Commodifying Compassion

Wherever there is a crisis, there are brands trying to stay relevant. Here at @CocoResearch, we're collecting good, bad and ugly of brand responses to COVID19, from marketing ploys to charitable offers. Please do keep sending the tips our way!

Happy and very honoured to receive the 2023 Fonnesbech PhD Prize 🥳 I look forward to continuing my research @CBDScbs, @CBScph and @diisdk with great colleagues!

Very excited that this important 2022 paper by our own @BrandAid_World and @sofie_hen on Google's efforts to use "tech for good" is now out Open Access. Read it here: research.cbs.dk/en/publication…

We are still working today on @CocoResearch on digital do-gooding led by @MahaRafiAtal @sofie_hen Serious discussants @AfricaBusPol @ssen03 @afejerskov @robertahawkins1 @texasinafrica @RobinSteedman Keep your eyes out for the next steps 🤓

Real talk for public scholarship from @texasinafrica: "You cannot talk about 'imaginaries' or 'necropolitics' or 'stakeholders' - normal people don't talk like that. It's painful for you, but [the alternative] is more painful for the reader." #coco2023

Blockchain for development, argues @danbrockington, assumes that development needs are out of sight, out of mind. Technology "helps" by making them "visible" but they were always visible to the people living them, and are now only visible to machines. Is that progress? #coco2023

@MFOlwig explains why: companies were not sure how to "do good," or how to prove they were doing good. The SDGs have given them the metrics they were looking for. #coco2023

"I have never seen people more interested in the Sustainable Development Goals as I have since I came to the business school - that's because [business for development] is now mainstream." - @BrandAid_World #coco2023

Someone just screamed with delight during the @everyhumantz tea break when seeing that a scholar of #Congo who wrote 10 books (Kevin C. Dunn) wrote a very generous review of ours @ABudabin @UMinnPress Asante sana. academic.oup.com/psq/advance-ar…

Check out this great book review of Batman Saves the Congo at Political Science Quarterly by Kevin C. Dunn @ABudabin @BrandAid_World doi.org/10.1093/psquar…

Two more weeks to submit abstracts for our workshop on new research on humanitarianism in the digital age. commodifyingcompassion.com/_files/ugd/ef7…

Join this exciting event around Conflict Minerals, Inc. by @ethuin hosted by CoCo and @CBDScbs. Find the programme and register here: cbs.nemtilmeld.dk/626/ @BrandAid_World @KasperHoffmann2

'Thoroughly researched and often laugh-out-loud funny, “Batman Saves the Congo” is a critically important look at a growing and under-examined — and frequently absurd — segment of the aid industry.' @UMinnPress @ABudabin @CBS_WIRE @CBDScbs washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

In Pakistan, corporate "marketing campaigns steal the vocabulary of the women’s movement while drowning out the voices of the women they represent, twisting their narrative to present capitalism as the solution rather than the problem." 👏 @Shiza__Malik twitter.com/ShaziaZRafi/st…

Coming to Nashville? You can catch @MahaRafiAtal talking about how companies and NGOs use aid partnerships to survive in hostile political environments on Thursday, and about big tech monopolies and labor rights on Saturday. Come say hi! #ISA2022

Team @CocoResearch is excited for a busy week at #ISA2022. Attending virtually? Catch @BrandAid_World and @ABudabin on an all-star panel discussing their new book, Batman Saves the Congo, tomorrow, and discussing their latest research into celebrity activism on Tuesday:

One of the ways team @CocoResearch kept our work going during the pandemic was to take our meetings outside on long walks, including during the Danish winter. Yesterday, we took our walk-and-talks to Cambridge for Thanksgiving. We hope all who celebrate had a great holiday!

Hot off the virtual press: new research on how brands commodified covid-19, from our own @MahaRafiAtal and @BrandAid_World. ⬇️