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Discover The Everyday Politics of Language in the Humanitarian Experience, an innovative bilingual glossary that sheds light on the vital role of language in humanitarianism. Centering the experiences of Arabic- and/or English-speaking practitioners, volunteers, researchers, and displaced people, this volume reveals how linguistic tensions and negotiations shape access, power, and meaning in contexts of displacement. Across nearly 40 contributions, it moves beyond technical definitions to document contested terms, local expressions, and ways of understanding that have often remained overlooked, as well as the invisible labour of navigating humanitarian discourse. Essential for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers alike, this experiential glossary challenges the hegemony of English and the marginalization of other languages and epistemologies, offering a critical, grounded account of humanitarianism as experienced on the ground.
كتشفوا السياسة اليومية للغة في تجربة المساعدات الإنسانية، وهو مسرد ثنائي اللغة يسلّط الضوء على الدور الحيوي للغة في العمل الإنساني. يركّز هذا المجلد على تجارب العاملين والمتطوعين والباحثين والنازحين الناطقين بالعربية و/أو الإنجليزية، كاشفًا كيف تُشكّل التوترات اللغوية وعمليات التفاوض حول اللغة معاني الوصول والسلطة في سياقات النزوح. وعبر ما يقارب 40 مدخلًا، يتجاوز هذا المسرد التعريفات التقنية ليوثّق المصطلحات المتنازع عليها، والتعابير المحلية، وأنماط الفهم التي كثيرًا ما ظلّت مهمّشة أو غير معترف بها، فضلًا عن العمل غير المرئي الذي ينطوي عليه التنقّل في خطاب العمل الإنساني. ويشكّل هذا المسرد التجريبي مرجعًا أساسيًا للأكاديميين والممارسين وصانعي السياسات، إذ يتحدى هيمنة اللغة الإنجليزية وما تسببت به من تهميش للغات أخرى ولمعارفها، مقدّمًا فهمًا نقديًا وراسخًا للعمل الإنساني كما يُعاش على الأرض.
Price: $125.00
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill | Nijhoff
Series: Nijhoff Law Specials
Publication Date:
19 November 2026
ISBN: 9789004769335
Format: Paperback
This urgent Arabic English Experiential Glossary seeks to reclaim humanitarian language as a dynamic, everyday practice rather than a stable specialised register limited to experts. It attends to how humanitarian terms are lived, internalised, interpreted, and shaped by communities directly impacted by them, along with the colonial legacies they carry and the struggles they signify. This glossary addresses the domain loss associated with the absence of Arabic terminologies whose meanings change from one humanitarian context to another. As such, it gives a linguistic and cultural response roaming in lived experience in ways that are culturally informed, politically impactful and socially relevant.
— Khawla Badwan, Manchester Metropolitan University
Words matter. This book provides a critical and timely reflection on how words are not just mere words that need to be translated. Rather, words invoke concepts that speak to a cultural identity, a way of understanding lived realities with all the relationships and power dynamics they encapsulate. In the world of research, development and humanitarianism in the MENA region, of which I have been part for close to three decades, this book gives all those engaged in these spaces the challenge to truly understand prevailing and mainstream concepts differently. The challenge to appreciate how concepts such as resilience, reconciliation, livelihoods, localization are truly perceived, interpreted and lived by communities and counterparts in the Arab region. And in turn, hopefully this reflection informs and guides the way humanitarian actors operate not only in the Arab region but elsewhere, with a true appreciation of the historical context, colonial histories and current power dynamics. Ultimately, these relationships must be based on mutual respect and must value dignity, and they start with words.
— Roula El-Rifai, Senior Program Specialist, Democratic and Inclusive Governance Division International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
This is an unusual and important book. Rather than offering fixed definitions, Carpi and Mourad have built an experimental archive of how humanitarian vocabulary is actually inhabited in Arabic, negotiated, reshaped, and at times refused by those who live the humanitarian encounter from every side. The volume makes visible the linguistic labour that the sector has long extracted and rarely acknowledged. A genuine contribution to the localization and decolonization debates, and a model of how to do them seriously.
— Dr Ghassan Elkahlout, Director, Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies
— Khawla Badwan, Manchester Metropolitan University
Words matter. This book provides a critical and timely reflection on how words are not just mere words that need to be translated. Rather, words invoke concepts that speak to a cultural identity, a way of understanding lived realities with all the relationships and power dynamics they encapsulate. In the world of research, development and humanitarianism in the MENA region, of which I have been part for close to three decades, this book gives all those engaged in these spaces the challenge to truly understand prevailing and mainstream concepts differently. The challenge to appreciate how concepts such as resilience, reconciliation, livelihoods, localization are truly perceived, interpreted and lived by communities and counterparts in the Arab region. And in turn, hopefully this reflection informs and guides the way humanitarian actors operate not only in the Arab region but elsewhere, with a true appreciation of the historical context, colonial histories and current power dynamics. Ultimately, these relationships must be based on mutual respect and must value dignity, and they start with words.
— Roula El-Rifai, Senior Program Specialist, Democratic and Inclusive Governance Division International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
This is an unusual and important book. Rather than offering fixed definitions, Carpi and Mourad have built an experimental archive of how humanitarian vocabulary is actually inhabited in Arabic, negotiated, reshaped, and at times refused by those who live the humanitarian encounter from every side. The volume makes visible the linguistic labour that the sector has long extracted and rarely acknowledged. A genuine contribution to the localization and decolonization debates, and a model of how to do them seriously.
— Dr Ghassan Elkahlout, Director, Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies
Estella Carpi is Associate Professor of Humanitarian and Migration Studies at UCL. With a background in social and linguistic anthropology, she mostly worked on the moral economy and the identity politics of humanitarianism in Lebanon and Turkey. She is the author of The Politics of Crisis-Making. Forced Displacement and Cultures of Assistance in Lebanon (Indiana University Press, 2023).
Lama Mourad is Assistant Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. Her scholarship explores migration, local governance, and the politics of borders, with a particular regional focus on the Middle East. Her writing has appeared in leading academic journals and public outlets, in both Arabic and English, including the Journal of Refugee Studies, Middle East Law and Governance, European Journal of International Relations, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, and the Arabic-language Sifr magazine.
إستيلا كاربي هي أستاذة مشاركة في دراسات الهجرة والعمل الإنساني في جامعة كوليدج لندن. وبخلفية في الأنثروبولوجيا الاجتماعية واللغوية، ركّزت أبحاثها في الغالب على العلاقات الأخلاقية وسياسات الهوية في العمل الإنساني في لبنان وتركيا. وهي مؤلفة كتاب سياسات صناعة الأزمات: التهجير وثقافات المساعدة في لبنان .(دار نشر جامعة إنديانا، 3202)
Lama Mourad is Assistant Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. Her scholarship explores migration, local governance, and the politics of borders, with a particular regional focus on the Middle East. Her writing has appeared in leading academic journals and public outlets, in both Arabic and English, including the Journal of Refugee Studies, Middle East Law and Governance, European Journal of International Relations, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, and the Arabic-language Sifr magazine.
لاما مراد هي أستاذة مساعدة في كلية نورمان باترسون للشؤون الدولية في جامعة كارلتون. يركّز عملها البحثي على تقاطع قضايا الهجرة، والحوكمة المحلية، وسياسات الحدود، مع تركيز إقليمي خاص على الشرق الأوسط. نُشرت أعمالها في مجلات أكاديمية ومنصات عامة، من بينها Journal of Refugee Studies، و Middle East Law and Governance، وForced Migration Studies، وEuropean Journal of International Relations، كما نشرت مقالات في Foreign Policy، وThe Atlantic، وموقع صفر.