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Humanitarianism and Suffering: The Mobilization of Empathy
Paperback / softback
Main Details
Title |
Humanitarianism and Suffering: The Mobilization of Empathy
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Authors and Contributors |
Edited by Richard Ashby Wilson
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Edited by Richard D. Brown
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Physical Properties |
Format:Paperback / softback | Pages:330 | Dimensions(mm): Height 229,Width 152 |
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Category/Genre | Social and political philosophy |
ISBN/Barcode |
9780521298384
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Classifications | Dewey:341.67 |
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Audience | Professional & Vocational | Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly | |
Illustrations |
Worked examples or Exercises
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Publishing Details |
Publisher |
Cambridge University Press
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Imprint |
Cambridge University Press
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Publication Date |
26 May 2011 |
Publication Country |
United Kingdom
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Description
Humanitarian sentiments have motivated a variety of manifestations of pity, from nineteenth-century movements to end slavery to the creation of modern international humanitarian law. While humanitarianism is clearly political, this text addresses the ways in which it is also an ethos embedded in civil society, one that drives secular and religious social and cultural movements, not just legal and political institutions. As an ethos, humanitarianism has a strong narrative and representational dimension that can generate humanitarian constituencies for particular causes. Essays in the volume analyze the character, form, and voice of private or public narratives themselves and explain how and why some narratives of suffering energize political movements of solidarity, whereas others do not. Humanitarianism and Suffering explores when, how, and why humanitarian movements become widespread popular movements. It shows how popular sentiments move political and social elites to action and, conversely, how national elites appropriate humanitarian ideals for more instrumental ends.
Reviews'... a very timely volume that should appeal to a wide range of anthropologists.' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
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