Privilegiets problem: Mellem den humanitære og den kyniske fornuft

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In this article I explore a contemporary structure of feeling closely but ambivalently related to what moral anthropologist Didier Fassin has termed ”humanitarian reason”. I label this specific affective disposition ‘the predicament of privilege’. In the first part of the article I relate the predicament of privilege to various critiques of humanitarianism for being a ”feeling culture” depoliticizing questions of inequality, justice and social conflict. The latter part of the article examines ”the predicament of privilege” by way of analyzing a recurring Danish TV-fundraiser in terms of the various ugly feelings represented, produced and circulated by this particular charity show. My overall suggestion is that we can hardly understand the affective-moral dimensions of globalization without exploring the cultural forms and social functions of the ugly, unprestigious and amoral feelings pertaining to being globally privileged: sentiments such as boredom, indifference, compassion fatigue, cynicism, bad conscience and sheer reluctance to engage emotionally in the ethical claims made on us.
Translated title of the contributionThe Predicament of Privilege: Between Humanitarian and Cynical Reason
Original languageDanish
JournalK&K. Kultur og Klasse
Volume41
Issue number116
Pages (from-to)89-102
ISSN0905-6998
Publication statusPublished - 2013

    Research areas

  • Faculty of Humanities - humanitarianism, compassion, privilege, Danamarksindsamlingen, Sianne Ngai, Didier Fassin

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