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The Self-Help Myth: Towards a Theory of Philanthropy as Consensus Broker

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  • Erica Kohl-Arenas

Abstract

This article presents a theoretical and methodological approach to studying how philanthropic power is maintained through the process of negotiating consensus between greatly unequal partners such as wealthy funders and social movement leaders. It is proposed that grant agreements between private foundations and social movement organizations construct idealized spaces of public participation and discursive theories of change that draw attention away from structural inequality and antagonism, ultimately generating consent. Drawing upon archival and ethnographic research on philanthropic investments in addressing migrant poverty in California's Central Valley, the article shows how consensus between foundation staff and farmworker and immigrant organizers promote funding frameworks that exclude questions that challenge relationships of power and systems of agricultural production that contribute to enduring poverty across the region. The Gramscian conceptual frames of “discursive power,” “hegemony as politics,” and “strategic articulation” are presented as a theoretical framework from which to understand the power of private philanthropy as consensus broker during historical moments of crisis.

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  • Erica Kohl-Arenas, 2015. "The Self-Help Myth: Towards a Theory of Philanthropy as Consensus Broker," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 796-825, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:74:y:2015:i:4:p:796-825
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/ajes.12114
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Katz, Michael B., 2013. "The Undeserving Poor: America's Enduring Confrontation with Poverty: Fully Updated and Revised," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199933952, Decembrie.
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