Celebrity Studies Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2011, 69–85 Star/poverty space: the making of the ‘development celebrity’ Michael K. Goodman* and Christine Barnes Department of Geography, King’s CollegeLondon, London, UK What is it that gives celebrities the voice and authority to do and say the things they do in the realm of development politics? Asked another way, how is celebrity practised and, simultaneously, how does this praxis make celebrity, personas, politics and, indeed, celebrities themselves? In this article, we explore this ‘celebrity praxis’ through the lens of the creation of the contemporary ‘development celebrity’ in those stars working for development writ large in the so-called Third World. Drawing on work in science stud- ies, material cultures and the growing geo-socio-anthropologies of things, the key to understanding the material practices embedded in and creating development celebrity networks is the multiple and complex circulations of the everyday and bespectacled artefacts of celebrity. Conceptualised as the ‘celebrity–consumption–compassion com- plex’, the performances of development celebrities are as much about everyday events, materials, technologies, emotions and consumer acts as they are about the mediated and liquidised constructions of the stars who now ‘market’ development. Moreover, this complex is constructed by and constructs what we are calling ‘star/poverty space’ that works to facilitate the ‘expertise’ and ‘authenticity’ and, thus, elevated voice and author- ity, of development celebrities through poverty tours, photoshoots, textual and visual diaries, websites and tweets. In short, the creation of star/poverty space is performed through a kind of ‘materiality of authenticity’ that is at the centre of the networks of development celebrity. The article concludes with several brief observations about the politics, possibilities and problematics of development celebrities and the star/poverty spaces that they create. Keywords: authenticity; celebrity praxis; development celebrity; expertise; materiality; place; space The celebrity ambassador... will be seen trying to help, assist and transform the degradation (of whatever kind or magnitude it is) into something hopeful. However, again, the congruity between this persona (the hands that will get dirty, do-gooder, who can do good things with their fame and wealth) and the glamorous celebrity life from which they have come and to which they will return, are decidedly liquid in form. While celebrities have always combined the life of glamour with visits to see a sick child at a hospital or support the troops, and so on, the self-reflexive and ironic ways in which celebrities view themselves and are viewed today... means that there is a spilling-over and constant shattering of persona. For a celebrity (politician) to rise above such a tide they need charismatic authority that effervesces, and the rooted (even if temporary or transitory) adoration of devotees (Redmond 2010, p. 89; emphasis added). A performance presupposes a practice (Warde 2005, p. 134). *Corresponding author. Email: michael.k.goodman@kcl.ac.uk ISSN 1939-2397 print/ISSN 1939-2400 online © 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2011.544164 http://www.informaworld.com Downloaded By: [Goodman, Michael K.] At: 22:38 13 April 2011