Contesting Compassion

Bibliographic Data

ID3448284
AuthorsNicole Vitellone (0000-0002-0826-5973, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume59
Issue3
Pages579-596
Publication date2011-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-954x.2011.02013.x
OpenAlexW4236034547
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited20

This paper investigates the political possibilities and limitations of compassion. My aim is to consider how and under what conditions compassion is elicited and whether such emotions can institute social transformation. Whilst compassion is understood to be located in political and cultural contexts, this paper investigates the extent to which compassion shapes those contexts in terms of political imaginaries. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu I consider the ways that compassion positions people in relations with 'sufferers' affectively, including shaping perceptions and understandings of causes and effects. To illustrate this I examine visual representations of drug use, one from a Barnardo's child poverty advertising campaign and the other a photo-ethnography of drug suffering. Focusing on the imagery of the syringe as a moving device I show how the object reworks the affect of compassion in ways that require critique and contestation

Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics · Compassion · Epistemology · Ethnography · Object (grammar · Perception · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Communication · Community Health and Development · Computer Science · Law · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology