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National Humanitarianism and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: Charitable Response and the Ethical Dilemma of Cultural Understanding

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Abstract

This chapter examines the cosmopolitan possibilities of civic nationalism in the context of humanitarian responses to foreign disasters. This is considered in a case study of the discursive construction and chartable response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Australia and the United States. Academic literature on humanitarian communication generally assumes that the nation is an impediment to charity, and therefore studies into the promotion of humanitarianism have been limited to variables associated with global values and individual cognitive processes. In contrast, this chapter will emphasise how the national framing of what Boltanski (Distant suffering: Morality, media and politics, 1999) refers to as distant suffering can positively influence humanitarian assistance. It is argued that in the public spheres of Australia and the United States, national discourses and symbols helped facilitate the large humanitarian response to the tsunami through universalising risk and providing a cultural basis for organising charity events such as sporting contests and music concerts.

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  1. Sociology, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Brad West

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West, B. (2015). National Humanitarianism and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: Charitable Response and the Ethical Dilemma of Cultural Understanding. In: Re-enchanting Nationalisms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2513-1_5

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