigured: philanthropic engagement in post-tsunami Sri Lanka ................ 24 4.3.1 The obligation to Give ...........................................................................................................................................24 4.3.2 The obligation to Receive.....................................................................................................................................25 4.3.3 The obligation to Reciprocate ...........................................................................................................................26 5. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................................... 29 5.1 Concluding discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 29 5.2 Contributions and further research ............................................................................................................ 31 References .............................................................................................................................................................................. 32 Appendix ................................................................................................................................................................................ 35 2 Abstract The impact of international aid is debated in the scholarly literature. One of the theoretical frameworks used to study aid is developed in The Gift [1925] by Marcel Mauss. However, overall there is a lack of knowledge concerning the understanding of Mauss, and how it can be connected to the distribution of aid. Thus, this thesis takes its theoretical departure from Mauss’s gift exchange, and the obligation to give, receive and reciprocate to study how articles examine post-tsunami aid through the theory developed in The Gift by Mauss. The study is a qualitative reanalysis of three articles, which is structured by a series of analytical questions based on a broader reading of Mauss, previous research and the gift of disaster aid. The qualitative reanalysis finds that Mauss’ obligations to give, receive and reciprocate and the social bonds that these forms were discussed differently, and to a greater or lesser extent. This study brings The Gift by Mauss into light to the discussion of disaster aid, and thus highlighting new potential research for future studies. Keywords: Mauss, gift exchange, disaster aid, reanalysis 3 1. Introduction The impact of international aid has been discussed in research throughout the years by different scholars. The Indian Ocean Tsunami on Boxing Day 2004 killed over 200 000 people and damaged livelihoods and homes of over 1 million people around the Indian Ocean, from western Indonesia and southern Thailand to coastal Sri Lanka, southeastern India, and the Maldives (Karan 2011, p.1). It triggered what probably can be seen as the largest wave of humanitarian aid in modern history and therefore also been studied thoroughly. One of the theoretical approaches used is developed in The Gift by Marcel Mauss [1925].1 Marcel Mauss, 1872-1950, was originally trained as a philosopher and spent his professional life as a researcher. His best-known work is The Gift from 1925, which analyzed the forms of obligation inherent in primitive and modern system of exchange, and emphasized the role of exchange in producing social relations (Calhoun 2002). In this process, Mauss concludes that gift-giving has to be seen in a context of systems of exchange that involves the obligations to give, receive and reciprocate. Moreover, Mauss did not argue that the gift exchange was only legitimate in archaic societies (Mauss 1997). After the work of Mauss, researchers in development studies, and especially in anthropology, have studied gift exchange in modern societies. Hence, the gift exchange perspective has also been used to study how aid is given, received and reciprocated (Korf 2007, Korf et al 2010, Holgersson Ivarsson 2015, Samuels 2013 and Swamy 2017). Using the theoretical framework developed in The Gift by Mauss, this thesis aims to analyze how the gift perspective has been adopted by different researchers while studying disaster aid following the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. 1.1 Aim and research question It is important to acknowledge how international aid is debated in the scholarly literature. The theoretical framework developed in The Gift (1997:2002) by Marcel Mauss has been an instrument to analyze exchanges of aid that involve the obligations to give, receive and 1 The Gift by Marcel Mauss was written in 1925, however, the books used in this thesis were translated 1997 – in Swedish, 2002 – in English 4 reciprocate. However, it may be well known by some scholars, but overall there is lack of knowledge concerning the gift of aid. As a result, it is necessary to investigate how the gift exchange is applied in analyses of aid. The aim of this study is to examine how Mauss’ perspective on gift-exchange can be applied when studying aid. Given that the gift perspective has been used before, this thesis will make a reanalysis of researchers’ analyses of the gift of aid. One event that has been discussed
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