This thesis is a postcolonial discussion about stereotype imagery of the third world, asconveyed by aid organization, and the implications of such images. Stereotyping is ahuman rights issue because it concerns inferiority and superiority, and can in the end beboiled down to a matter of equality. It is therefore an issue that needs to be up for constant review in aid organizations, who mainly claim human rights as their value base.The thesis is a single case study, looking intensely into the phenomenon of stereotypingas located within aid organizations. It looks through the lens of postcolonial theory,as it is a perspective that revolves mainly around concepts like identity, racism and stereotyping. It is constructed in two major parts, where the first part goes through the history of imperialism and the representations of ‘the Other’ it produced, and the seconddetermines through empirical observations that aid organizations do convey stereotypicimages, albeit more in terms of how they deal with the images than what they contain.The results of the empirical investigation matches well with the explanations of postcolonial theory, as the way the images are dealt with by aid organizations contributes to establish the aid receivers as ‘the Other’. Research also show that advertisement canfunction to both strengthen and alter previously established perceptions, which calls fororganizations to design ads and information material with caution. It is however also agood thing, as it is possible to begin the process of reversing stereotypes.The conclusion is that postcolonial theory can provide awareness for the origins andmechanisms of stereotyping, which is an issue any organization who claim human rightsas their value base should engage in a debate about. If we truly care about equality thisis an area of the work that needs review.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-23327 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Svensson, Linnea |
| Publisher | Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), Malmö högskola/Kultur och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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