Book review: The ironic spectator: solidarity in the age of post-humanitarianism

"The Ironic Spectator: Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism." Lilie Chouliaraki. Polity Press. December 2012. --- This book explores how solidarity towards vulnerable others is performed in our media environment. By showing historical change in Amnesty International and Oxfam appeals, and in the Live Aid and Live 8 concerts, in the advocacy of Audrey Hepburn and Angelina Jolie, this book shows how solidarity has today come to be not about conviction but choice, not vision but lifestyle, not others but ourselves – turning us into the ironic spectators of other people’s suffering. Much of this important book does not present comfortable reading – but that indeed is as it should be, finds Suzanne Franks.