Abstract
How do we conceive solidarity in today’s globally mediated world? What do human rights appeals, rock concerts, celebrity advocacy and citizen journalism tell us about ethics in contemporary Western cultures? Chouliaraki’s new book explores these questions to show how changes in the aesthetics of humanitarian communication denote a shift away from an ethics of pity, ‘an other-oriented morality’, to an ethics of irony, or ‘a self-oriented morality’. In other words, the imperative to act in response to the mediated suffering of a vulnerable other is not based on the selfless act of care in the name of humanity; instead, contemporary solidarity emphasizes the moral nurturing of the individual and the pleasures of the self. Consequently, going to a rock concert is a popular form of humanitarianism – by paying for the ticket an individual helps raise funds for a human rights cause while also enjoying music performance. Although the ethics of solidarity is always partly self-oriented, the ‘ironic solidarity … explicitly situates the pleasures of the self at the heart of moral action, rendering solidarity a contingent ethics that no longer aspires to a reflexive engagement with the political conditions of human vulnerability’ (p. 4).
Chouliaraki distinguishes three dimensions that shape the ironic solidarity. The institutional element shows how the neoliberal market logic in the development field turns the practice into ‘depoliticized managerialism’. Instead of understanding the structural causes of a problem, citizens can feel ethically engaged if they click on a link to donate or support a cause. The political element emphasizes the rise of individualist morality which prioritizes the pleasures and interests of an individual over greater investment in social justice. Finally, the technological element is driven by the proliferation of public self-expression and first-person testimonies on multiple (new) media platforms. Accounting for these changes, Chouliaraki examines different humanitarian genres and shows how they summon up moral publics by performing and not merely depicting the (traumatic) world. Thus, she places performativity at the heart of contemporary humanitarian communication.
‘Affective performativity’ illustrates how human rights appeals tend to focus more on the benefactor than the victim of abuse. Signing an online petition or taking a quiz contributes more to a self-rewarding activism than a critical engagement. As Chouliaraki states, ‘as long as our relation to others is accomplished through an imagination of ourselves, solidarity […] will always remain just a vague and self-complacent prompt to “be humankind”’ (p. 77). ‘Performativity as personification’, on the other hand, helps understand how celebrities, through their role of public personas and their ability to speak on behalf of human rights victims, construct the humanitarian imaginary. By looking at the humanitarian performances of Audrey Hepburn and Angelina Jolie, Chouliaraki observes a move from de-celebritization and promotion of unconditional altruism to hyper-celebritization and utilitarian altruism. Rock concerts, on the other hand, are examples of ceremonial humanitarianism that reveal the strategic morality of contemporary solidarity. Performativity works as charisma: rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono helped define Live 8 concerts as a form of professionalized activism, which replaces the witnessing of human suffering with the dazzling appeal of technology and spectacle. Finally, Chouliaraki turns to ‘performativity as narrative’ in her analysis of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) coverage of earthquakes over the last four decades. She shows how the change to post-television journalism (i.e. convergent news and live blogging) signals a variation both in the narrative structure of news and in the performativity of mediated witnessing. For example, factual narratives embrace detached witnessing performance; omnipresent witnessing drives testimonial narratives, and participatory structures rely on ordinary witnessing. These types of witnessing are analytically important because they help us understand the moral agency of news.
By offering richly theorized empirical data, Chouliaraki examines the development of the communicative aspects of humanitarianism with great mastery. She argues that ethics of pity falls short in its aspirations for moral universalism, while ethics of irony risks rendering any humanitarian action narcissistic and/or corporate. Although the book is critical of the current stage of humanitarianism, Chouliaraki ends with a spark of hope. Inspired by Arendt, she proposes an ethics of agonism that acknowledges and reflects on the inherent paradoxes of humanitarianism. As she states, ‘this exercise in perpetual reflexivity, which keeps exposing the moral ambivalence of humanitarianism’s liberal roots, is the best option we have for keeping the possibility of systematic change alive’ (p. 205). Solidarity requires critical engagement, judgment, and commitment that go beyond the emerging attributes of a ‘feel good’ activism, she concludes. Ironic Spectator is a must read for any scholar in the humanities and social sciences working on issues such as social action, human rights, media ethics, witnessing, and cosmopolitan citizenship.