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Publication date: 1 February 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781806550210

Number of illustrations: 20

Humanitarianism from Below?

Universalism and the politics of inhumanity

Till Mostowlansky (Editor),  Elmira Muratova (Editor)

Since the late twentieth century, wealthy nations and international organizations have claimed a monopoly on humanitarianism. Even critical views of this regime of global aid and assistance have reinforced the image of a phenomenon shaped by secularized Christian ethics and Euro-American politics of life. At the same time, around the world various humanitarian institutions and practices have flourished that remain outside this realm.

Mostly invisible to Western publics, these forms of humanitarianism have reshaped global landscapes of aid in tangible ways; from protecting Indigenous communities in Canada to African diasporic initiatives in response to the Ebola pandemic; from Islamic economies of giving and Buddhist concepts of the human to crowdfunding aid in Ukraine. Written by leading scholars in the field, Humanitarianism from Below forcefully illustrates that these humanitarian actors do not merely represent grassroots initiatives but have altered humanitarianism at large, involving alternative economies and politics. Drawing on original ethnographic and historical research, Humanitarianism from Below? addresses a wide audience of scholars and students in humanitarian and development studies, anthropology and political science. This volume considers humanitarianism’s multiple histories and relations of power and offers a profound reassessment of humanitarian pluralism today.

List of figures
List of contributors
Acknowledgements

Introduction: A new politics of humanitarianism
Till Mostowlansky and Elmira Muratova

Part I: Geospatial orders
1 Humanitarian transversals: Diaspora and solidarity during the West African Ebola crisis
Adia Benton
2 Martial citizenship: Military voluntarism and the transformation of the Ukrainian nation-state
Taras Fedirko

Part II: Shifting ground
3 Goat humanity: Housing and Islamic aid in small-town Kyrgyzstan
Till Mostowlansky and Mukaram Toktogulova
4 Starving for humanity: Thai youth’s hunger strike resistance in the Buddhist kingdom
Giuseppe Bolotta
5 Acting out the citizen: Humanitarianism on unsteady ground
Alexander Ephrussi

Part III: Tactical universalism
6 Protecting Indigenous life: The Ne-Chee street patrol, liberatory politics, and humanitarian tactics
Krista Maxwell
7 From alter-politics to humanitarianism: The evolution of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Crimea
Elmira Muratova

Afterword: Humanitarian assemblages
Stephan Kloos

DOI: 10.14324/111.9781806550210

Number of illustrations: 20

Publication date: 01 February 2026

EPUB ISBN: 9781806550227

Till Mostowlansky (Editor)

Till Mostowlansky is Research Professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute and Visiting Professor at the Kyiv School of Economics.

Elmira Muratova (Editor)

Elmira Muratova is Post-Doctoral Researcher at the European Centre for Minority Issues in Flensburg, Germany.

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