Baughan, E. orcid.org/0000-0003-3012-8534 and Fiori, J. (2015) Save the Children, the humanitarian project, and the politics of solidarity: reviving Dorothy Buxton's vision. Disasters, 39 (s2). s129-s145. ISSN 0361-3666
Abstract
This paper reflects on the foundational years of Save the Children, one of the oldest and largest Western humanitarian agencies and a mainstay of the humanitarian project. In doing so, it considers how and why, at an early stage, the organisation depoliticised its activities, centring its narrative on the innocent, pre-political child—the image of unsullied humanity. In addition, it seeks to recover the internationalist vision of Save the Children’s ‘forgotten founder’, Dorothy Buxton. Save the Children’s turn to non-politics is indicative of the broader depoliticisation of Western humanitarian action. Given the intensely contested spaces in which Western humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operate, these entities cannot escape politics. This paper argues that Buxton’s efforts to build an international solidarity network through humanitarian action after the end of the First World War in 1918 provide an instructive basis on which these NGOs can pursue a politics of solidarity in the present day.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2015 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA |
Keywords: | humanitarianism; internationalism; politics, solidarity; Save the Children |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of History (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 02 May 2017 11:28 |
Last Modified: | 02 May 2017 11:28 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/disa.12151 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley: 24 months |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/disa.12151 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:115837 |