Little Cold Warriors: Child Sponsorship and International Affairs

Fieldston, Sara

doi:10.1093/dh/dhu008

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…As noted by Noh (2019), "[w]hile support for foreign aid tends to wane due to some negative images of developing countries with growing concern about security... children are perceived as innocent victims of chronic poverty and civil wars" (p. 1421). Similarly, Fieldston (2014) Research, Society and Development, v. 9, n.8, e26985574, 2020 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i8.5574 offers that "[c]hild sponsorship programs promoted a new understanding of world affairs that transformed foreign relations from the realm of politicians and diplomats into the province of ordinary men, women and children" (p. 240). This, however, raises the question of whether distrust in government aid has been replaced by a naïve trust in aid through non-governmental organizations.…”

Section: Distrust Of Foreign Aid and Government Programsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In addition to outlining here what this paper aims to do, I also find it valuable to discuss what the paper does not aim to do. In this text, I do not endeavour to provide a history on the development of CS programs; several others have done this elsewhere (Fieldston, 2014;Watson, 2015). It is significant to note however that, even though CS programs have recently become large-scale fundraising machines, this situation is not reflective of how or why they were originally developed in the 1920s.…”

Section: Contexts Caveats and Confessions (Some Background)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Better than nothing? a review and critique of child sponsorship

Nolan

2020

RSD

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The aim of this paper is to review and synthesize research focused on child sponsorship (CS) and, in doing so, to present a critique grounded in conceptualizations of justice, solidarity, ethical relationships, and international development education. As discussed in this paper, a review of the literature yields eight motivations for becoming involved in child sponsorship: Personal connection; altruism; guilt; small win; part of something bigger; distrust of government; not faceless; advancing development. Following the research synthesis and discussion of these motivations, a critique is constructed by viewing these motivations through three theoretical lenses: conceptualizations of the good citizen, the complex audience member and, finally, a pedagogical tool and framework referred to as HEADS UP. The paper concludes with questions centring on power, poverty, responsibility, complicity, justice and peace, and, ultimately, provides a response to the question of “is it better than nothing?” The argument put forth in this paper is that, in its noted absence of a more critical examination of the root causes of poverty and global injustices, child sponsorship is, in fact, not better than nothing.

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Section: Distrust Of Foreign Aid and Government Programsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Contexts Caveats and Confessions (Some Background)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Better than nothing? a review and critique of child sponsorship

Nolan

2020

RSD

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“…In line with this broader narrative, a small body of research has connected the rise of international child sponsorship specifically to U.S. Cold War foreign policy goals in Asia (Klein, 2000(Klein, , 2003Fieldston, 2014Fieldston, , 2015. 3 However, historians have paid less attention to how the people who received relief aid in the non-Western world reshaped humanitarian programs to suit their own political and economic interests.…”

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confidence: 99%

Adopting Revolution: The Chinese Communist Revolution and the Politics of Global Humanitarianism

Neubauer

2020

Modern China

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During the tumultuous period surrounding the Chinese Communist revolution of 1949, Chinese children wrote thousands of letters to foreign “foster parents” as part of a humanitarian fundraising program called the “adoption plan” for international child sponsorship. Under the adoption plan, private citizens around the world “adopted” Chinese children by funding their lives at orphanages in China while building personal relationships through the exchange of photographs, gifts, and translated letters. This article uses the case study of the Foster Parents Plan for War Children China Branch to examine how Chinese child welfare workers mobilized the sentimental ties between children and foster parents to secure international support for the revolution. Based on 490 extant letters sent by Chinese children to their foreign foster parents, it analyzes how the adoption plan became a centerpiece of efforts to transform inherited humanitarian practices to meet the new ideological and material needs of the Chinese Communist revolution.

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Children Are Hiding in Plain Sight in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations

Rouleau¹

2019

Mod. Am. Hist.

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All kinds of peoples, previously marginalized in favor of the actions and thoughts of elite policy makers, now fill foreign relations histories. African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, women, workers, and many others have been shown to be indispensable—if informal—diplomatic assets. And yet, diverse as this cast of characters has become, notice one thing they share in common: their adulthood. It is as if human experience with foreign affairs only begins with the age of majority. What might be gained once we appreciate the influence of young people, as both audience and agent, in the long history of America's entanglement with the wider world?

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Little Cold Warriors: Child Sponsorship and International Affairs

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Better than nothing? a review and critique of child sponsorship

Better than nothing? a review and critique of child sponsorship

Adopting Revolution: The Chinese Communist Revolution and the Politics of Global Humanitarianism

Children Are Hiding in Plain Sight in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations

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