Food and Philanthro-Capitalism in New Zealand Schools

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: School Food Politics for Social Justice, Human Rights, and Sustainability (Table 35)

Abstract

In contemporary times, charity and philanthropy is positioned as an effective means to ‘solve’ a variety of social problems. In the case of Aotearoa New Zealand, the provision of food in schools – specifically the phenomenon of large numbers of children not having any food to eat - is one such ‘problem’ that has captured the interests of a plethora of players. These players include private sector organisations, such as multinational corporations, local businesses, and industry groups, and a number of ‘not-for-profit’ actors, including charities, social enterprises, philanthropists, religious organisations, and even criminal gangs.

In this chapter, I critically examine how, in a context where state provision of school meals was until recently ‘off the table’, multisector organisations and actors employ notions of philanthropy and charity to shape the provision of food in schools. By conducting a critical discourse analysis of organisations’ websites, media reports, and policy documents, and drawing on Foucauldian notions of governmentality and ‘practices of assemblage’, I illuminate how a number of organisations use philanthro-capitalism as a means to govern self and others.

This is not a straightforward phenomenon. There is a messy mix of political rationalities (in particular neoliberalism, capitalism, and welfarism) and technologies of government (including advertising, public relations, education policymaking, tax legislation, corporate social responsibility) that helps to re-assemble and re-invent organisations so that they are seen to be philanthropic, caring, healthy, and even educational. While the free provision of food in schools is increasingly positioned as a form of socially-just altruism that reduces inequitable health and education outcomes for children in Aotearoa New Zealand, it is also, in a Foucauldian sense, ‘dangerous’. This governmental assemblage works to maintain, mask, and even exploit inequalities and inequities in public health and public education; a form of philanthrocapitalism that benefits the charity ‘industry’, yet shifts attention away from powerful forces and structures that shape children’s access to food in schools and beyond.

Author

• Darren Powell, University of Auckland