New Media and International Development: Representation and affect in microfinance (Rethinking Development) - Softcover

Schwittay, Anke

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415856086 ISBN 13: 9780415856089

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

New Media and International Development is the first in-depth examination of microfinance’s enduring popularity with Northern publics. Through a case study of Kiva.org, the world’s first person-to-person microlending website, and other microfinance organizations, the book argues that international development efforts have an affective dimension. This is fostered through narrative and visual representations, through the performance of development rituals and through bonds of fellowship between Northern donors and Southern recipients. These practices constitute people in the global North as everyday humanitarians and mobilize their affective investments, which are financial, social and emotional investments in distant others to alleviate their poverty. This book draws on ethnographic material from the US, India and Indonesia and the anthropological and development studies literature on humanitarianism, affect and the public faces of development. It opens up novel avenues of research into the formation of new development subjects in the global North.

This book will appeal to researchers and students of international development, anthropology, media studies and related fields, as well as practitioners and professionals in the field of international development

About this title

About the Author

Anke Schwittay is Senior Lecturer of Anthopology and International Development at the University of Sussex, UK.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415856086
• ISBN 13: 9780415856089
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 206