Frontline work in humanitarian disasters. Bridging state and non-state rationalities towards region-based, multi-layered crisis management

Abstract

Our research project focuses on the “ad-hoc multilevel doing, deciding and cooperating” of state and non-state frontline work that emerged in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated that between 1 and 1.7 million people in Switzerland were reliant on aid - either in the form of financial assistance, food aid, or other basic support. Most of such aid was provided by humanitarian organisations, foundations and churches, as well as private individuals working at the frontline. Consequently, these frontline workers implemented policies at the local level and filled gaps that state authorities could not or would not cover. Our research is guided by two main sets of questions:

(1) How did (non) state frontline work react to the (new) precarities that individuals faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) Which groups were neglected by state-funded support during the pandemic?

Our project is supported by humanitarian organisations, Swiss Solidarity, as well as the social welfare services of the cities of Lausanne, Basel, and Lugano - the three regions in which we conduct our in-depth case study.