Selling Solidarity:

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Master of Arts Thesis

Euroculture

Deusto University - University of Groningen March 2011

Selling Solidarity:

civil and non-governmental organizations as communication

agents in a blurred EU development scope

(The case study of ANUE)

Submitted by: Laura Camerino Castañer Student number Deusto University: 150777 Student number Groningen University: 1968459 ID: 47697057-w lauracamerino @hotmail.com

Supervised by: Dr. Dominic Wyatt, University of Deusto, Spain Dr. Wim. Vuijk, Groningen University, the Netherlands

Place, date Barcelona, March 2011

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MA Programme Euroculture Declaration

I, Laura Camerino Castañer hereby declare that this thesis, entitled Selling Solidarity:

civil and non-governmental organizations as communication agents in a blurred EU development scope (The case study of ANUE), submitted as partial requirement for the

MA Programme Euroculture, is my own original work and expressed in my own words. Any use made within it of works of other authors in any form (e.g. ideas, figures, texts, tables, etc.) are properly acknowledged in the text as well as in the List of References. I hereby also acknowledge that I was informed about the regulations pertaining to the assessment of the MA thesis Euroculture and about the general completion rules for the Master of Arts Programme Euroculture.

Signed

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Introduction

Development activities in the European Union (EU) together with the increasing number of civil and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the field of development are a significant phenomenon that currently is extensively studied in humanitarian aid and international co-operation domains. Thereby, this thesis takes as an object of study one of the most crucial actors that represented and still represent one of the majors key decision makers to foster progress all over the world. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for development traditionally symbolized a crucial contributor to achieve prosperity in t hose less developed world zones, and its means to do so, have historically been very disparate.

The third sector, also known as the social sector inhabited by an infinite number of NGOs, is not exempted of selling its charitable projects in order to survive and, as well as the private and the public sector does, broadcasting messages by means of promoting human development has turned out to be indispensable and even trendy. In line with this, the present research takes a communicational perspective focusing especially in the way NGOs in the field of development sell themselves in order to achieve their main purposes and goals. Many are the factors that have influenced the way these organizations have decided to sell their messages of solidarity. Different communication periods, models, trends and challenges in the EU context, together with the complex foundational basis of these kinds of organizations has complicated the way of building and undertaking coherent development projects as well as communicating efficiently. Along with this, three main research questions have arisen: to what extent the EU authorities and the civil and non-governmental organizations had, are and will contribute to stimulate development strategies? How an NGO for development can communicate effectively keeping at the same time the wish of educating the society, maintain aware members and new potential ones, put pressure on authorities, as well as, looking for financial funds? Does a communication strategy that is able to gather the four different mentioned objectives all together exist?

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1.1 List of acronyms

ACP countries - African, Caribbean, Pacific countries AECC - Spanish Association for Cancer

AMA - Association of Marketing

ANUE - Asociación de las Naciones Unidas de España CARE - Cooperative American Relief Everywhere CFSP - Common Foreign and Security Policy

CONCORD- European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development CRM - Cause-Related Marketing

CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility

DOCHAS - Irish Association of Non Governmental Development Organizations EAPN - The European Anti-Poverty Network

ECAS - The European Citizen Action Service

ECHO - The Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission EEAS - European External Action Service

EPA - Economic Partnership Agreement EDF - European Development Fund EEC - European Economic Community‘s ELM - Elaboration Likelihood Model ERP - European Recovery Program GNP - Gross National Product GPGs - Global Public Goods HDI - Human Development Index

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IMF - International Monetary Fund

JHCNSP - Johns Hopkins Comparative Non-profit Sector Project JV - Joint Venture

MDG - Millennium Development Goals NGO - Non-governmental organization NIEO - New International Economic Order ODI - Overseas Development Institute

OECD – Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development PDCs - Policy Documents on Co-operation

SEA - Single European Act

STABEX - Système de Stabilisation des Recettes d'Exportation

SYSMIN - System of Stabilization of Export Earnings from Mining Products UNDP - The United Nations Development Programme

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1.2 Preface and acknowledgements

One year and a half has passed since I became part of the Erasmus Mundus community and now, after having experienced the three semesters in three different places of the world, I can expose what has been my personal project since I decided to embark in the

Euroculture program. Many have been the personal motivations that brought me to

abruptly leave the professional world and access the research sector. The present MA thesis captures what I had been widely looking for before joining the program, a personal interest has become a real professional ambition and, through a long and intricate process, that from time to time has been uncertain, I can corroborate that the effort has ended in an exceptionally fulfilling experience.

This research, more than stating a theoretical and a practical invoice it also captures the different contexts and time junctures where the thesis has been written. The city of Bilbao in Spain was where the research started to take its initials steps, afterwards, Groningen University‘s great library and continuous research work in the Netherlands sheltered me from the rainiest and coldest winter that I had ever seen before, and lately, the multifaceted and crowded Mexico City witnessed the last full stop of nearly 180 pages. In short, a research that had to hold with a variety of environments and circumstances that sometimes enriched and others hindered the quality of its contents.

Just to conclude, I would like to express some appreciations to those who have supported and helped me to make this research possible. Fortunately, the writing process in my case has not been a lonely experience, Dominc Wyatt as a first supervisor and Dr. Wim Vuijk as the second, have provided me their own point of view to give a more rigorous approach to the paper, but I would like to especially mention my most sincere thanks to a person who has been patiently coaching me day by day not to make the English language an impediment for the research. I particularly express my appreciation to my partner Kevin Costello, who has accompanied me in every decision even being far away from one another.

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1.3 Thesis statements

 Communication activities coming from the third sector are crucial tools to achieve what is called by Everett Rogers ―social change‖, a societal transformation towards a more humanly developed level.

 The inevitable internationalization of every human activity known as the globalization process is also present in the human activity of achieving global communication with others. Technology facilities makes the appearance of new and every day more complex human inter-connections easier. In line with what Anthony Giddens has stressed, Globalization signifies the strengthening of social relations around the globe where happenings from remote territories become more familiar affecting what is going on locally.

 Communication is an innate human experience that makes us feel part of a socialized group. Belonging to a community is crucial for building personal and community identities, and consequently it causes a reflex for solidarity and commitment to others. Nowadays, the recurrent use of solidarity as a concept for political and commercial means has positioned the term as a human reference for social good but, at the same time, it also unmasks a certain abuse of it. Solidarity has become an undeniable ethical reference that today is in vogue and employed by many advertisement claims. Consequently, the term is progressively losing its real significance and is immersed in an unstoppable process of devaluation.

 Communication in the third sector is not exempt of using marketing strategies to influence or shape specific target values that freely accepts or not to change their behaviour for the benefit of all. Close to what commercial communication campaigns do, the third sector also tries to sell some ―goods‖ but in this case, far from selling materialized goods or services, the third sector deals with the complex job of selling abstract concepts such as the distorted idea of solidarity.

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much to locate it as a reference of stability and political success. Additionally, history has revealed periods with different levels of human compromise and with these different approaches to charitable initiatives that end with development projects. Although, today the tendency is more individualistic, we can find multiple numbers of organizations and groups of people who have come together in order to become stronger and more efficient towards claiming a more committed, responsible and developed world.

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1.4 Structure and method design

The research method proposed along this disquisition follows a deductive structure from a general description to a more detailed and particular case study. The thesis is divided into two main sections; the first part is concerned with the theoretical framework, where primary resources are the main tools used, and the second section which takes the initial theoretical framework as a reference to conduct primary research though one specific case study.

The preponderating text in the first section is devoted to accurately describing the main research concepts such as communication as an activity, solidarity, development, underdevelopment and non-governmental organizations among other relevant notions. Primary resources used in this section include: related literature, articles, online sources and official documents associated to the field of mass media communication, EU development activities, the charity world, the third sector and the non-profit scope.

The second section of the thesis is more centred on the object of the study analyzing more in depth what has been said concerning the third sector communication through depicting the most relevant information that fits into the research‘s desired approach. The objective of this second part is primarily concerned with finding the accurate answer to the first research questions laid out in the introductory section. The proposed descriptive and comparative method design merges, in this case, two research approaches from two relevant authors proportioning with an original resultant approach. Therefore, the primary resources used, together with a descriptive and comparison method have set what I classify as the theoretical argumentation basis for the subsequent case study. It could be said that this section has been the most enriching part as well as the most complex one that took up most of the research time.

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2.1 Communication, the multifaceted concept

To deal with communication activity means to face a complex and ambiguous field of research due to its different meanings and multifaceted nature. It implies confronting interdisciplinary fields that gather together a group of different sciences denominated frequently communication sciences. Communication, as a multifaceted word, has never had a single meaning, on the contrary; we can use communication in various circumstances providing it with changeable concepts depending on the context and the given approach. As Parés indicates, if we use the word communication we can refer to a multiple kinds of communication including interpersonal communication, group communication, social communication and communication channelled through mass media.1

Despite this, the perspective selected for this research focuses on third sector communication activity and more specifically to communication strategies undertaken by those organizations that devote themselves to develop impoverished zones in the world. From my personal viewpoint, I consider communication as a crucial tool to achieve what is called by Everett Rogers ―social change‖2, a societal transformation towards a more developed level. Likewise, I regard it as fundamental to first of all define communication as a whole in order to better understand the origins of some specific communication trends used by some entities which will be explained in more depth in section 3of this dissertation.

2.1.1 Talking about etymology and definitions

The term communication has its roots in the Latin word comunis, which refers to common or communio meaning communion. In both cases it implies the idea of sharing and making visible a message to the others. According to the Oxford dictionary communication is defined as the activity of ―imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing or using some other medium.‖3

Along with the definition provided by

1

Manuel, Parés, Introducción a la comunicación social, (Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, S.A, 1992), 35.

2

Everett, Rogers, Entertainment-Education: Communication Strategy for Social Change, (Mahwa, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999).

3

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the digital version of the English Collins dictionary, communication is ―the exchange of information, ideas, or feelings, something communicated such as a message.‖4

And finally as noted in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española, communication is the activity of ―transmitting signals through one common code from the transmitter to the receiver.‖5

As said before, from this point we can refer to different communication sciences with one definition in each field with a never-ending number of approaches but all of them share, to some degree, the same common etymological root.

Communication scholars have been trying to establish a common theory about communication. Special interest towards finding a common definition has been a central concern but, a further matter concerns the problem around its epistemology. This blurred concept of communication has been extensively studied and defined, therefore, many connections between sciences, theories and facts have been pronounced by some of the following authors.

Karl E. Rosengren starts his introductory book to communication science using the etymological definition of the concepts noting that communication has its roots in the Latin word communis. He asserts that ―when we communicate, we make things common. We thus increase our shared knowledge, our ‗common sense – the basic precondition for all community.‖6

He also refers to conflicting views and interests when shared knowledge includes agreement or disagreement, not always shared knowledge is understood as valid for everyone. The importance of the units where communication took place is also relevant in Rosengren‘s definition. Communication occurs in different units made of ―individuals, groups, organizations, social classes, nations and religions of the world‖7

and its complexity could be altered depending on the size and the complexity of each communication unit.

According to Christian Baylon and Xavier Mignot, the word communication is ambiguous. The verb communicate and its derived substantive communication are polysemous, they keep a large number of meanings which gives it an uncertain outcome. This excess of connotations given to the term make it automatically lose its

4

Collins free online dictionary, http://www.collinslanguage.com/ (accessed 07 July, 2010)

5

Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua española, http://www.rae.es/rae.html (accessed 07 July, 2010) (own translation)

6

Karl E. Rosengren, Communication; an introduction, (London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2000), 1.

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specificity. The authors exemplify their explanation distinguishing three different uses of the term communication: The telephone communication system of transferring messages, the public transport communication of moving people from one place to another and the communication system inside places and infrastructure such as corridors and stairs in a building.8 Other meanings more in accordance with the purpose of this research expose that the finality of communication, according to Baylon and Mignot, is the transmission of one image that is broadcasted in general though mass media.

A more practical approach given by David K. Berlo in his book El proceso de la

comunicación: introdución a la teoría y a la practica, defines communication from its

purposes of communication in different human situations. He declares that any human situation where communication is required implies the emission of one message from someone and the reception of this message by another. ―When someone writes another has to read what has been written; if someone paints another has to look at what has been painted, and if someone speaks someone also has to be listening to what is being said.‖9

Every communication activity has an intention, it is something that always requires a clear purpose, for example, to transmit information, to influence or persuade someone, to inspire or have an effect on something among others. In the same line, Richard Dimbleby and Graeme Burton state that we experience communication as an activity, ―it is something that we do, something that we make, and something that we work on when we receive it from others. … communication is not just about speech, but about speaking and listening, not just about photography, but about photographing and viewing photographs.‖10

One can observe, along the definitions provided the different approaches to the communication concept. Each of these definitions is relevant due to the differences kept among them and its unique method of explaining a process that has not attained, by a long stretch, a common description. It is of special interest to refer here to Daniel Bougnoux‘s clear pronouncement when he affirms, ―In any place and for anyone communication exists. This term explains multiple practices, necessarily different,

8_{Christian, Baylon and Xavier, Mignot, La comunicación, (Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1996), 13.} 9

David K. Berlo, El proceso de la comunicación: Introducción a la teoría y a la práctica, (Buenos Aires: El Ateneo, 1995), 8. (Own translation)

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indefinitely open without the possibility to be calculated.‖11

Along with that, one can understand that communication is a generalized activity carried out by everyone voluntarily or not but one can ask them self; is not this generalization caused by the inevitable globalization process? or on the contrary, is it due to the innate instinct of getting involved with others?

Due to the unprecedented increase of professions and businesses‘ related to the communicational world, the subject gathered substantial interest together with the necessity of framing it under a pedagogical and theoretical science. Information and communication studies were established as sciences in the intellectual sector flourishing from an anthropological question about the existence of different ways of communication. Lévi-Strauss, Barthes and Jakobson were some of the most relevant scholars who in the 1960s, focused their attentions on the exchange of information and the establishment of linguistics. They framed communication under the umbrella of the structuralist research, characterized by the attempt to analyze the phenomena from a semiotic point of view, as a system of signs processes or as a system of interrelated parts.

The study of communication and information sciences has been centered on the growth of the mass media and towards the insatiable revolution of technological means. From the same starting point, but from renewed concepts, communication extends the semiotic, symbolic and pragmatic philosophy opening up questions as regards the idea of truth, what is real, social ties, the imaginary, the teaching possibilities, justice, the consensus on beauty, etc…12 From this point, we can assert that communication renounces and avoids the temptation to be tagged only as a closed science limited to scholarly discipline, on one hand, or to the professional sector on the other. It is interpreted as an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary subject that, according to Bougnoux, is a discipline which is uncomfortable for students who expect a defined program with clear objectives or specific job prospects13, on the contrary, the lack of one common definition and the non-existence of a clear dominant theory blurred the scope questioning, even more, the limits of the object of the study from this section.

11

Daniel, Bougnoux, Introducción a las ciencias de la comunicación, (Buenos Aires, Ediciones Nueva Visión SAIC, 1999), 11. (Own translation)

12

Bougnoux, Introducción a las ciencias de la comunicación, 11.

13

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2.1.2 Social-mass communication

In order to understand communication in the framework of the present research it is crucial to distinguish social or mass communication from the rest and briefly define what it implies and which its main functions are.

The term mass communication has a large number of connotations that make the job of finding one fixed definition harder. We can find a long list of dissertations and authors that refer to the inexistent common definition but, at the same time, they also provide a long list of different approaches trying to find the best way to define or insinuate a possible definition for the term. As noted by McQuail, from a sceptical opinion of finding a unique description, he divides the term defining ‗mass‘ that ―denotes great volume, range or extent (such as people or production), while ‗communication‘ refers to the giving and taking of meaning, the transmission and reception of messages‖.14

In this field, the most popular and widely used definition is the one noted by Janowitz that reads as follow: ―mass communications comprise the institutions and techniques by which specialized groups employ technological devices (press, radio, films, etc.) to disseminate symbolic content to large, heterogeneous and widely dispersed audience.‖15

From this point we can deduce that social or mass communication can be seen as one of the most social wide communication processes that has a clear distinction from other less broad types of communication such as interpersonal, reduced groups and other face-to-face communications. It is frequently related to entertainment activities carried out by mass media but we have to always bear in mind that mass communication is not synonymous with what we understand by mass media. Technology facilities have blurred the meaning of social-mass communication, it is recurrently associated to the largely studied new phenomenon of mass culture and mass society that, according to Edward Shils, is a phenomenon with a long process of gestation coming from the idea of polis established in the Roman idea of common citizenship.16 The criterion used to tag mass communication is based on the size of the audience and the receivers. It does

14

Denis, McQuail, Mass Communication Theory, (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1994), 10.

15_{Morris, Janowitz, ―The study of mass communication‖, in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol}

3, pp. 41-53, (New York: Macmillan and Free Press, 1968).

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not always imply to be subjected to wide communication networks; it can be also understood as the primary form of mass communication whenever the message is broadcasted to be received by a group of people. Along with McQuail, ―the notion of mass (and homogeneous) communication experience is abstract and hypothetical; and where, on occasions, it does seem to become a reality, the causes are more likely to be found in particular conditions of social life than in media.‖17

If we now observe Figure 1, the pyramid of communication largely used by many scholars, we can deduct that social mass communication is one of the levels of the communication process that occurs least in our societal organization. This explains how mass communication, even the enormous impact that it has in every sphere of our society, shares the total amount of communication interactions with other more wide communication processes. All these levels captured in this pyramid are crucial to understand how broad the spectrum is when one decides to think about describing what communication is.

Own elaboration inspired in McQuail Pyramid of communication (1994)

17

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2.1.3 A contemporary and post-modern communication approach

As said above, communication is visible in all levels of society and it is almost impossible to avoid. Communication theory researchers had progressively assumed a systemic point of view which understands any human conduct as a representative way of communication. Along with this, some axiomatic properties have been attributed to communication that draws a convention that entails some fundamental consequences for human interactivity. The axiom ―One cannot not communicate‖18 announced by Watzlawick in 1967 is the first axiom from five that further broke the barriers of old theories. It asserts that, every human behavior is a kind of communication and those who are aware of it, are always communicating. Interpreting human behavior has always it sense, even if we try not to behave, it is interpreted as absence of activity.19

Communication is an inalienable characteristic of human beings and many forms and tools have existed to allow them to communicate with each other. There have always been main channels used to transmit messages that has, at the same time, greatly influenced the analyzed period of mass communication. We can distinguish some communication practices passing from human origins, characterized by the use of sounds, movements, gestures, through the evolution of language with symbols and alphabets, passing from different means such as the printed text, telegraph, telephone, radio, and finally arriving to current mass media like television, Internet, laser and satellite communication. During the last two centuries, the process of transmitting ideas, information or messages has noticeably gained more speed and effectiveness, saving time thanks to the pioneering of innovative technical resources that the industry has been continually providing.

The inevitable internationalization of every human activity known as the globalization process is also present in human communication. Technology facilities are leading us towards a scenario that each time has fewer barriers than could have ever been imagined. It is a generalized process that entails some contradictions but it could be understood as the growing process made by complex inter-connections between

18

Paul, Watzlawick, et al; Teoría de la comunicación humana: interacciones, patologías y paradojas, (Barcelona: Herder, DL, 1981).

19

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societies, cultures, corporations and individuals on a large scale.20 Globalization has been frequently framed in the economic and trade sector but more recently its umbrella has been amplified widening its spectrum towards new aspects such as the social, cultural and political sphere. In line with Giddens21 in Comunicación para el desarrollo from Juan Pagola, ―globalization implies the intensification of social relations in every world corner through which distant places get linked and where local happenings are shaped by happenings that occur many kilometers away.‖22

From this point we can assert that mass communication has been subjected to the effects of globalization establishing the information society, also called the knowledge society, framed in the post-modern society. Fritz Machlup in his book the

production and distribution of knowledge in the United States, introduced the concept

of knowledge industry as the biggest industry in the U.S. and he distinguished various sectors where knowledge is produced: the education sector, the research and development area, mass media and communication, information technologies and information services.23 Machlup‘s dissertation observed that the knowledge industry accounted for 29 percent of the U.S. gross national product24, a figure that has been amplified and spread with the globalization process, especially thanks to the rise of the Internet. Knowledge is crucial to be understood here because communication is the basic means by which knowledge is obtained and transmitted.

In the same line, Francis Fukuyama announces in his book The great disruption from 1999 that societies are witnessing the transition from the industrial economy towards an economy of knowledge.25 The evolution from modernity to post-modernity is characterized by the loss of strong ideologies looking for ‗the north‘ and substituted by post-modern ideologies that prefer to emphasize the way to get ‗the north‘ rather than the importance of ‗the north‘ itself. In this context, metaphorically speaking

20

Sonia, Fernández, La globalización de la comunicación, portal de recursos para estudiantes de la Universudad Carlos III de Madrid, http://www.robertexto.com/archivo14/globaliz_comu.htm (accessed 08 july, 2010).

21

Anthony, Giddens, Consecuencias de la modernidad, (Madrid: Alianza, 1990)

22

Juan Ignacio, Pagola Carte, Comunicación para el desarrollo: la responsabilidad en la publicidad de las ONGD, (Donostia-San Sebastián: Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa, Departamento de Deportes y Acción Exterior, 2009), 20. (Own translation)

23

Fritz, Machlup, The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1962).

24

Ibid.

25

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humans have demystified the previous interest on the ‗compass‘ and now we are more interested in the ‗radar‘. The individual has become more important than the collective objective and the freedom of self thought has become crucial for a society characterized by the Pensiero debole (weak thought) described by the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo.26

The individualistic morality and the model of miniature society defined by some post-modernist authors have brought on a situation where the individual is withdrawing into his or herself starting to distrust any pre-existent values. Each of us constructs our own canon of values made to one‘s own measure. Moreover, we feel lost in large social groups such as social congregations like churches and we try to join reduced groups of people where we find more company. The question here is, in a situation where the tendency is self-individualism, how will we understand each other? And how can a society live in harmony? Many reactive voices have being recurrently answering the open question left by some post-modernist skeptic authors. The one that I found most pertinent for this present research is the argument presented by Adela Cortina and her defense to discursive ethics. Cortina claims an ―ethic of minimals‖ where she asserts that in the present human stage, lacking in common values, what is more important is to encourage people to find those common values that never before have been imposed. Those values that are present in every human landscape are accepted mutually with tolerance. It is crucial to activate this social background made up of common ideas in order to achieve the desired coexistence between individuals.27

The evolution from modernity towards post-modernity has a lot to do with the mass media communication actors that have forgotten the importance of the old human tales. The old tales have been replaced by the individual and self-assembled tales that one constructs during the process of living in a deeper individual reality. As Vattimo highlighted from a European perspective, mass media broadcasts different visions of the world characterized by the extreme contrast of information that brings the unavoidable relativity of the life styles where people do not follow old traditional models anymore.28 Consequently, multiple ‗dialects‘ of new forms of life styles are rising, which can be

26

Gianni, Vattimo, Ética de la interpretación, (Barcelona: Paidós, 1990).

27

Adela, Cortina, Ética civil: entre los mínimos de justicia y los máximos de felicidad, (Barcelona: URL, 1997).

28

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seen as the perfect framework for the chaos considered by some authors as the best opportunity that we had towards freedom. The well-known German expression ―Gott ist tot‖29

(God is dead) widely attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche is perfectly connected to many post-modern visions of Christianity that assume that humans are no longer able to believe in any global pattern since they are no longer recognizing it. ―The death of God‖ not only made reference to the refusal of cosmic orders it also means the rejection of any absolute value that gives us the opportunity to build our own personal credo.

This framework that seems to be the best opportunity towards building one‘s own thinking is not as outstanding as we thought, and progressively, the space devoted to our own construction of individual identity, is now suffering an extreme reduction due to the unstoppable mass media revolution. The great change of values did not result finally into a major presence of freedom and justice, but the moral individualism and what Fukuyama named ―miniaturisation‖30 of the community. The current period characterized by the limited presence of common ideals shapes the perfect environment for the mushrooming of emotional and moral communication appeals that gather an important role in mass communication trends.In line with this, I find it appropriate to refer to the concept ―Homo Videns‖ presented by Giovanni Sartori where he highlights the loss of political motivation of the population surpassed by the mass media era. Societies have lost part of their independence and, progressively, we replace our abstract thought for the language dictated by the media producers. More and more we become used to the rhetoric broadcasted by the media and the lack and atrophy of our own abstract thought does not allow us to imagine other realities, we only stick with the first impression of things and we do not go further to ask the why of things.31

Television and Internet are the media that which have been observed the most in recent times. Many post-modern authors tagged these two media as the biggest shop window of extravagances, rarities, sophistications and social vices that created a never ending lonely crowd. Users and spectators, on few occasions, establish interactions and the only thing that they have in common is that they are facing towards a screen at the same time. Other post-modernist scholars have presented further theories leaving behind

29_{Martin, Heidegger, ―The Word of Nietzsche:‘God Is Dead‘‖ in Holzwege, edited and translated by Julia Young and}

Kenneth Haynes, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

30

Fukuyama, The Great Disruption, 123.

31

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the debate about the wrong use and bad habits of mass media. Some of the most relevant are Manuel Castells, Nicholas Negroponte, Javier Echevarría and Armand Matterlart. All of them share the same consensus when they affirm that Internet is a great tool for communication that has formed a new individualistic way to socialization. Contrarily to Sartori and Fukuyama, the concern of these authors is to detect which are the main effects and changes of the life style of TV and Internet users. Internet has imposed its game rules and it has been universalized in many human life facets. Castells in his book, The Internet Galaxy, affirms the existence of a correlation between the extreme use of the Internet and the alteration of sociability and human interactions. It changes the familiar and daily lives as well as the professional and business arena. He converges two phenomena, the human sense of individualism, on one hand, and the technological and scientific current facilities on the other as the perfect scenario to make, what he called ―the networked of individualism‖32, to flourish. Thinking about social organization in the mass media period, one cannot forget to mention the increasing new idea of city and common space that Echevarría introduced in 2000 as an unstoppable trend of post-modern metropolis. ―Telépolis‖ is how he called the new concept of cities that emerged from the nations and States as social live references that have been replaced by non-territorialized places. These new ‗digital cities‘ are constructed merely by mass media infrastructures, in particular television and the Internet, and inhabited by those connected spectators and active participants that share a ‗non-place‘ made by multiple digital interactions.33

―Telépolis‖ could be seen as an alternative to the urban life style but the question that could be stressed here is; how can we preserve personal identities in a virtual place? And how can we share common objectives and standpoints without physically facing one another?

Communication is an innate human experience that makes us feel part of a socialized group. Belonging to a community is crucial for building personal and community identities, and consequently it causes a reflex for commitment with others. In accordance with the Christian philosopher, founder of the personalism movement as well as the founder of the Esprit magazine, Emmanuel Mounier, individuals are

32

Manuel, Castells, The Internet Galaxy, Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

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organized in three main axis that, contrarily to the above quoted contemporary and post-modern authors, are characterized by the individual existence through the others and community life. The author sees communication as a crucial ―tool‖ to be open and available to others, meaning that individuals are seen as more approachable.34 In that sense, the presence of others in oneself reports an interior personal growth that makes us progress and discover many personal facets of our existence. The importance of appreciating the way of living in community, in this context, is crucial to explain how communication activity today could be seen, not only as a tool to get involved with the rest, but also as a solidarity tool to be compromised with other foreign communities.

2.1.3.1 A relativist and plural era.

Together, with the phenomena briefly described about globalization and the information society, the processes more linked to post-modernity had a relevant influence in the way values such as solidarity; cooperation and personal duties are currently represented. A new moral framework has been established, and the trends that most explain these moral changes are visible with the increasing relativism and the pluralism movements. Relativism is a philosophical view that defenses the idea that no absolute and universal truth exists. Nothing is universally true or not true, in short, ―Relativism does not go against moral absolutism, but to the universalism, to the ethical standards that define what is good and fair is for everyone and on every occasion.‖35 This context is engendering also pluralism postures where the idea of one unique convention has disappeared and replaced by the internalization of a multiple number of cultural values that are now progressively surfacing.

A new order has been initiated. A context where new solidarity and compromised messages fit perfectly in a post-moralist era. According to Pagola, it is an era where cultural diversity is respected and cultural crossbreeding based on Human Rights is permitted. In the post-modern culture pluralism, diversity and relativism are values on the rise36

34

Lluís. Font, E. Mounier, una presència viva, (Barcelona: URL, 2000).

35

Xabier, Etxeberría, Ética básica, (Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, 1995), 18 (Own translation).

36

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2.2 Solidarity, the added value.

It is of special interest to stop and reflect to think about the meaning of solidarity in the framework of this research since it is one of the most relevant concepts in the chosen thesis title. For those who have being attracted by the heading of the title, this section could be essential to understand what I mean by solidarity and what are the principal connotations that I would like the reader kept in mind.

2.2.1 An etymological and anthropological approach to solidarity

Today talking about solidarity is not a simple issue. Its multiple given connotations and the many contexts where the term is used has made the understanding of solidarity as a concept uncertain. Furthermore, it is a word that has been extensively used and frequently wrongly employed. Many people introduce the word solidarity in their vocabulary without being conscious of its real meaning and repeatedly it is adopted for alien purposes. Solidarity, as a concept, has its roots in the Latin noun soliditas. It means solid, intact and compact. It expresses the homogeneity of something physically unified, compact, in which its parts come from the same origin and nature. Along with the definition provided by the on-line version of the Oxford Dictionaries, solidarity is the unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest and mutual support within a group.37 From another point of view, the Spanish definition of solidarity provided by the Real Academia Española includes the following; ―Circumstantial adhesion to the cause or to the business of others‖38

Regarding the use of the word solidarity we can say that it is quite new. It appeared at the end of the XVII century in the French language. Its employment was increased during the following century as a substitute of the Christian term charity and in the XIX century its uses were spread to other European languages. During these three centuries the term solidarity has adopted new meanings from its original conception, passing through sociological realities and ending in a connotation more related to a human value and an ethical principle. According to Imanol Zubero, solidarity has

37

Oxford Dictionaries, English online version, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/askoxfordredirect (accessed 19 July, 2010).

38

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experienced two concrete contexts: The first one described as the working class solidarity, that was visible from the Industrial Revolution until the post I World War period, when revolutionary and collective movements took place with the aim of achieving decent working conditions. The motto ―united we stand‖ was one of the symbols of that period where the power of ‗us‘ became crucial to evolve. The second depicted by Zubero as the second context arose after the II World War. The rise of the welfare state at that time left behind the idea of acting together against injustices, which was characteristic of the previous period. It demanded a social criterion that ensures minimum living conditions per equal for all and it extended solidarity at the level of an indispensable value.39

One of the founders of modern social science, Émile Durkheim together with Max Weber and Karl Marx, are some of the contemporaneous philosophers that refer to the term solidarity in its sociological works. Durkheim asserted that the notion of society is something that is outside and inside the human being. Humans internalize the common values and morality established by society but, at the same time, this adoption of society‘s standards unmasks how societal parameters are not innate, on the contrary, they are an acquired obligation. As regards solidarity, Durkheim understands the term above everything else as a moral fact that resides naturally in the human being, but he also recognized that solidarity has not been exempted as being interpreted by human standards as a social value. Consequently, in Durkheim‘s disquisitions one could find a distinction of two ways of understanding solidarity. In one hand the understanding from primitive societies where solidarity emerges from the collective conscience of one social group that shares common compromises called ―mechanical solidarity‖ and, in the other hand, the understanding of it from modern societies where the collective consciousness is weaker. The solidarity that exists in these modern societies has been labeled as ―organic‖ due to the division and differences that emerge from communities where common passions have been replaced by mere personal interests. From this point, Durkheim presented what he named ―anomie‖, the lack of social solidarity characteristic of modern complex societies.

39

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Related to Durkheim theory, Marciano Vidal captured a further explanation of the term solidarity in 1996 when he tackled the issue about how to understand solidarity. He brought out two kinds of solidarity: Sociological solidarity, also called open solidarity, referring to the relation that is produced inside a group of people where the individuals act together united through solidarity. The power that solidarity gathers within one group is superior to the solidarity that could be applied out of the group. The ―axiological‖ or open solidarity is the one defined by Vidal that does not come from a sociological explanation. It is part of the human freedom that takes shape through the anthropological conscience of belonging to the human race looking after the good of all. In this last case solidarity recognizes the equality of all human beings; therefore, solidarity is not possible without justice.40 In our globalized world we share one and unique ―ecosystem‖. What is decided or done in one part of the globe affects other remote societies, and in the same line what affects those who live in remote places also affects us. Solidarity with others has gained vigour in recent years up to the point where governments from developed societies have included it as a main chapter of their policies. The concept of Global Public Goods (GPGs) has taken an important role in international policy making and it explains how everyone should have access to a list of public goods that should be global such as, health assistance, clean environment, education, human rights, peace and security among others.41 Global Public goods entail, undoubtedly, a deep understanding of the solidarity from those yet developed societies to those who still do not receive the global wave of public goods.

2.2.2. The recognition of “the other” as a crucial element in defining solidarity

The science of law refers to solidarity as something or someone only comprised in a homogenous judicial unit of people or means, which the outcome of its parts are equal in the civil and penal point of view. The conception of law and human rights can be divided into four main generations that have drawn an evolution closely related to the inexorable human progress. The Universal Declaration of Human rights from 1948 had

40

Marciano, Vidal, Para comprender la solidaridad (Navarra, Verbo Divino, Estella, 1996).

41

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supposed an undeniable historical step forward that today is still valid and progressive thanks to its never outdating basis. Initially, human rights had a more individualistic intent where the main concern was to cover all lacking points of civil and political rights. These rights are the ones that look after life, freedom, security and physical and moral integrity of the individual as well as the right to partake in public life and government. The importance that progressively gathered the conception of human rights and the institutionalization of its legal parameters brings us to a second period more based on social rights together with economical and cultural rights more linked to the welfare state. The magnitude taken by the good living conditions, translated into services and means, ensured a decent and acceptable quality of life for all. The so-called solidarity or collective rights embraced a third generation which has come to prominance at the end of the XX century. They should be seen as a considerable advancement on the capacity to think of the other, and as the other. These rights are currently in full ascendance. They are immersed in a process of being recognized internationally, such as in the case of controversial rights like development, peace, and maintaining a sustainable environment.

It is important to emphasize this point here because the awareness of the other is crucial for the argumentation concerning solidarity in this present research. It is throughout the period mentioned when most international development initiatives have taken place and the north-south dialogue has increased. As Esther Giménez Salinas, the vice-chancellor of the Ramon Llull university stressed during the conference Valors

convivencials en una societat en crisi, organized by the United Nations Association of

Spain (ANUE), a final period exists which claims to be a more contemporary issue. The right to new technologies and space is now in vogue and has opened many debates about the digital existent division.

From a legal point of view, solidarity implies shared responsibility and common obligation values. Rudolf Stammler has mentioned two basic principles under the framework of ―fair law‖42

: the principle of respecting the other and the principle of solidarity. From Stammler‘s approach, an individual should never be excluded from the community because of the arbitrary decision of another; and all the power provided by

42

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the law can only exclude the rest if the excluded continue to be reflected into the others. Related with Stammler‘s fair law principles, Massimo Cacciari locates solidarity in a transcendental foundation of the essential socius, meaning that myself is the other.43 He asserts that ―I am not a simple I, an invisible I, an individual I. Inside me there‘s a society of individuals that need each other, they are divided between themselves, they made peace and war with each other.‖44

Cacciari notes that it is not possible to ignore the other because the other is me, therefore, we become involved with the foreigner because we recognize them in ourselves. This relation defines the other as our essential partner, the one that I can never dispense and never get separated from because he/she is myself.

Individualism trends are not contrary to such communitarian theories because, even in a totally individualist sense, the community exists permanently made up of ‗different others‘. We can never recognize ourselves as total individuals if we don‘t conceive the other. The drama of our times, according to Cacciari, is not the increasing trend towards individualism, the real drama is what he called the ―idiot personality‖45 that has promoted even more the own miserable self and small-minded dimension of the private interests. ―The idiot is such because he is unaware of his/her own interest. The idiot, today, from his/her total lack of the other, and values of solidarity recognition is threatening to destroy himself and to bring disaster to his/her whole world, which naturally is ours as well.‖46

The following figure 2 is a table that takes as a principal reference the table of

Philosophical trends on the subject of solidarity elaborated by Pagola in his recent

thesis dissertation from 2009. Some own new annotations have been included as additional information with the intention of complementing the original one. My attempt here is to briefly introduce the reader to the main philosophical trends where some of the most relevant authors have found a place to pronounce their theoretical ideas around the solidarity term. The authors that I have included additionally to

43_{Massimo, Cacciari and Carlo Maria, Martini, Diálogo sobre la solidaridad, (Barcelona: Herder, 1997), 34. (own}

translation)

44

Cacciari and Martini, Diálogo sobre la solidaridad, 34. (own translation)

45

Ibid, 35. (own translation)

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Pagola‘s table are: María Buxarrais, Fernando Salas Rosso, Mariano Vidal, Mariano Fernández Enguita and Jaime Aymar along with their respective theories of the nature of the term solidarity.

Source: Own elaboration inspired by the table presented in Pagola‘s thesis dissertation from 2009

2.2.3 Solidarity today, a globalized ethical reference

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following chapters. Nowadays, the idea of extending solidarity beyond mere political and social spheres has made the term gain momentum but also it unmasked a certain abuse of it. It is generally recognized that the term is losing its real significance immersed in an unstoppable process of devaluation.

Again, referring to the globalization process, solidarity has also suffered some generalizations that affirm how some of the positive consequences of globalization have brought us a more unified vision of the entire world and a major sense of solidarity among humans. Unfortunately, the universal conscience of solidarity usually is understood as mere welfare and good intentions activities towards the world‘s social injustices that occur far away from our societies blinding us from the injustices on our front door. At any rate, solidarity has become an undeniable ethical reference that today is in vogue and consequently employed by many advertisement claims.

Like other concepts, solidarity has suffered an adaptation and alteration throughout post-modern trends. The spirit of solidarity did not disappear; it only adopted new habits more adapted to the rules of mass media, emotional discourses full of compassion, and an ethic based on individualization. Solidarity in this current period according to Pagola is a feeling much related to compassion. It also has a lot to do with gratitude, even if it entails a grade of hypocrisy, because when I am worried about the other I am worried about myself. It is a virtue because it is not only a feeling but a way of life. It is a virtue that gathers the public and the private life, the social moral and the personal moral. It is not about acting as an individual, but as a community with others.47 A complementary point of view is the one provided by Vidal that claims that the idea that solidarity has to be understood as an ethical principle and not only as a moral feeling or personal virtue. He strongly thinks that the idea of solidarity as a virtue has to be complemented by an ethical-social functionality adopted by economic, political and juridical spheres among others.48

Identifying solidarity as an ethical principle implies the alteration of the social organization where solidarity adopts the status of moral value that has to be respected equally by all and for all. The well-known Global Public goods (GPG), above explained together with the ethics of minimums also called the ―least common denominator‖ had

47

Pagola Carte, Comunicación para el desarrollo, 80.

48

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established some rights, duties and responsibilities that govern what is the ‗Western‘ standard and goods for all. Solidarity, as a virtue as well as a social value, partakes in this list of ethics of minimums. It is one of the fundamental subjects but, surprisingly, its credibility and position is progressively declining. Solidarity suffers a rooted internal dysfunction between what we understand by personal values or virtues that clash often with socially fixed standards a propos the term. The problem arises when our personal view of solidarity does not fit to the one set up by the social cannon and vice versa. The incompatibility between values has weakened them, and in the case of solidarity, tensions have been diluting it and diminishing its significance in people‘s minds.

Despite this, the focus of the present proposed research tries to deal with those sporadic cases when both, personal and social values converge making welfare initiatives, ruled by the co-operation flourish. Figure 3 tries to illustrate what I understand by convergence of values inspired by the arguments presented by Pagola that opted to label solidarity as a personal virtue in contraposition with the idea of solidarity as a moral-social value and ethical principle announced by Vidal.

Source: Own elaboration

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expression perfectly defines those cases when, in the commercial sector, two parts agreed to join forces and resources in order to initiate common projects that provide benefits to both partakers.

It is relevant to emphasize, along with what has been said above, that solidarity activities are not always understood from the same standpoint, therefore, all the initiatives that take solidarity as the principle axis find themselves with the dilemma that sometimes these are misinterpreted.

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2.3 Selling solidarity

―We communicate in order to work with others. It could be argued that co-operation between people is the single greatest need and purpose in communication. It is obvious that our need to form social groups actually comes from our need to co-operate with each other in order to survive. Organized groups of people in any society work together to provide basic needs and also less basic needs. We use communication to get along with other people and to work with other people.49‖

2.3.1 Third sector communication

Society from an economic perspective has been unanimously divided into two large organizations: the market as the private sector and the state as the public sector. Both organizations are two big frames where the amalgamation of different institutions, organizations and entities has been confined and classified. Apart from the market-state division proposed by many authors, a third organization exists that resides in a different social niche far from the broad market-state one.

The increasing third sector has provided a new organizational frame where many institutions have found the perfect place to be located. Along with Lester M. Salamon and Helmut K. Anheier ―One of the most compelling is the great diversity of the entities that tend to get lumped together in this third sector ranging from tiny soup kitchens to symphony orchestras, from garden clubs to environmental groups.‖50

The Johns Hopkins Comparative Non-profit Sector Project (JHCNSP) directed by Salamon and Anheier represented one of the major contributions towards defining the third sector. The third sector has adopted many other denominations depending on the subject, the area or the author that refers to this term. Voluntary, profit, civil society and non-governmental are some of the most common uses of the term that blurred the limits as regards to what and who the third sector comprises. In order to understand better the term and to go further with the research, it is important to clarify some of the particular basis and social functions that most describe the third sector. Reichar, notes four variables that for him conforms the basis of the third sector: rationality, formality, solidarity and type of exchange. Generally, organizations comprised under the third

49

Richard Dimbleby and Graeme Burton, More than words, 9.

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sector are less rational and formal and tend to be more in favor of solidarity in the ethical sense and direct exchange practices.51

Most relevant literature agrees that the main role of the third sector is to produce public and common goods for society. Weisbrod maintains that non-profit organizations are more effective than commercial and private institutions at supplying public goods.52

For themselves or for others is the expression used by Mark Lyons to explain that the

beneficiaries of the third sector organization activities are external people, ―other members of the public […] The benefit may be to provide opportunities for worship, to advance a cause, to organize games, […] to educate children, to house the homeless, to empower the disadvantaged, to find a cure an illness and so on.‖53

In short, the third sector joins together the noblest features of society, differing undeniably, from the for-profit sector that focus their basis on prioritizing their own potential for-profit rather than public goods.

As a concise explanation about the third sector I took as a reference the detailed characteristics offered by Lyons in order to obtain the following definition: we can understand by the third sector the one that gathers private and non-profit organizations independent of governments, formally organized and democratically controlled by its partakers, aid workers, members and stakeholders, composed by people that voluntarily join it. The main activities, in which these organizations are enrolled, are aimed to the public benefit of people rather than personal profit and in all the cases are focused to solving social causes that unquestionably look for the common good of those who need it the most.

The performances, activities and finalities of the non-profit sector look completely disparate from the other two sectors but, certainly, the difference is not as clear as it seems. Philip Kotler and Alan Andreasen, recognize that non-profit sector is not independent from the other two sectors of the economy and, not surprisingly, these three sectors also compete and cooperate. ―In the United States, private and nonprofit hospitals battle over patients. Performing arts centers compete with Broadway and the

51

Reichard, C in Helmut K. Anheier and Wolfgang Seibel Eds, The Third Sector Comparative Studies of Nonprofit Organizations, (The Gruyter Studies, 1990), 12.

52

Weisbrod, B.A, The Non-profit Economy, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988).

53

Selling Solidarity:

Master of Arts Thesis

Euroculture

Selling Solidarity:

civil and non-governmental organizations as communication

agents in a blurred EU development scope

(The case study of ANUE)

Introduction

Table of contents

1.1 List of acronyms

1.2 Preface and acknowledgements

1.3 Thesis statements

1.4 Structure and method design

2.1 Communication, the multifaceted concept

2.2 Solidarity, the added value.

2.3 Selling solidarity