The Ironic Spectator Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism [Paperback]

This path-breaking book explores how solidarity towards vulnerable others is performed  in our media environment. It argues that stories where famine is described through our own experience of dieting  or or where solidarity with Africa translates into wearing a cool armband tell us about much more than the cause that they attempt to communicate. They tell us something about the ways in which we imagine the world outside ourselves.

By showing historical change in Amnesty International and Oxfam appeals, in the Live Aid and Live 8 concerts, in the advocacy of Audrey Hepburn and Angelina Jolie as well as in earthquake news on the BBC,  this far-reaching book shows how solidarity has today come to be not about conviction but choice, not vision but lifestyle, not others but ourselves – turning us into the ironic spectators of other people’s suffering.

Figures viii

Acknowledgements ix

1 Solidarity and Spectatorship 1

Introduction: 'Find your Feeling' 1

Th e instrumentalization of humanitarianism 5

Solidarity without 'grand narratives' 9

The technologization of communication 15

The ethics of objectivity 21

Conclusion: on this book 24

2 The Humanitarian Imaginary 26

Introduction: communicating vulnerability 26

The theatricality of humanitarianism 27

Critiques of the theatricality of humanitarianism 36

The humanitarian imaginary 43

Conclusion: on the performances of the imaginary 52

3 Appeals 54

Introduction: the paradox of appeals 54

The crisis lc{