Digital Humanitarianism: An Interview with Fleur Johns

In this interview, Fleur Johns elucidates the central themes of her recent book #Help: Digital Humanitarianism and the Remaking of International Order which investigates how digital technologies reshape humanitarianism. Situating her research alongside well-established critical analyses of digital platforms and algorithms, Johns elaborates on the distinctive characteristics of digital humanitarianism, how these can be studied through digital interfaces, and the politics of Big Tech’s involvement in this transformation of humanitarianism. Most importantly, the interview sheds light on Johns’s infra-disciplinary theoretical-methodological approach that seeks to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, resulting in her unique fusion of critical data/algorithm studies, international legal scholarship, and social theory. Based on this, Johns explains how digital humanitarianism constitutes a partial rupture to Foucauldian concerns with biopolitics, instead giving rise to what she calls sensopolitics – an imperative to “make perceive and let pass” enacted through digital interfaces. The interview was conducted at the University of Copenhagen in April 2024; the questions were developed by Louis Ravn.