The Humanitarian Fable examines how popular humanitarian communication constructs global poverty as a moral narrative that reinforces unequal power dynamics between the Global North and Global South.
Taking a cultural studies approach, the book argues that humanitarian discourse places too much emphasis on the involvement of Global North initiatives, while avoiding meaningful engagement with the structural causes of inequality. By critiquing humanitarianism as the dominant framework for understanding global poverty, the author challenges readers to consider alternative approaches grounded in justice, decolonization, and addressing ongoing exploitation.
This interdisciplinary text will interest academic researchers, instructors, and students across disciplines, including Cultural Studies, International Development Studies, Education, Human Rights, and Communication Studies.
This book examines how popular humanitarian communication constructs global poverty as a moral narrative that reinforces unequal power dynamics between the Global North and Global South. It will interest Cultural Studies, International Development Studies, Education, Human Rights, and Communication Studies.
Introduction: The Humanitarian Fable
1. The Idea of Global Poverty
2. The Image of the Global Poor
3. The Humanitarian Informant
4. The Burden of Benevolence
5. Saviourism, Post-Racialism, Modernity
Conclusion: On the Sanctity of Humanitarianism, Towards Reorientation
Index
David Jefferess is a settler-situated scholar who teaches in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at UBC Okanagan. He is the author of Postcolonial Resistance: Culture, Liberation, and Transformation (2008), co-editor of Globalizing Afghanistan: Terrorism, War, and the Rhetoric of Nation (2011), and numerous articles on humanitarian discourse.
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