Routledge Humanitarian Studies
About the Book Series
Routledge Humanitarian Studies is the world’s leading Humanitarian Studies book
series. Published in collaboration with the International Humanitarian Studies
Association (IHSA), the series explores the causes of humanitarian crises; how they
evolve; their effects on people, institutions, and societies; and the range of responses.
The series highlights everyday struggles of people affected by humanitarian crises
(including famine), whether caused by disaster, conflict, climate change, or political
instability, or a combination of all. It also examines the roles of different actors and
humanitarian practices, from local responders to national ministries, to the
international aid system. In addition, the series addresses the structural issues that
contribute to humanitarian crises, including local and global inequalities, aid
architecture and governance, and how these link to peacekeeping, and post-conflict
state building. This inclusive book series invites submissions from voices from around
the world, at a time when the humanitarian sector is undergoing a period of significant
change.
This series draws on and is relevant to a range of disciplines, including but not
exclusive to humanitarian studies, development studies, international relations,
politics, decolonial studies, migration studies, anthropology, sociology, peace and
conflict studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and media studies. It also welcomes
interdisciplinary submissions.
To submit proposals, please contact the series editors or Senior Editor for Global
Development books, Helena Hurd ([email protected]).
Series Editors:
Juan Ricardo Aparicio Cuervo, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
Susanne Jaspars, SOAS University of LondonUK
Palash Kamruzzaman, University of South Wales, UK
Humanitarianism in the Home: Hosting-at-home and the Politics of Hospitality
1st Edition
By Gabrielle Daoust, Synne L. Dyvik
February 16, 2026
Who is a humanitarian, and where does humanitarianism take place? Focusing on humanitarian responses within the Global South and North, Humanitarianism in the Home critically examines hosting-at-home – that is, people providing shelter in their own home to displaced people – as a ...
Humanitarian Myths and Hubris: A Critical Self-Portrait from Médecins Sans Frontières
1st Edition
Edited
By Duncan McLean, Françoise Duroch, Amy Mavor
January 22, 2026
This collective work offers a critical analysis of contemporary humanitarian action, through the prism of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Initially created to provide healthcare to the most vulnerable populations in crisis-stricken countries, MSF has grown from just a few ...
An Introduction to Humanitarian Action
1st Edition
Edited
By Katrin Radtke, Kristina Roepstorff
March 18, 2025
This important new textbook provides a concise and practice-oriented introduction to the workings of the humanitarian sector and the key contemporary debates surrounding it. The number of people around the world in need of humanitarian action and protection is at its highest figure in decades; yet ...
Young Children in Humanitarian and COVID-19 Crises: Innovations and Lessons from the Global South
1st Edition
Edited
By Sweta Shah, Lucy Bassett
March 13, 2025
The long-term consequences of COVID-19 have been tough for children around the world, but even more so for young children already in humanitarian crisis, whether due to conflict, natural disasters, or economic and political upheaval. This book investigates how organizations around the world ...
Understanding Humanitarian Diplomacy: Principles and Practice
1st Edition
Edited
By Hafize Zehra Kavak
December 19, 2024
This book introduces readers to the development, principles, and philosophy of humanitarian diplomacy, before demonstrating how it works in practice, using a range of case studies from humanitarian work in the field. Humanitarian diplomacy seeks to create avenues to persuade decision makers and ...
Forced Migration and Humanitarian Action: Operational Challenges and Solutions for Supporting People on the Move
1st Edition
Edited
By Lorenzo Guadagno, Lisette R. Robles
October 24, 2024
Forced population movements are a defining feature of almost any humanitarian crisis, shaping the design, targeting, and delivery of emergency responses. This book investigates how the evolving situation of different forced migrants is accounted for and addressed in humanitarian action in order to ...
Humanitarian Futures: Challenges and Opportunities
1st Edition
By Randolph C. Kent
September 19, 2024
Humanitarian Futures: Challenges and Opportunities explores the increasing types, dimensions and dynamics of crises threatening the world in the twenty-first century, and argues that those with humanitarian roles and responsibilities can only meet such challenges if their approaches to ...
Depoliticising Humanitarian Action: Paradigms, Dilemmas, Resistance
1st Edition
Edited
By Isabelle Desportes, Alice Corbet, Ayesha Siddiqi
September 12, 2024
Is it ever possible to separate humanitarian action from politics? Drawing on the experience of both practitioners and researchers, this book is an essential guide to the thorny interplay between what are too often considered as separate worlds. The humanitarian sector aims to separate its work ...
The Humanitarian Exit Dilemma: The Moral Cost of Withdrawing Aid
1st Edition
By Chin Ruamps
August 26, 2024
How should humanitarian organisations respond when their aid goes awry? Should they stay and remain engaged with the needy, or should they withdraw and leave? Investigating the choices involved and the judgements required when tackling these questions, this book explores the unique ‘Humanitarian ...
Authoritarian Practices and Humanitarian Negotiations
1st Edition
Edited
By Andrew J Cunningham
December 07, 2023
This book examines authoritarian practices in relation to humanitarian negotiations. Utilising a wide variety of perspectives and examining a range of contexts, the book considers how humanitarians assess and engage with authoritarian practices and negotiate access to populations in danger. ...
The Humanitarian Parent: Balancing Work and Family in the Aid Sector
1st Edition
By Merit Hietanen
November 13, 2023
Aid sector staff work in some of the world’s most challenging environments, from conflict zones to sites of natural disaster and refugee camps. For a long time, the aid worker was typified by the lone white male, flying from place to place and seeing his family during the holidays. But now, as the ...
Citizen Humanitarianism at European Borders
1st Edition
Edited
By Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert, Elisa Pascucci
May 31, 2023
At a time of escalating conflict between states and NGOs engaged in migrant search and rescue operations across the Mediterranean, this book explores the emerging trend of citizen-led forms of helping others at the borders of Europe. In recent years, Europe’s borders have become new sites of ...