Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations

There is a pressing need to examine celebrities and the role of context in the power relations that constitute North-South relations. This book gazes through the keyhole of 'celebrity' in order to investigate key concepts such as accountability, agency, authenticity, brand, development, mediation, inequality, need, public engagement and representation. This book offers a global, interdisciplinary and theoretically-informed collection of cases highlighting celebrity engagement in over a dozen countries on five continents.

Lisa Ann Richey is Professor of International Development Studies in the Department of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University, Denmark.

Introduction. Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations. Politics, Place and Power Part 1: Celebrity-Impact in the Global South 1. Angelina Jolie and the Everyday Geopolitics of Celebrity Humanitarianism in a Thailand-Burma Border Town 2. Madonna in Malawi. Celebritized Interventions and Local Politics of Development in the South 3. Muhammad Yunus. A Bangladeshi Aid Celebrity 4. Sophie's Special Secret. Public Feeling, Consumption and Celebrity Activism in Post-Apartheid South Africa 5. Celebrity Philanthropy in China. the political critique of Pu Cunxin's AIDS heroism Part 2: Celebritization, Participatory Democracy, and the Donor North 6. Ben Affleck Goes to Washington. Celebrity Advocacy, Access and Influence 7. Humanitarian Relief Worker Sean Penn - A Contextual Story 8. Irony and Politically Incorrect Humanitarianism. Danish Celebrity-led Benefit Events 9. Celebrity, Humanitarianism and Settler-Colonialism. G.A Robinson and the Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land Epilogue. The Politics of Celebrity Humanitarianism