Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T21:20:58.400Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Caffeinated Solutions as Neoliberal Politics: How Celebrities Create and Promote Partnerships for Peace and Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2019

Abstract

How do celebrities exert power to influence elite and popular thinking and policy around peace and development? Drawing from research on neoliberalism, celebrities, and ethical consumption, I build an interpretive analysis of two case studies of Brand Aid initiatives to argue first, that celebrities mobilize financial and political capital to create partnerships across businesses, NGOs, and the government in ways that embody neoliberal politics by ushering in new private actors; and second, that celebrities reinforce these neoliberal politics by promoting these partnerships to popular and elite audiences. I discuss how this paper contributes to unmasking neoliberal trends by showing how celebrities are deepening their engagement in ways that hold implications for democratic politics.

Type
Special Section: Celebrities and Politics
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This work was supported by the Samfund og Erhverv, Det Frie Forskningsråd [6109-00158].

References

Abrahamsen, Rita. 2012. “Africa in a Global Political Economy of Symbolic Goods.” Review of African Political Economy 39(131): 140–42.Google Scholar
Affleck, Ben. 2015. Testimony by Ben Affleck, Founder, Eastern Congo Initiative. Hearing on “Diplomacy, Development, and National Security.” U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. March 26. Senate Hearing 114. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Affleck, Ben. 2017. “Opinion | Ben Affleck: Why I’m Hopeful About Congo.” The New York Times, December 5.Google Scholar
Africa News. 2013. “Sudan; Swiss Firm Eyes South Sudan for Coffee Production,” July 20.Google Scholar
Agence France Press. 2013. “A South Sudan Moka? What Else?” July 16.Google Scholar
Autesserre, Séverine. 2010. The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Autesserre, Séverine. 2014. Peaceland: Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baaz, Maria Eriksson and Stern, Maria. 2013. Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War? Perceptions, Prescriptions, Problems in the Congo and Beyond. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Bariyo, Nicholas. 2016. “Nestle’s Nespresso to Suspend Coffee Imports From South Sudan.” The Wall Street Journal, October 4.Google Scholar
Barnett, Clive, Cloke, Paul, Clarke, Nick, and Malpass, Alice. 2005. “Consuming Ethics: Articulating the Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption.” Antipode 37(1): 2345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, Catherine. 2014. “Comment: Is It a Lost Cause Getting a Celebrity to Represent You? Scarlett Johansson Chose SodaStream over Oxfam, but Do Charities Really Need Famous Ambassadors?The Observer (London), February 2.Google Scholar
Berwouts, Kris. 2017. Congo’s Violent Peace: Conflict and Struggle since the Great African War. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Biccum, April. 2011. “Marketing Development: Celebrity Politics and the ‘New’ Development Advocacy.” Third World Quarterly 32(7): 1331–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birkenbuel, Renata. 2014. “Carrying on Family Legacy: Whitney Williams Goes Global.” Montana Standard, September 21.Google Scholar
Brainard, Lael and Chollet, Derek. 2008. Global Development 2.0: Can Philanthropists, the Public, and the Poor Make Poverty History? Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Brancaccio, David. 2014. “Ben Affleck on Sustainable Aid in the Eastern Congo.” Marketplace, December 8. http://www.marketplace.org/2014/12/08/business/ben-affleck-sustainable-aid-eastern-congo.Google Scholar
Brockington, Dan. 2014. Celebrity Advocacy and International Development. London and New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Wendy. 2016. “Sacrificial Citizenship: Neoliberalism, Human Capital, and Austerity Politics.” Constellations 23(1): 314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brysk, Alison. 2013. Speaking Rights to Power Constructing Political Will. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budabin, Alexandra Cosima. 2014. “Diasporas as Development Partners for Peace? The Alliance between the Darfuri Diaspora and the Save Darfur Coalition.” Third World Quarterly 35(1): 168–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budabin, Alexandra Cosima. 2015a. “Celebrities as Norm Entrepreneurs in International Politics: Mia Farrow and the Genocide Campaign.” Celebrity Studies 6(4): 399413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budabin, Alexandra Cosima. 2015b. “Ben Affleck Goes to Washington: Celebrity Advocacy, Access, and Influence.” In Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations: Politics, Place and Power , ed. Richey, Lisa Ann, 131148. Oxford: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budabin, Alexandra, Rasmussen, Louisa Mubanda, and Ann Richey, Lisa. 2017. “Celebrity-led Development Organisations: The Legitimating Function of Elite Engagement.” Third World Quarterly 38(9): 1952–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budabin, Alexandra Cosima and Pruce, Joel R.. 2018. “The Elite Politics of Media Advocacy in Human Rights.” New Political Science 40(4): 744762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budabin, Alexandra and Richey, Lisa. 2018. “Advocacy Narratives and Celebrity Engagement: The Case of Ben Affleck in Congo.” Human Rights Quarterly 40(2): 260–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coley, Jonathan S. 2013. “Theorizing Issue Selection in Advocacy Organizations: An Analysis of Human Rights Activism around Darfur and the Congo, 1998–2010.” Sociological Perspectives 56(2): 191212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, Andrew F. 2008. Celebrity Diplomacy. International Studies Intensives. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.Google Scholar
Daley, Patricia. 2013. “Rescuing African Bodies: Celebrities, Consumerism and Neoliberal Humanitarianism.” Review of African Political Economy 40(137): 375–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, Lisa E. 2009. Jazz Diplomacy: Promoting America in the Cold War Era. Jackson: University of Mississippi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daviron, Benoit and Ponte, Stefano. 2005. The Coffee Paradox: Global Markets, Commodity Trade and the Elusive Promise of Development. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Devereaux, Ryan. 2012. “George Clooney Arrested in Planned Protest at Sudanese Embassy.” The Guardian, March 16. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/16/george-clooney-arrested-sudanese-embassy.Google Scholar
de Waal, Alex, ed. 2015. Advocacy in Conflict: Critical Perspectives on Transnational Activism. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Drake, Philip and Miah, Andy. 2010. “The Cultural Politics of Celebrity.” Cultural Politics 6(1): 4964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driessens, Oliver. 2013. “Celebrity Capital: Redefining Celebrity Using Field Theory.” Theory and Society 42(5): 543–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dube, Oeindrila and Vargas, Juan F. 2006. “Are All Resources Cursed? Coffee, Oil, and Armed Conflict in Colombia.” Report for Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Harvard University. Available at https://wcfia.harvard.edu/files/wcfia/files/2007_1_vargas.pdf.Google Scholar
Dunn, Kevin C. 2003. Imagining The Congo: The International Relations of Identity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, Kevin C. 2009. “Historical Representations.” In Qualitative Methods in International Relations: A Pluralist Guide , ed. Klotz, Audie and Prakash, Deepa. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Dyer, Richard. 1998. Stars. 2nd ed. London: British Film Institute.Google Scholar
Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI). 2017. “Revitalizing Congo’s Coffee Sector.” May 3. http://www.easterncongo.org/blog/detail/2016-03-revitalizing-congos-coffee-sector.Google Scholar
Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI). 2018. “The Lake Kivu Coffee Alliance: Helping Farming Families in Congo Regain Lost Ground.” Eastern Congo Initiative (blog). April 26, 2018. http://www.easterncongo.org/blog/detail/2018-04-the-lake-kivu-coffee-alliance-helping-farming-famili.Google Scholar
Eikenberry, Angela M. 2009. “The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing.” Stanford Social Innovation Review 7(3): 5155.Google Scholar
Fadlalla, Amal. 2008. “The Neoliberalization of Compassion: Darfur and the Mediation of American Faith, Fear and Terror.” In New Landscapes of Inequality: Neoliberalism and the Erosion of Democracy in America , ed. Collins, Jane L., DiLeonardo, Micaela and Williams, Brett. Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research Press.Google Scholar
Ferguson, James. 2006. Global Shadows: African in the Neoliberal World Order. Durham and London: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, James. 2009. “The Use of Neoliberalism.” Antipode 41(S1): 166–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fejerskov, Adam, Lundsgaarde, Erik, and Cold-Ravnkilde, Signe. 2017. “Recasting the ‘New Actors in Development’ Research Agenda.” European Journal of Development Research 29: 1070–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foltyn, Simona. 2016. “South Sudan: Coffee in a Time of War?Aljazeera, January 6.Google Scholar
Global English (Middle East and North Africa Financial Network). 2015. “Clooney’s South Sudan Coffee Reaches Europe despite War.” October 7.Google Scholar
Gong, Erick and Sullivan, Katherine A.. 2017. “Conflict and Coffee: Are Higher Coffee Prices Fuelling Rebellion in Uganda?Journal of African Economies, 26(3): 322–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, Michael K. 2010. “The Mirror of Consumption: Celebritization, Developmental Consumption and the Shifting Cultural Politics of Fair Trade.” Geoforum 41(1): 104–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gulam, Joshua. Forthcoming. “Promoting Peace and Coffee Pods: George Clooney, Nespresso Activist.” In The Political Economy of Celebrity Activism, ed. Farrell, Nathan. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hadrick, Dennis. 2018. “Coffee, Conflict, and the Congo: Healing Hearts and Minds Begins with Life and Limbs.” DipNote (blog). March 6. https://blogs.state.gov/stories/2018/03/06/en/coffee-conflict-and-congo-healing-hearts-and-minds-begins-life-and-limbs.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Rebecca. 2011. Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Roberta. 2012. “A New Frontier in Development? The Use of Cause-Related Marketing by International Development Organisations.” Third World Quarterly 33(10): 1783–801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, Virgil. 2011. “Creating a Groundswell or Getting on the Bandwagon? Celebrities, the Media and Distant Conflict.” In Transnational Celebrity Activism in Global Politics, ed. Tsaliki, Liza, Frangonikolopoulos, Christos A., and Huliaras, Asteris. Chicago: Intellect.Google Scholar
Hertzke, A. 2004. Freeing God’s Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Adam. 1998. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston: Mariner Books.Google Scholar
Hunt, Nancy Rose. 2008. “An Acoustic Register, Tenacious Images, and Congolese Scenes of Rape and Repetition.” Cultural Anthropology 23(2): 220–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaffee, Daniel. 2014. Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival. Oakland: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Jhumra Smith, Kaukab. 2016. “The DRC’s Coffee Might Be Served at a Starbucks Near You.” USAID FrontLines. June 2016. https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/frontlines/may-june-2016/drc-coffee-might-be-served-starbucks-near-you.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. H. 2003. The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars, African Issues. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Kabemba, Claude. 2016. “The Democratic Republic of Congo: The Land of Humanitarian Interventions.” In The History and Pratice of Humanitarian Intervention and Aid in Africa , ed. Everill, Bronwen and Kaplan, Josiah. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kapoor, Ilan. 2013. Celebrity Humanitarianism: Ideology of Global Charity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kingfisher, Catherine and Maskovsky, Jeff. “The Limits of Neoliberalism.” Critique of Anthropology 28(2): 115–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kogen, Lauren. 2018. “For Celebrity Communication about Development to do Good: Reframing Purpose and Discourses. In Communication in International Development Doing Good or Looking Good? ed. Enghel, Florencia and Noske-Turner, Jessica. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lanz, David. 2011. “Why Darfur? The Responsibility to Protect as a Rallying Cry for Transnational Advocacy Groups.” Global Responsibility to Protect 3(2): 223–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lekakis, Eleftheria. 2013. Coffee Activism and the Politics of Fair Trade and Ethical Consumption in the Global North: Political Consumerism and Cultural Citizenship. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, Cecelia. 2013. Neoliberal Ethics, the Humanitarian International, and Practices of Peacebuilding. In Globalization, Social Movements, and Peacebuilding, ed. Smith, Jackie and Verdeja, Ernesto. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Majic, Samantha A. 2017. “Real Men Set Norms? Anti-Trafficking Campaigns and the Limits of Celebrity Norm Entrepreneurship.” Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal 14(2): 289309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makarechi, Kia. 2013. “George Clooney Spends Nespresso Paycheck On Spy Satellite To Keep Tabs On Omar Al-Bashir | HuffPost.” The Huffington Post, July 31.Google Scholar
Mamdani, Mahmood. 2009. Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Marijnen, Esther and Verwijen, Judith. 2016. “Selling Green Militarization: The Discursive (re)Production of Militarized Conservation in the Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Geoforum 75: 274–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnell, Tristan. 2013. “George Clooney Wants You to Drink This Coffee.” San Jose Mercury News, October 14.Google Scholar
Meger, Sara. 2016. “The Fetishization of Sexual Violence in International Security.” International Studies Quarterly 60(1): 149–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morel, Edmund Dene. 1906. Red Rubbe: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Flourishing on the Congo in the Year of Grace 1906. New York: The Nassau Print.Google Scholar
Müller, Tanja R. 2013. “The Long Shadow of Band Aid Humanitarianism: Revisiting the Dynamics between Famine and Celebrity.” Third World Quarterly 34(3): 470–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nespresso. N.d. “Reviving-High-Quality-Coffee-Production-in-South-Sudan.” Nestle-Nespresso.Com. Retrieved May 14, 2018.Google Scholar
Nestle. 2016. “USAID Joins Nespresso and TechnoServe in Supporting South Sudan’s Coffee Farmers | Nestlé Global.” April 8. https://www.nestle.com/media/news/usaid-nespresso-support-south-sudan-coffee-farmers.Google Scholar
News Aktuell. 2013. “Nespresso Builds on 10 Years of Success of Its AAA Sustainable Quality Program in Cooperation with the Rainforest Alliance.” July 16.Google Scholar
Njoroge, Dorothy. 2011. “Calling a New Tune for Africa? Analyzing a Celebrity-Led Campaign to Redefine the Debate on Africa.” In Transnational Celebrity Activism in Global Politics, ed. Tsaliki, Liza, Frangonikolopoulos, Christos A., and Huliaras, Asteris. Chicago: Intellect.Google Scholar
Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges. 2002. The Congo: From Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Olsen, David. 2015. “Coffee Beans Bring Hope to War-Torn Nation.” Seattle Times, February 20.Google Scholar
Orr, Tamra B. 2008. George Clooney and the Crisis in Darfur. New York: Rosen Pub Group.Google Scholar
Patey, Luke. 2009. “Against the Asian Tide: The Sudan Divestment Campaign.” Journal of Modern African Studies 47(4): 551–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, Molly and Renwick Monroe, Kristen. 1998. “Narrative in Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science 1(1): 315–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ploch Blanchard, Lauren. 2014. “The Crisis in South Sudan.” CRS Report 7–5700. Congressional Research Service.Google Scholar
Ponte, Stefano and Ann Richey, Lisa. 2014. “Buying Into Development? Brand Aid Forms of Cause-Related Marketing.” Third World Quarterly 35(1): 6587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pruce, Joel R. 2019. The Mass Appeal of Human Rights. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prunier, Gerard. 2009. Africa’s World War: Congo,The Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Quick, Ian. 2015. Follies in Fragile States: How International Stabilisation Failed in the Congo. 1 edition. Double Loop.Google Scholar
Rapkin, Mickey. 2013. “When Ben Affleck Wants to Change the World, He Calls This Woman.” ELLE, November 11. http://www.elle.com/life-love/society-career/whitney-williams-profile.Google Scholar
Richey, Lisa Ann. ed. 2015. Celebrity Humanitarianism and North-South Relations: Politics, Place and Power. New York and London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richey, Lisa Ann. and Budabin, Alexandra. Forthcoming. Batman Saves Congo: Celebrity, Disruption and Neoliberal Development. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Richey, Lisa Ann. and Budabin, Alexandra. 2016. “Celebritizing Conflict: How Ben Affleck Sells the Congo to Americans.” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism and Development . 7(1): 2746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richey, Lisa Ann and Ponte, Stefano. 2011. Brand Aid: Shopping Well to Save the World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Richey, Lisa Ann and Ponte, Stefano, eds. 2014. New Actors and Alliances. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Richey, Lisa Ann and Ponte, Stefano. 2017. “Batman, Starbucks, and Revitalizing Coffee in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, November.Google Scholar
Rojek, Chris. 2001. Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books.Google Scholar
Roth, Genevieve. 2016. “‘I’ve Never Seen Women So Brave’: How Ben Affleck Is Fighting for Women in the Congo.” Glamou, April.Google Scholar
Sassons, Tehila. 2016. “Milking the Third World? Humanitarianism, Capitalism, and the Moral Economy of the Nestlé Boycott.” The American Historical Review 121(4): 1196–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz-Shea, Peregrine and Yanow, Dvora. 2012. Interpretive Research Design. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Scott, Martin. 2015. “The Role of Celebrities in Mediating Distant Suffering.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 18(4): 449–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seay, Laura E. 2015. “Conflict Minerals in Congo: The Consequences of Oversimplification.” In Advocacy in Conflict: Critical Perspectives on Transnational Activism, ed. de Waal, Alex. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Jones, Michael D., and McBeth, Mark K.. 2018. “How to conduct a Narrative Policy Framework study.” The Social Science Journal 55: 332345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegle, Lucy. 2013. “George Clooney Tastes Sustainability in Nespresso Coffee.” The Guardian, July 17.Google Scholar
Smith, David. 2015. “South Sudan to Export Coffee for the First Time.” The Guardian, October 8.Google Scholar
Smith, Jackie and Verdeja, Ernesto, eds. 2013. “Introduction.” In Globalization, Social Movements, and Peacebuilding. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Springer, Simon, Birch, Kean, and MacLeavy, Julie. 2016. The Handbook of Neoliberalism. New York and London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starbucks. “Actor Ben Affleck Acknowledges Starbucks for ‘Transforming Lives’ in Congo.” 2015. Starbucks Newsroom. March 30. /news/actor-ben-affleck-acknowledges-starbucks-for-transforming-lives-in-congo.Google Scholar
TechnoServe. N.d. “Our History.” Retrieved May 10, 2018. http://www.technoserve.org/about-us/our-history.Google Scholar
TechnoServe. N.d. “Partner with Us.” Retrieved May 10, 2018. http://www.technoserve.org/get-involved/partner-with-us.Google Scholar
TechnoServe. Nn.d. “Video: Reviving the Coffee Culture in South SudanN.d. “Video: Reviving the Coffee Culture in South Sudan.” Retrieved May 10, 2018. http://www.technoserve.org/blog/reviving-high-quality-coffee-production-in-south-sudan.Google Scholar
Terazono, Emiko. 2016. “Hipster Coffee Boom Sends Buyers to Conflict Zones.” Financial Times, October 21.Google Scholar
Trefon, Theodore and Kabuyaya, Noël. 2018. Goma: Stories of Struggle and Sorrow from Eastern Congo. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Tsaliki, Liza, Frangonikolopoulos, Christos A., and Huliaras, Asteris, eds. 2011. “Introduction: The Challenge of Celebrity Activism: Background, Aim and Scope of the Book.” Transnational Celebrity Activism in Global Politics. Chicago: Intellect.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Programme. 2017. Human Development Report 2016: Human Development for Everyone. New York: United Nations. https://doi.org/10.18356/b6186701-en.Google Scholar
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 2016. “USAID Joins Nespresso and TechnoServe to Support South Sudan’s Coffee Farmers; $3.18 Million Investment Will Accelerate Development of the Country’s Coffee Market.” https://www.nestle-nespresso.com/newsandfeatures/USAID-Nespresso-TechnoServe-South-Sudan-Coffee-Farmers.Google Scholar
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 2018. “Global Development Alliances.” March 12. Retrieved February 4, 2019. https://www.usaid.gov/gda.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Mark. 2013. Celebrity Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Julie A. 2018. Neoliberalism. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Young, John. 2012. The Fate of Sudan: The Origins and Consequences of a Flawed Peace Process. London: Zed BooksGoogle Scholar