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_d10607
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100 _aRichey, Lisa Ann
_930176
245 _aEclipsed by the halo :
_b‘Helping’ brands through dissociation
260 _bSage
_c2019
300 _aVol 9, Issue 1, 2019:(78-82 p.)
520 _a‘Helping’ distant others through ‘Brand Aid’ humanitarianism may be one of the most successful dissociational branding practices of all. In this short commentary, I argue that humanitarian ‘helping’ itself can become a branded commodity, as understood by Ibert et al. (2019). I draw on the dissociational framework to reconsider the concept of ‘brand aid’ as a link between ethical consumption, international development, and the commodification of humanitarianism. In brand aid, the ‘ethical’ action proposed by a consumption choice triggers the ‘helping’ of distant and disengaged Others. This results in reshaping the real or imagined ethical obligations across networks of solidarity, where dissociational symbolic value moves from consumption back to production and is deflected onto suffering Others. In these chains of value, the conditions of production become eclipsed by the halo of helping through consumption. Ethical consumption is becoming less possible, humanitarianism is increasingly commodified, and ‘partnerships’ meant to alleviate global suffering are becoming more complicated than ever before. Cultural economic geography can deepen our knowledge of how maintaining inequalities can produce surplus value through ‘helping’, and how this is embedded in strategic and habitual forms of dissociation from global ills.
650 _abrand aid
_930177
650 _asustainable development goals (SDGs)
_930178
650 _apartnerships
_930179
650 _ahumanitarianism
_930180
650 _aglobal value chains
_930181
650 _aethical consumption
_930182
650 _acommodification
_930183
773 0 _010527
_915376
_dSage Publications Ltd., 2019
_tDialogues in human geography.
_w(OSt)20840795
_x2043-8214
856 _uhttps://doi.org/10.1177/2043820619831139
942 _2ddc
_cART