The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Philanthropy and Humanitarianism by Mitchell, Katharyne; Pallister-Wilkins, Polly;

Short description:

This handbook builds a shared understanding of the troubling politics of philanthropy and the disturbing history and practices of humanitarianism.

Long description:

This handbook builds a shared understanding of the troubling politics of philanthropy and the disturbing history and practices of humanitarianism.

While historical work on philanthropy has long suggested a link between imperial rule and humanitarian aid, these insights have only recently been brought to bear on contemporary forms of giving. In this book, contributors link the long history of colonial philanthropy to current foundations and their programs in education, health, migrant care, and other social initiatives. They argue that both philanthropy and humanitarianism often function to consolidate market rule, consolidating and expanding liberal market rationalities of neoliberal entrepreneurialism to a widening population and set of institutions.

Philanthropy and humanitarianism share a history, growing together out of modernist socio-economic relations and modes of imperial rule. However, the histories and contemporary politics of the two have not been brought together with such breadth or under such a critical lens before. Discussing philanthropy and humanitarianism together, combining both historical scope and contemporary iterations, highlights continuities and convergences—making the volume a unique introduction and critical overview of critical work in these sister-fields.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 – Introduction. Monopoly Philanthropy and the Humanitarian New World Order  Part 1: Philanthropy, Humanitarianism and Political Economy  Chapter 2 – Neoliberalism, Philanthropy, and Humanitarianism: Pragmatic or Faustian Bargains?  Chapter 3 – Social Impact Investing  Chapter 4 – Universal Basic Income  Chapter 5 – Labour  Chapter 6 – Political Economy of Educational Philanthropy: From Venture Philanthropy to Digital Privatization  Chapter 7 – Immunizing Against Access? Philanthro-Capitalist COVID Vaccines and the Preservation of Patent Monopolies  Chapter 8 – Philanthrocapitalism Seen from South Africa: Bill Gates’ Charity Turns to Tyranny, Misfired Silver Bullets and Climate Vandalism  Part 2: Humanitarianism, Development and Humanitarian Developments  Chapter 9 – Humanitarianism and the non-European world  Chapter 10 – Design: The Colonial Imaginary of Humanitarian Good(s)  Chapter 11 – Nigeria and the Humanitarian International: From Biafra to Boko Haram  Chapter 12 – Neither ‘Philanthropy’ nor ‘Development’: A Tale of Two Buzzwords  Chapter 13 – Careful Killing: Humanitarian Warfare and the Politics of Precision Violence  Chapter 14 – Humanitarianism through Ubuntu Philosophy  Chapter 15 – Celebrity: A Key Concept for Understanding the Power of ‘Helping’  Part 3: Philanthro-Humanitarianism: Projects, Problems and Practices  Chapter 16 – Metrics, Legibility, and the Logics of Governance in Philanthropy and Humanitarian Aid: A Politics of Knowledge Approach  Chapter 17 – Modernism and Technology in Humanitarian Action  Chapter 18 – The Spirit of Climate Philanthropy  Chapter 19 – "Obstruction."  Chapter 20 – Nation-building and its Exclusions: Elite Philanthropy and the Limits of Social Reform  Chapter 21 – Philanthropy in France and Colonial Haiti: Bienfaisance, Paternalism, and Race  Chapter 22 – Humanitarian Futures