This project is wrapping up in early 2023. Following on from our introduction pages, this page provides more detail on the different projects being explored within the overall research topic of crowdfunding and care, and any (public or academic) outputs related to them.
Type 1 Diabetes and funding for Continuous Glucose Monitors
This research focused on the experiences of families in New Zealand, in fundraising for Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM) for children; considering the funding context, and the impact on family life that CGMs have, along with public understandings of Diabetes.
– Wardell, S., Hall, R., Wheeler, B., de Bock, M., Mann, J. (2023). “We Can’t Let the Ball Drop on Diabetes”. Newsroom. 13th March. [Open access via link].
– Wardell, S. (2022). “Meet Aotearoa’s Cyborg Kids”. The Spinoff, Jan 18th. [Open access via link]
– Wardell, S & Starling, L. (2022). Technical report: Experiences of fundraising for and using CGMs, among families of children with Type 1 Diabetes, in Aotearoa New Zealand. University of Otago.
Crowdfunding for medical transition services in Aotearoa
This research explored how transgender and gender diverse people in New Zealand use crowdfunding to fundraise for medical transition services, considering how these services are structured, alongside the experiences, challenges, and possibilities of the crowdfunding process.
– Withey-Rila, C., & Wardell, S. (2022). ‘Crowdfunding for Medical Transition, in Aotearoa New Zealand: context and consequences’. Paper presented at the SANZ Conference, Auckland New Zealand.
Fatness and crowdfunding
This part of the project sought to analyse crowdfunding campaigns to do with weight-loss, and consider how ideas of ‘deservingness’ were constructed around fat bodies
– Starling, L. & Wardell, S. (2022). ‘Fat and Deserving: negotiating the visibility of non-normative bodies in online medical crowdfunding’. Paper presented at the SANZ Conference, Auckland New Zealand.
Audience experiences
This part of the project explore the experiences and perspectives of audiences of potential donors, online; based on 65 survey responses collection in 2022
Visuality and crowdfunding
One angle of the project explored how the role of images in crowdfunding, including how they generated moral emotions, and also how the materiality of phones and screens shaped this. This was explored in part through a creative project in the medium of stained glass, that has been displayed at several academic conferences
– Wardell, S. (2022). ‘The Glass Witness: exploring tactile, visual, and material elements of empathy in online medical crowdfunding’, Visual exhibit at the Visual Research conference, Seattle Washington, November 2022.
COVID-19 and crowdfunding
This project responded to the New Zealand 2020 pandemic lockdown, by examining medical crowdfunding campaigns as sites of self-reporting on the (social, economic, psychological, and physical) effects of the country’s lockdown restrictions – which included sudden and significant changes to healthcare delivery – on people who were ill prior to the lockdown, or became ill during it. This is summarised in our technical report. In a forthcoming article, we also use a lens of biopolitics and subjectivity to explore what strategies they used to market their own (non-COVID-related) needs amidst a pandemic.
– Wardell, S. (2021). “To wish you well: The biopolitical subjectivities of medical crowdfunders during and after Aotearoa New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown”. BioSocieties. [Open access via link]
– Starling, L. & Wardell, S. (2020). “Red flag waving: Medical crowdfunding trends show the precarity of kiwis in Australia is not just a Covid-19 issue”. In(corrigibly) Plural – Social Anthropology blog. October 22nd. [Open access via link]
– Robinson, E., Wardell, S. (2020). Technical Report: Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on the healthcare experiences of medical crowdfunders in Aotearoa New Zealand. University of Otago. [Open access via link]
A quantitative snapshot of crowdfunding in New Zealand
This early phase of our research produced a broad snapshot of the patterns of medical crowdfunding in New Zealand; focusing on who was fundraising for what. This responded to a lack of nationally specific research, to establish data which could be compared to data on crowdfunding in North America, Canada, and the UK. In June 2020 we coded 574 campaigns run by private citizens on Givealittle and GoFundMe, and generated descriptive statistics as well as an analysis of variables predictive of financial success. A summary of some findings appeared int he following media article:
– Wardell, S. (2020). “The uncomfortable truth about medical crowdfunding in New Zealand.” The Spinoff. September 16th. [Open access via link]
Crowdfunding and marketised care in Aotearoa New Zealand
We have collaborated with postgraduate and staff researchers at the University of Auckland, to discuss marketisation of care and the labour of campaigning, in the following recent articles.
– Baker, T., Bartos, A.E., Neuwelt-Kearns, C., Calder-Dawe, O., Wardell, S. (2021). “How crowdfunding campaigners market illness to capture the attention of potential donors”. The Conversation. April 28th. [Open access via link]
– Neuwelt-Kearns, C., Baker, T., Calder-Dawn, O., Bartos, A.E., Wardell, S. (2021). Getting the crowd to care: Marketing illness through health-related crowdfunding in Aotearoa New Zealand. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space: Special Issue. [Open access via link]
PREVIOUS RELATED RESEARCH
Crowdfunding and Online Care after the Christchurch Mosque Attacks
This research considered the outpouring of online support for the Muslim community, after the terrorist attacks of March 15th 2019. It analysed comments left by donors on the viral crowdfunding campaign (run by Victim Support) as well as engaging in a series of (19x) phenomenological interviews about experiences and actions online, with several articles about this forthcoming or in preparation.
– Wardell, S. (2019). “They are us: Practices of care in digital environments after the Christchurch mosque attack”. ASAA/NZ blog. [Open access via link]
The Baby Leo Story: disability, citizenship, and care
This research project analysed Facebook comments on a viral crowdfunding campaign in 2015, for a baby with Down Syndrome, born in Armenia to an Armenian mother and a Kiwi father who subsequently fundraised for his return to and care in New Zealand.
– Wardell, S., Fitzgerald, R.P. (2021). Dialogical Sense-Making in the (Digital) Public Sphere: Citizenship, Care, and Disability. Sites, 18(1). [Forthcoming]
Crowdfunded Care 