CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2008
| Author | Kálmán, Edit |
|---|---|
| Title | JUST PHOTOGRAPHS? THE DEPERSONALIZING PORTRAYAL OF THE DEVELOPING WORLD AND THE VISUAL DEPICTION OF THE UNICEF CHILD |
| Summary | This paper demonstrates that UNICEF’s form of governmentality is fundamentally determined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified almost universally in 1990. As a transnational organization, UNICEF has been steadily accumulating symbolic capital in order to strengthen its credibility and reinforce its symbolic authority as a global advocate of children’s rights. This study points out that the visual reflection of UNICEF’s rationale of governmentality can be detected in the evolution of its photographic policy, in order to achieve its institutional goal in the portrayal of the child as a rightful subject. This visual policy aims to contest embedded Western practices of depersonalizing representation of the Developing World and transform needs-based approaches to rights-based ones. Through the analysis of twelve cover images of UNICEF publications produced between the mid-1990s and the present, I argue that this visual development unfolded in three stages, culminating in a distinct “UNICEF brand style”, expected to be followed by all UNICEF photographers, editors and the organization’s offices worldwide. The paper argues that due to the decentralized nature of UNICEF’s structure of governmentality, a centrally achieved consensus cannot always be realized globally as National Committees for UNICEF carry out their work based on the conditions of their own cultural and social climate, thus challenging the capacity of UNICEF to influence the ways of world-making. |
| Supervisor | Rajaram, Prem Kumar |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2008/kalman_edit.pdf |
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