Key research themes
1. How do digital technologies and capabilities transform humanitarian crisis management and disaster risk reduction?
This research theme investigates the role of digital humanitarianism in enhancing disaster management effectiveness, focusing on how digital capabilities of humanitarian organizations influence risk reduction, response speed, and coordination during crises. It integrates theoretical perspectives from dynamic capability theory and resource-based views to understand how digital tools, data analytics, and volunteer networks facilitate decision-making and resource allocation in emergencies.
2. What are the ethical, social, and power implications of digital humanitarian technologies on affected populations, particularly refugees?
This theme explores the socio-political and ethical challenges generated by the deployment of digital technologies in humanitarian contexts, particularly focusing on refugee populations. It examines issues of power asymmetry, surveillance, technocolonialism, representation, and participation mediated through digital tools. Research investigates how digital humanitarianism reshapes humanitarian governance, reproduces inequalities, influences voice and accountability, and the precarious positionality of local workers within digital humanitarian infrastructures.