Humanitarian Communication Through the Lens of Feminist Ethics of Care

Houda Houbeish

doi:10.21810/strm.v13i1.307

Abstract

Ethics are the driving force of the humanitarian field, a domain that has been governed by general and universal ethical principles. Researchers have largely focused on studying the organizational commitment to these principles, paying less attention to the role-specific ethics of this field. Moreover, researchers who consider the humanitarian field from a media studies lens have often focused on media representation, while questions about communication as practice are sidelined. In this paper, I approach humanitarian ethics with a particular focus on role morality and communication practices. With a particular focus on the role of a humanitarian communications specialist, I argue, in this paper, that the feminist ethics of care is a useful ethical framework that can guide communication specialists to better practices when they are in the field of operation. I also answer the following research questions: What are the main ethical principles that humanitarian communication specialists are expected to observe as humanitarians? Why are these principles insufficient? How might feminist ethics of care fill the gap left by current humanitarian principles and what would be the added value of this framework for practicing humanitarian communication? To answer, I ground my approach in an experiential understanding built from my personal experience as a humanitarian communications specialist. Second, I offer a literature review to highlight the common ground between humanitarian ethics and the feminist ethics of care and the added value of the feminist ethics of care why applied by humanitarian communication specialists. Third, I provide some examples of communications practices that may follow the feminist ethics of care model.

Highlights

After a preliminary review of the feminist ethics of care literature, I realized that the main difference between humanitarian and feminist ethics of care is the world views from which each framework departs
I use recollections of my work experience, including the discussions held with my managers, my work on developing a set of “Standard Operational Procedures” (SoPs) for guiding an ethical and organized performance in my position, and the lessons I learned to create a list of examples on how the feminist ethics of care might be practiced in the field
Research about ethics in the humanitarian field rarely focuses on role morality, and research on communication in this field rarely focuses on practices

Summary

Introduction

After a preliminary review of the feminist ethics of care literature, I realized that the main difference between humanitarian and feminist ethics of care is the world views from which each framework departs. I believe, that there is enough common ground between the two frameworks to allow an application of the ethics of care to the humanitarian field Both frameworks can complement each other by forming a comprehensive approach that responds to the particularities of an ethical dilemma and syncs with humanitarian principles. After years of academic and professional engagement with the humanitarian field, Slim (2015) has compiled a realistic understanding of the work dynamics in this domain and what it means to be a humanitarian His knowledge about the humanitarian field goes a step further than academic research that lacks field experience and is limited to knowledge acquired through literature review and data collection methods. I use this approach to answer the research questions I have raised

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion