Bob Geldof and Live Aid: The Affective Side of Global Social Innovation

Human Relations · 1991 · Volume 44 · Issue 10

Abstract

This paper examines the case of Bob Geldof and Live Aid from the point of view of the relationship between visionary leadership and global social innovation. It briefly reviews the case. It then analyzes it in terms of four aspects of visionary leadership: the personal background of the visionary, the skills used in enacting the vision, the structural context in which the visionary operates, and the historical moment in which the visionary acts. It further reviews music as a symbolic system with powerful abilities to mobilize affect. It concludes that Geldof succeeded in initiating global action through the skillful juxtaposition of structures and processes from the music industry to the aid context and by the equally skillful linking of the affect generated by popular music with that generated by famine imagery to trigger philanthropic activity among consumers of popular music.

Keywords

aid, visionary leadership, music industry, famine relief

Enable JavaScript for citation tools and additional paper interactions.