Distant suffering and digital knowledge politics: New trajectories for critical geography

Abstract

This paper engages theoretical principles from critical human geography, media and communication studies, and development literature to present a research trajectory that unpacks the influence of digital platforms in representing and mediating distant suffering. Critiques of aid and development communication have long focused on concerns around the representation of the Global South as an ‘Othered’ space; powerful and deeply problematic geographical imaginaries become embedded within contemporary dominant discourses of aid and development. As significant sources of aid and development imaginaries, how civil society has mediated distant suffering has been subject to much critique. However, the rapid transition towards engagement with digital platforms necessitates an extension of critical considerations about representation and mediation. For example: what impact do digital platforms, their knowledge politics and representational capabilities have on imaginaries of distant suffering? Digital platforms (such as websites and other social media platforms) are situated within and constituted by (and through) a ‘digital knowledge politics’. These platforms and their mediations still exist within broader social practices and processes, and therefore remain entrenched within the power relations between Global North and Global South. This poses significant questions regarding the role digital platforms (and their representational capabilities) play in producing and mediating representations of distant strangers and their places. Moreover, further gaps within existing research emerge regarding how digital platforms can inform how (and indeed if) the public respond to such discourses. Through identifying key interdisciplinary intersections between critical human geographies and media and communication studies, this paper considers research trajectories that extend critical examinations of the role that digital platforms play in producing and representing aid and development imaginaries.