TY - JOUR
T1 - Celebrity-led development organisations
T2 - the legitimating function of elite engagement
AU - Budabin, Alexandra Cosima
AU - Rasmussen, Louise Mubanda
AU - Richey, Lisa Ann
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The past decade has seen a frontier open up in international development engagement with the entrance of new actors such as celebrity-led organisations. We explore how such organisations earn legitimacy with a focus on Madonna’s Raising Malawi and Ben Affleck’s Eastern Congo Initiative. The study draws from organisational materials, interviews, mainstream news coverage, and the texts of the celebrities themselves to investigate the construction of authenticity, credibility, and accountability. We find these organisations earn legitimacy and flourish rapidly amid supportive elite networks for funding, endorsements, and expertise. We argue that the ways in which celebrity-led organisations establish themselves as legitimate development actors illustrate broader dynamics of the machinery of development.
AB - The past decade has seen a frontier open up in international development engagement with the entrance of new actors such as celebrity-led organisations. We explore how such organisations earn legitimacy with a focus on Madonna’s Raising Malawi and Ben Affleck’s Eastern Congo Initiative. The study draws from organisational materials, interviews, mainstream news coverage, and the texts of the celebrities themselves to investigate the construction of authenticity, credibility, and accountability. We find these organisations earn legitimacy and flourish rapidly amid supportive elite networks for funding, endorsements, and expertise. We argue that the ways in which celebrity-led organisations establish themselves as legitimate development actors illustrate broader dynamics of the machinery of development.
KW - accountability
KW - authenticity
KW - Celebrities
KW - credibility
KW - legitimacy
KW - new actors
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85019643044&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01436597.2017.1322465
DO - 10.1080/01436597.2017.1322465
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85019643044
SN - 0143-6597
VL - 38
SP - 1952
EP - 1972
JO - Third World Quarterly
JF - Third World Quarterly
IS - 9
ER -