ANTH 320/DEVS 321 PEOPLE AND DEVELOPMENT Fall 2018

I acknowledge that St FX is in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.

Sept. 19    READ: Budabin, Alexandra Cosima, Louise Mubanda Rasmussen and Lisa Ann Richey (2017) Celebrity-led development organisations: The legitimating function of elite engagement, Third World Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2017.1322465

HOMEWORK FOR SEPTEMBER 24 (one of the small assignments): Read the article by Elisa Sandri  ([2018] ‘Volunteer Humanitarianism’: volunteers and humanitarian aid in the Jungle refugee camp of Calais. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44:1, 65-80); fill out this form to build effective reading skills; submit it on September 24.


Budabin, Cosima, Rasmussen and Richey:

- Note the structure of Budabin et al’s paper; they articulate a clear argument, define the concepts (authenticity, credibility and accountability) they will use to analyse the evidence, describe the context within which they will discuss the issue (both the rising importance of celebrity-led development and the specific cases they will discuss), and carry out the analysis consistently with their concepts. This is a very nice model of a well-constructed and argued essay.

The big questions that underlie Budabin et al’s paper are, that are not directly addressed but that spur their inquiry are: Who should decide what is done as development? To whom should those involved in development be accountable? They pursue these by asking how celebrity-led development operates and what the implications are for the structure of the development field of celebrity-led development (do they challenge or reinforce inequalities?)

- What do they argue?
- Theoretical concepts: What is meant by authenticity?
        - how is this concept related to celebrity-led development?
    - What is meant by credibility?
        - how is this concept related to celebrity-led development?
    - What is meant by accountability?
        - how is this concept related to celebrity-led development?
- What is their methodology?
- Context: What do various NGOs, including celebrity-led ones do?
    - what is involved in programme implementation? Grant-making? Advocacy?
- Evidence: How do Madonna, in Raising Malawi, and Ben Affleck, in ECI, try to achieve their authenticity, credibility and accountability?
    - how are these gendered? Racialized?
Questions that you might think about to respond to and evaluate this article:
    - Is it a problem that accountability is oriented to their corporate and philanthropic organizations in the US? Or involves “tabloid accountability”?
    - Why do celebrities get involved in development? What resources do they use to make sure their personal “brand” is helped and not hurt by this?
    - Do you agree with their argument?
    - Other questions?

Mother Jones: Celebrity map of Africa
Africa for Norway

What happens when development is mixed with other objectives, such as profit-making or shoring up one’s personal brand?
    Re do-gooding capitalism, like Toms: Slavoj Zizek, “RSA Animates: First as Tragedy, Then as Farce” : https://www.thersa.org/discover/videos/rsa-animate/2010/08/rsa-animate---first-as-tragedy-then-as-farce-)