Isabelle Desportes | Researcher

Environment, climate, energy: Societies and their ecological challenges
Centre Marc Bloch, Friedrichstraße 191, D-10117 Berlin
Email: isabelle.desportes  ( at )  cmb.hu-berlin.de Tel: +49(0) 30 / 20 93 70700

Home Institution : Centre Marc Bloch | Position : Postdoc | Disciplines : Political Science , Geography , Sociology |

Biography

Isabelle Desportes is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch and lecturer at the RWTH Aachen. Her research focuses on the (hidden) politics of disaster prevention and humanitarian response, including in authoritarian conflict settings. She co-coordinates the Centre Marc Bloch research focus on ‘Environment, Climate, Energy’ since october 2024.

Her present project, DisasterLobby, is situated at the intersection of critical disaster studies and socio-ecological transformation studies. It approaches disasters as symptoms of our currently unsustainable societies and focuses on how diverse actors draw back on recent fires in Brandenburg (Germany) and close to Bordeaux (France) to advance their interests.

Isabelle obtained her PhD at the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, in November 2020. Past academic but also non-academic work stations have been the Disaster Research Unit at the Freie Universität Berlin, the Universities of Amsterdam and Cape Town, the International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent in Geneva, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in Addis Abeba and the United Nations Development Program in Bratislava.

 

Researchtopic

Climate Politics; Conflict Studies; Disaster Studies; Humanitarian Governance

Title of thesis
Repression Without Resistance: Disaster Responses in Authoritarian Low-Intensity Conflict Settings
Summary of thesis

In my PhD thesis, I investigated how state, civil society and international humanitarian actors engage with the politics of disaster response, and with which implications. My research focused particularly on disasters unfolding in authoritarian low-intensity conflict settings.

My findings suggest that, in such a context, disaster responders engage with the politics of disaster in four major ways:

  1.  The state instrumentalizes disaster response to further political goals in the interests of a few.
  2. State and non-state disaster response actors fear the politics of disaster response, afraid particularly of being framed as having ulterior political motives.
  3. Non-state disaster response actors prefer to socially navigate around or conceal politically sensitive issues, rather than to openly confront them.
  4. There are indications that non-state actors tend to ‘internalize’ a depoliticized approach. Depoliticization efforts do not always come across as being strategically reflected upon.

The thesis identifies the potentially far-reaching implications of depoliticizing disaster response, impacting people’s physical and psychological well-being, social cohesion within and beyond communities, state–aid–society relations and power balances, and the way in which humanitarian operations can be carried out in the future. Systematically depoliticizing disaster response has profound ethical and practical implications; it ultimately constitutes another engagement with politics.

Institution of thesis
International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Supervisor
Prof. Dr. Dorothea Hilhorst, Dr. Roanne van Voorst
Projects

2021-2024: 'TsunamiRisk: Multi-risk assessment and cascade effect analysis in cooperation between Indonesia and Germany - Joint research on tsunamis induced by volcanoes and landslides', coordinated by Prof. Dr. Thomas Walter and funded by the German Ministry of Research (BMBF)

2016-2020: 'When Disaster meets Conflict', coordinated by Prof. Dr. Dorothea Hilhorst and funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO)

2013: 'Flooding in Cape Town under Climate Risk', coordinated by Prof. Dr. Gina Ziervogel, funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and Canadian International Development Research Center (IDRC)

DisasterLobby: Socio-political mobilisation following the wildfires close to Berlin and Bordeaux

My research approaches disasters such as deadly floods or wildfires as socio-politically constructed symptoms of our currently unsustainable societies. It specifically deals with how various actors materially and discursively draw back on disasters to advance their own agenda - for instance, through the (depoliticised) framing of disaster root causes and solutions. I am particularly interested in the role wildfires can play in bringing about the necessary socio-ecological transformation. Which materialities, discursive framings, but also the deeper imaginaries associated to fires, forests and a 'burning world', play a role in the process?

Depoliticising Humanitarian Action - Paradigms, Dilemmas, Resistance

January 01, 2025

Isabelle Desportes , Alice Corbet, Ayesha Siddiqi (Editors)

Sammelband

Edition: Routledge
ISBN: 9781032535098

Link to the book page

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 from politics, arguing that independence and neutrality are essential in order to gain entry into disaster and conflict settings. Yet, humanitarian claims of non-involvement in politics have also been dismissed as misleading, naive, or counter-productive. In practice, humanitarians find themselves working within political settings on a daily basis. This book investigates the theory behind depoliticisation, the political background and context behind humanitarian action, and the daily dilemmas faced by practitioners walking that fine line between principles and pragmatism. Finally, this book considers the importance of decolonising mainstream understandings of humanitarianism and politics, and of placing understandings from the Global South at the heart of the discussion.

Balancing theoretical insights with empirical grounding, field examples, and recommendations for policy and practice, this book is perfect for researchers and students in humanitarian studies, political science, international relations, human rights, development studies, disaster studies, and peace and conflict studies, as well as humanitarian practitioners and policy makers.


Publications

Book and special issue editorships

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Book chapers

  • Desportes, I. (in press). ‘Theories of power: Disaster paradigms and what they aim to stifle’. In Principles and Concepts of Disaster Risks, Vol.1., edited by I. Kelman. New York: Springer.

Blogs and newspaper editorials

Selected publications for policy and practitioner audiences

  • Desportes, I. & Voss, M. (2023). Kurzstudie über die Kommunikation des Auswärtigen Amts und ausgewählter westlicher Geberländer zum Thema humanitärer Hilfe (Bericht nicht öffentlich). Berlin: Akademie der Katastrophenforschungstelle.
  • Hilhorst, D., van Voorst, R., Mena, R., Desportes, I. & Melis, S. (2019). Disaster Response and Humanitarian Aid in Different Conflict Scenarios. Geneva: United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
  • Desportes, I. (2015). Partners for Resilience in Ethiopia, Country Case for the Qualitative Process and Impact Study. Groningen: University of Groningen.

Doctoral and Master thesis