Description
Book SynopsisThrough the efforts of increasingly media-aware NGOs, people in the west are bombarded with images of poverty and inequality in the developing world. Representations of Poverty is the first comprehensive study of the communications and imagery used by international NGOs to represent the developing world. In this meticulously researched and original book, Nandita Dogra examines the full cycle of representation - integrating analyses of the public messages of international development NGOs in the UK with the views of their staff and audiences. Exploring the Europeanised discourses inherent in appeals to this notion of a 'common humanity', she argues for a greater acknowledgment of NGOs as significant mediating institutions which can expand understandings of global inequalities and their historical causation. The book is a timely addition to the growing fields of development and media studies and will be a key resource for academics, policymakers and practitioners alike who have an interest in global poverty, aid, NGOs, and the politics of representation.
Trade Review'How exactly do international non-government organisations conceptualise the developing world when they legislate their mandate? This valuable book addresses precisely this question by insightfully and skilfully unearthing the subtext of NGO representations of global poverty, development and rights.' Neera Chandhoke, Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi 'This provocative analysis of the visual language of British international non-governmental development organisations raises a set of important and pressing questions, and deserves to be read by practitioner and researcher alike.' David Lewis, Professor of Social Policy and Development, London School of Economics
Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I - Difference: People, Spaces and Problems Ch. 2 - Cast of Characters Ch. 3 - Distant Spaces Ch. 4 - Causes and Solutions of Global Poverty Part II - Oneness Ch. 5 - One Humanity Ch. 6 - Uniform First World Part III - Reflexivity Ch. 7 - Connecting with the Lives of Others Ch. 8 - Conclusions: Towards Reflexive Understandings Annex 1 Notes Bibliography Index
