ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Sean Penn's hands-on approach to humanitarian work and his criticisms of domestic and global poverty, military intervention and structured violence. It argues that his humanitarianism is couched within radical politics and cosmopolitanism. Contextually the analysis focuses on Penn's efforts to assist the victims of both Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 and the Haitian earthquake in 2010. The two contexts are linked through historical experiences, cultural heritage and embedded practices of racism. Penn has participated personally in the physical rebuilding of Haitian society by digging trenches, and delivering food and medicine to the needy. However, Penn's support for Haiti is an outflow of his commitment to the long-term development of the island. While Penn has attracted a fair measure of negative attention for his humanitarianism, his story has simultaneously brought attention to the practice of radical celebrity politics and this personalized form of cosmopolitanism within and beyond borders.
