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The Banality of Care: The Figure of the Humanitarian, in Haiti and Elsewhere
In: Public AnthropologistThe humanitarian is often seen as the great moral figure of our time. In this article, I explore how the idea of the humanitarian, as a global public figure, is related to broader ideas of liberalism, agency, ethics, and care. I draw on ethnographic examples from Haiti to first paint a portrait of the humanitarian as a person concerned with certain ideas of care, suffering, and salvation. I then offer a more general theoretical account of the figure of the humanitarian and suggest that this figure is tied to a larger story about liberal responses to cruelty and suffering. In the end, I suggest that the figure of the humanitarian tells us much about the normalization of emergency around the world and about what I call the banality of care.
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| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 837 | 100 | 8 |
| Full Text Views | 92 | 14 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 140 | 36 | 8 |
The Banality of Care: The Figure of the Humanitarian, in Haiti and Elsewhere
In: Public AnthropologistThe humanitarian is often seen as the great moral figure of our time. In this article, I explore how the idea of the humanitarian, as a global public figure, is related to broader ideas of liberalism, agency, ethics, and care. I draw on ethnographic examples from Haiti to first paint a portrait of the humanitarian as a person concerned with certain ideas of care, suffering, and salvation. I then offer a more general theoretical account of the figure of the humanitarian and suggest that this figure is tied to a larger story about liberal responses to cruelty and suffering. In the end, I suggest that the figure of the humanitarian tells us much about the normalization of emergency around the world and about what I call the banality of care.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 837 | 100 | 8 |
| Full Text Views | 92 | 14 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 140 | 36 | 8 |