Kelly Oliver, Carceral humanitarianism

Eric Aldieri

pp. 513-517

in: Human Studies 42 (3), 2019.

Abstract

Bridging carceral studies, political theory, and Derridean thought, Kelly Oliver, in her (2017) book Carceral Humanitarianism: The Logics of Refugee Detention, offers a clear analysis and emphatic critique of contemporary humanitarianism’s imbrication with practices of refugee detention. Defining carceral humanitarianism as “the outgrowth of humanitarian warfare in which war and aid are two sides of state sovereignty,” Oliver (p. 7) demonstrates how humanitarian responses to the multiple, produced refugee crises both shore up state sovereignty, and, in affirming an “ethics” of pure utilitarian calculability, implicitly affirm a genocidal logic that risks the worst at each turn.

Cited authors

Oliver Kelly