Network governance and new philanthropy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Reconfiguration of the State

• In Event: Highlighted Session: The State and education in Latin America: Foundations, fault-lines, and alternatives (Panel 2)

Proposal

In the past decade, the literature on privatization has highlighted the concept of privatization “through” policymaking (Ball 2012), which refers to the way that a range of non-State actors are involved and influential in the formulation of policy. However, within the literature on non-State actors in Latin America and the Caribbean, it has been less common to explore the ways that other actors have sought to engage in “network governance” (Ball 2009), wherein such actors not only seek to insert themselves in the processes of policymaking but also seek to reshape the nature of those processes, often in ways that blur the distinction between public and private contributions.

Focusing on the case of the Dominican Republic, the purpose of this presentation is, first, to characterize the circumstances around the emergence and influence of network governance and new philanthropy in the education sector; second, to consider the import of these phenomena for the reconfiguration of the State, for how a reconfigured State works, and in whose interest; and, third, to reflect on the implications of the evolving transnational mission and activity of new philanthropy based in the Dominican Republic.

Methodologically, we draw on 48 interviews with key actors from across the education sector, including from government (n=9), international organizations (3), the business-philanthropy sector (4), non-governmental organizations (3), universities (9), Catholic-Church-related organizations (2), teachers’ unions (5) and teachers (13).

The study shows, first, how the Dominican State opened the door to network governance and non-State actors in the 1990s through collaboration with international organizations; second, how network governance has intensified since 2010 through hybrid spaces of agenda setting that are guided by State and non-State actors; third, how these hybrid spaces have given way to the emergence of new philanthropy, which engages directly with the State—both formally and informally—and in State-controlled spaces as part of its efforts to influence policy formulation; and, fourth, that the mission of new philanthropy is evolving to include, as well, the generation of profits, both within and beyond the Dominican Republic.

One issue to which this study draws attention is the need to further explain the ability of new philanthropy to penetrate the State in the first place. That is, this study suggests that additional work should be done look at how new structures emerge from the “increasingly complex and opaque crossings, blurrings, interweavings or hybridities that constitute and animate this landscape of ‘giving’ and enterprise” (Ball and Olmedo 2011, 88), which, in turn, contribute to the reconfiguration of the State. In other words, the task going forward is to examine and explain how political-economic considerations have—both—facilitated the emergence and strengthening of new philanthropic organizations, on one hand, and the weak position of States vis-à-vis such actors, on the other.

Authors

• D. Brent Edwards, University of Hawaii

• Alejandro Caravaca, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

• Mauro C Moschetti, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona