Why the Super-Rich Will Not Be Saving the World: Philanthropy and “Privatization Creep” in Global Development

Abstract

Under multistakeholderism, private philanthropic foundations have played an increasingly influential role in global development. As part of which, foundations have promoted what we call “privatization creep” (i.e., mainstreaming market-centric solutions to development). Sidelining redistributive approaches altogether, “privatization creep” favours profit-making over everything else, doing little to “save the world.”

Missing the Impact in Impact Investing Research – A Systematic Review and Critical Reflection of the Literature

“…Furthermore, if II shifts social and environmental responsibilities from elected governments to private investors, it may have negative side effects. Brooks and Kumar (2023) argue that in this case few private investors are able to 'dictate resources' (p. 224) to areas they consider important, potentially excluding certain groups of people or regions, developing inequalities, and reinforcing existing power structures (Mitchell and Sparke, 2016). To avoid such unintended consequences, promote transparency, ensure accountability, and improve the effectiveness of II, it is important to consider the positive and potential negative long-term societal impacts of II.…”

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“…Появление форматов олигархического капитализма, капитализма «для своих», при котором сверхдоходы концентрируются в руках немногих, стало катализатором научного дискурса по вопросу о том, можно ли предпринимателем называть представителя крупного бизнеса или только малого и среднего, у которого свои особые функции «капиталист», «буржуа» (Толкачев, 2019). Зарубежные исследователи подчеркивают, что даже при декларировании самых благих намерений «спасения мира» сверхбогатые не будут спасать мир -извлечение прибыли ставится ими превыше морали (Brooks, Kumarhttps, 2023). Также обсуждается вопрос о противоречивости морально-нравственных оснований деятельности современного предпринимателя, этичности самого его статуса (Гарнова, 2019), который может как создавать конфликты, так и «потенциально порождать мир» (Joseph et al, 2023).…”

Book Review: Brazilian Elites and Their Philanthropy: Wealth at the Service of Development by Jessica Sklair

“…As businesses are increasingly getting involved with poverty, they are pursuing the commodification, monetization, privatization, and fungibility of the assets (or the “public” ones they rely on) of the poor, the goods and services they produce and consume, etc.—all to generate ever more profits. Leading this growing marketization of the poor and their poverty is elites’ philanthropy—which is financing, engineering, and propagating ever newer forms of financial, technological, and institutional innovations (Brooks and Kumar, 2021). To the effect that one might argue that the sub-title of Sklair’s book could just as well have been the other way round: “Development at the service of wealth.”…”