TY - JOUR
T1 - Bridges, platforms, and satellites
T2 - theorizing the power of global philanthropy in international development
AU - Kumar, Arun
AU - Brooks, Sally Heather
N1 - © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details
PY - 2021/4/30
Y1 - 2021/4/30
N2 - Global philanthropy, especially that of large US philanthropic foundations, has played an active but not unproblematic role in international development. In this paper, we theorize the institutional strategies by which global philanthropy exercises its disproportionate influence. In particular, we offer bridges, interdigitates, leapfrogging, platforms and satellites as metaphors for theorizing the connections and disconnections that philanthropic foundations engineer. We draw on the interdisciplinary scholarship on philanthropy and development to identify three epochs: scientific development (1940s–1970s), partnerships (1970s–2000s) and philanthrocapitalism (2000s–present). In each of these, we outline how philanthropic foundations have used the above metaphorical institutional mechanisms – separately and increasingly in combination and more sophisticated ways – in making connections and disconnections across developmental geographies, histories, imaginaries and institutions. Potentially generative, metaphors, we conclude, both offer ways to interpret the disproportionate power of philanthropy as well as challenge it by identifying philanthropy's underlying assumptions, telos and exclusions of development.
AB - Global philanthropy, especially that of large US philanthropic foundations, has played an active but not unproblematic role in international development. In this paper, we theorize the institutional strategies by which global philanthropy exercises its disproportionate influence. In particular, we offer bridges, interdigitates, leapfrogging, platforms and satellites as metaphors for theorizing the connections and disconnections that philanthropic foundations engineer. We draw on the interdisciplinary scholarship on philanthropy and development to identify three epochs: scientific development (1940s–1970s), partnerships (1970s–2000s) and philanthrocapitalism (2000s–present). In each of these, we outline how philanthropic foundations have used the above metaphorical institutional mechanisms – separately and increasingly in combination and more sophisticated ways – in making connections and disconnections across developmental geographies, histories, imaginaries and institutions. Potentially generative, metaphors, we conclude, both offer ways to interpret the disproportionate power of philanthropy as well as challenge it by identifying philanthropy's underlying assumptions, telos and exclusions of development.
U2 - 10.1080/03085147.2021.1842654
DO - 10.1080/03085147.2021.1842654
M3 - Article
SN - 0308-5147
VL - 50
SP - 322
EP - 345
JO - Economy and Society
JF - Economy and Society
IS - 2
M1 - 1842654
ER -