Beyond Philanthrocapitalism: Experiments in Value-based Giving from an Indian Philanthropic Foundation

• In Event: Rethinking how we Talk About Philanthropy

Abstract

This research seeks to understand indigenous experiments in value-based philanthropy in India, with a view to urge the critical turn in global philanthropy scholarship to imagine alternative normative frameworks for philanthropic thought and practice. It assumes, in that, a dual objective: to unsettle the eurocentrism of the existing academic discourse on philanthropy, and to allow for alternative philanthropic imaginaries, beyond the limits of philanthrocapitalism (Bishop, 2006).

There has been a growing recognition of the global institutionalisation of philanthrocapitalism as determining both philanthropic practice, and the development agenda and policy priorities in global governance (Bishop & Green, 2015; Mediavilla & Garcia-Arias, 2019). Distinct from charity and traditional philanthropy, philanthrocapitalism has been conceptualised as translating the logics of the market and the tools and techniques of business for philanthropic giving—presumably making philanthropy more businesslike and by that means, more impact-oriented, efficient, and effective (Bishop, 2013, 2006, 200; Mölders, 2020). Philanthrocapitalism has garnered considerable academic interest (Haydon et al., 2021), and emerging scholarship has drawn from diverse empirical sites, theoretical perspectives, and disciplinary traditions (Adloff, 2016; Haydon et al., 2021).

Criticisms of philanthrocapitalism however have been pervasive, and critical perspectives have tended to predominate the academic discourse on philanthrocapitalism (Haydon et al., 2021). Critics have commonly contested the conceptual wedding of private gain and public good legitimising the logic of philanthrocapitalism (McGoey, 2012), its uncritical application of business acumen and techniques—most prominently, the pursuit of measurement and quantification—to social change (Bosworth, 2011), the growing philanthrocapitalist influence in public policy and global governance (Lambin & Surender, 2021) and its ideological functioning as an instrument for further entrenching the conditions of global capitalism (Wilson, 2014).

The hegemonic rendering of philanthrocapitalism has often obfuscated a consideration of divergences and departures in global philanthropy. The existing discourse on philanthrocapitalism that is, has tended to be fundamentally eurocentric, and there has been little serious inquiry into the contestations, negotiations, and articulations of philanthrocapitalism outside of North America and Europe. Philanthropic sites from outside of North America and Europe have featured primarily as objects or laboratories (Fejerskov, 2017) for philanthrocapitalist interventions from large philanthropic actors in the West, rarely bearers of normative agency, or of alternative philanthropic imaginaries. The immanence of the discourse on philanthrocapitalism as such as resulted in an obstinate impasse—its inability to imagine alternatives, beyond critique.

This paper will present preliminary findings from a case study of an Indian philanthropic foundation, including in-depth interviews with senior representatives of the foundation and select grantees, and thematic analysis of communication materials from the philanthropic foundation. The foundation remains a critical example of indigenous philanthropic imagination, of value-based giving that seeks to contest, and transcend the limits of the philanthrocapitalist model. It espouses a complex normative framework that weaves biography and history to engage with and transform India’s distinctly post-colonial contemporary. In drawing into academic discourse alternative philanthropic imaginaries, the paper will urge a critical appraisal of both philanthrocapitalism and the eurocentrism of its academic discourse, pointing the way for a decolonisation (Quijano, 2007) of philanthropic thought, practice, and theorising.

References

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Author

• Bhakti Patil, University of St Andrews