Disability and Aid : An Ethnography of Logics and Practices of Distribution in a Ugandan Refugee Camp

*The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation*

Winner of the Public Anthropologist Award 2024!
Public Anthropologist Award 2024

At a time when rights are increasingly placed on the humanitarian agenda, this book provides a unique ethnographic account of the dynamics of aid to disabled people in a Ugandan refugee camp. By unraveling the complexities of social, material and institutional interdependencies, the author invites us to rethink conventional notions of dependence and vulnerability. Exploring issues of personhood as they relate to the exchange of material goods and care, the book offers a thought-provoking perspective on the seemingly promising shift towards a rights-based approach. A compelling read for anyone seeking to reshape the humanitarian agenda.

Maria-Theres Schuler, Ph.D. (2018) in Social Anthropology at the University of Zürich, currently writes as a journalist on global inequality, corporate responsibility and social movements with a focus on African countries.