Routledge Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations: Politics, place and power (Rethinking Development)

Discussion over celebrity engagement is often limited to theoretical critique or normative name-calling, without much grounded research into what it is that celebrities are doing, the same or differently throughout the world. Crucially, little attention has been paid to the Global South, either as a place where celebrities intervene into existing politics and social processes, or as the generator of Southern celebrities engaged in ‘do-gooding’. This book examines what the diverse roster of celebrity humanitarians are actually doing in and across North and South contexts. Celebrity humanitarianism is an effective lens for viewing the multiple and diverse relationships that constitute the links between North and South. New empirical findings on celebrity humanitarianism on the ground in Thailand, Malawi, Bangladesh, South Africa, China, Haiti, Congo, US, Denmark and Australia illustrate the impact of celebrity humanitarianism in the Global South and celebritization, participation and democratization in the donor North. By investigating one of the most mediatized and distant representations of humanitarianism (the celebrity intervention) from a perspective of contextualization, the book underscores the importance of context in international development. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in the fields of development studies, celebrity studies, anthropology, political science, geography, and related disciplines. It is also of great relevance to development practitioners, humanitarian NGOs, and professionals in business (CSR, fair trade) who work in the increasingly celebritized field. Review "This is a landmark collection. Genuinely interdisciplinary, blending empirical study with theoretical analysis, and featuring global case studies from a wide range of perspectives, it pushes debates on the impact of celebrity ‘humanitarian helping’ forward significantly, considerably advancing our understanding of the role of celebrity intervention in contemporary global inequalities." –Jo Littler, City University London, UK "This edited collection is an exciting addition to a proliferating literature. Rather than viewing the role of celebrities from a generic Western-centric perspective all the chapters demonstrate the importance of bringing the global South into the analysis in a nuanced fashion, with an appreciation of differences of place and context." –Andrew F. Cooper, University of Waterloo, Canada "Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations edited by Lisa Ann Richey marks a major advance for debates on celebrity ‘do-gooding’. This well-organized collection of chapters includes empirically grounded and critical analyses of cases from both the North and Global South that drastically improve our understanding of celebrity humanitarianism and its politics." –Olivier Driessens, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK "Taking us beyond Bono, Geldof and Jolie, this comprehensive edited collection gives us the empirical depth and geographical breath to better understand when and how celebrities matter for humanitarianism, not just in the US, but all over the world. The product of years of genuinely collaborative work, this book will broaden the horizons of anyone who thought they knew about the politics of celebrity humanitarianism."–Martin Scott, University of East Anglia, UK "This excellent volume provides a systematically arranged set of case studies concerning the exponential growth of Celebrity Humanitarianism. The edition will be welcomed by academics and practitioners alike as it foregrounds the Global South within this important phenomenon." –Mark Wheeler, London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom "Should we care about celebrities? Not at all, we might have once said, especially if our prime concerns are North-South relations and humanitarian causes. No more. This book does more than challenge such an answer, it turns it on its head. Each chapter mak