Degree Name
MA in Sustainable Development
First Advisor
Rachel Slocum
Second Advisor
Teresa Healy
Abstract
Child sponsorship as a method of international development offers child sponsors a personal connection to the process of alleviating poverty in the global South. As a form of human development, child sponsorship is constituted by neoliberal principles of marketization and social entrepreneurship. How does child sponsorship, in this context, require us to rethink the ethics of international development in light of ongoing debates about neoliberalism? In this research, I argue that child sponsorship reifies the binary of the “developed” and “undeveloped” worlds. Through undertaking a content analysis of three organizations (Compassion International, World Vision, and UNICEF) and applying post-structural critique to their marketing materials, clear distinctions can be made between multilateral approaches to human development and the strategies employed by non-profit child sponsorship agencies. A noticeable divergence can be found in the presence of a co-development framework in UNICEF programs which coincides with emerging critiques of conventional notions of humanitarian ethics and may complement potential alternatives to these established norms.
Disciplines
Critical and Cultural Studies | Digital Humanities | Ethics and Political Philosophy | Ethics in Religion | Missions and World Christianity | Political Economy | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | Social and Cultural Anthropology | Sociology of Culture | Visual Studies
Recommended Citation
Hallett, Taylor, "A Dollar a Day: Child Sponsorship and the Marketization of Human Development" (2016). Capstone Collection. 2947.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones/2947
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, Political Economy Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Visual Studies Commons