Paper details
| Paper authors | Talita Cetinoglu |
| In panel on | Humanitarian studies in turbulent times: taking stock of the Agenda for Humanity |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
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Abstract
Despite the prospect of drawing ‘an ambitious agenda for humanity’, the World Humanitarian Summit was collectively enacted as a space of celebration, business and entertainment. The Summit effectively created a political void (notably dissolving the political responsibility of the state actors), and replaced binding agreements (which would otherwise have the potential to change international relations and the dynamics of humanitarianism) with an à la carte menu of ‘commitments’ from which actors could pick and choose. Turkey utilised the overall scope of the spectacle site as well as the global discursive space the Summit provided in order to create an auxiliary exhibitionary complex, namely ‘WHS Turkey’. Turkey side events ran throughout the two days of the Summit, designing a parallel summit putting in display its own agenda, principles and norms of humanitarianism. Drawing from a number of panels held during the Summit and ethnographic data, this paper explores how the Turkey-branded humanitarianism was presented in contrast to ‘western’ programming, notably Europe which was the main reference point during this event.
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