Political Science 2142A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Naomi Klein, Corporate Social Responsibility, The Shock Doctrine

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 2142A/B
• Professor: Nandita Mallamphy

Document Summary

Lecture 4: the ideology of celebrity humanitarianism - Depoliticization: the removal of public scrutiny and debate, with the result that issues of social justice are transformed into technocratic matters to be resolved by managers, experts", or in this case, humanitarian celebrities. Thus, when celebrities speak for the third world on issues of debt or poverty, or ngos act as witnesses" on behalf of disaster victims", they reduce the other into passive bystander, unilaterally representing her/his needs and desires. Helps decaffeinate capitalism ; uses the caring" language of corporate social responsibility". Other: promotes a self" usually based on explicitly western values such as individualism and consumerism; ideologically constructs a disadvantaged and downtrodden non-western other". Orientalism: the construction of the orient" and the west". West": superior, civilized (the universal standard) vs. orient": inferior, barbaric (the other) Disaster capitalism:generation of profits from some type of disaster. Businesses scaring people to buy product in case of disaster.