Institutionalizing Japanese Philanthropy Beyond National and Sectoral Borders: Coevolution of Philanthropy and Corporate Philanthropy from the 1970s to 1990s

Building on an analytical framework of agent-based institutionalization, this qualitative study uses narrative accounts to explore a historical evolution of Japanese philanthropy and corporate philanthropy from the 1970s to 1990s. Using primary data, such as interviews with key actors and archival resources, as well as secondary and publication data, I examine the process of how Japanese philanthropy and corporate philanthropy progressed simultaneously and how the American concept of philanthropy was integrated into different cultural contexts and emerged as the Japanese concept of philanthropy, firansoropii. This study also reveals that the three-decade process of institutionalizing Japanese philanthropy was driven by Japanese institutional actors who bridged the philanthropic, political, and economic boundaries between Japan and the United States.     

Striving to be ‘good’ mothers: abused women's experiences of mothering

So far, limited work has focused on women's experiences of mothering in the context of domestic violence. This article presents the findings of a study that investigated women's experiences of mothering in the context of domestic violence and, while it accounts for the difficulties and challenges these women face, it emphasises their desire to be ‘good’ mothers and the strategies they develop in order to achieve ‘good’ mothering. The findings demonstrate that abused women typically strive to be ‘good’ mothers, which requires them to put their children first and to protect and care for them. The recognition of these strategies provides ground to question current professional practices and to develop interventions that will best support women and children living with domestic violence. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correction to: Philanthropy in China: Institutional and Social Factors

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - The present special issue (Philanthropy in China: Institutional and Social Factors) should also include the previously...     

Measuring the Grassroots: Puzzles of Cultivating the Grassroots from the Top Down

Does a participatory, open‐ended organizational format inspire creativity and draw on participants' local knowledge? Many nonprofits operate under this assumption, and many of their financial sponsors agree, and therefore demand precise accounts documenting the nonprofits' “participatory” formats. In the U.S. youth civic engagement projects described here, the practice of accounting itself had an effect, regardless of funders' goals. Volunteers devoted more time to documenting just how participatory, open‐ended and grassroots they were than they devoted to any other topic. Organizers strenuously tried to avert attention from accounting's importance, but could not avoid it. Volunteers could not reflect on the accounting process, or on the political questions behind it; knowledge of it became a repressed institutional intuition.     

African Gifting: Pluralising the Concept of Philanthropy

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This article adds to conceptualisations of philanthropy. Applying an ontological approach within an evolutionary...     

At the Mercy of the State: Health Philanthropy in China

Public health and healthcare issues in China have historically attracted individuals and organizations to engage the health sector. The growth of health philanthropy in post-Mao China raises questions regarding the role of the state in the development of China’s health philanthropy. Through a historical overview of health philanthropy in China as well as an examination of the functions and effectiveness of health-related philanthropic actors in the contemporary era, this study has identified the state as a major factor in the development of China’s health philanthropy. Indeed, even though the post-Mao reform dynamics have expanded space for health-related charity organizations, the state continues to have commanding height in health philanthropy in terms of status, funding, services, and influence. The state dominance in turn negatively affects the registration, financing, and capacity building of private foundations and NGOs in this area. Whether the state will dominate health philanthropy in the future to a large extent hinges upon how much extra space it is willing to concede in order to accommodate the dynamics in China’s philanthropic sector.

     

Institutional Innovation in Philanthropy: Community Foundations in the UK

In the United Kingdom, there has been a resurgence of interest in philanthropy amongst the media, policymakers, and scholars alike. In this context, the analysis of new and innovative forms of philanthropy is paramount. This paper focuses on an innovation in the philanthropic form: the community foundation. The success of community foundations in the United States provided the impetus for the establishment of community foundations in the UK in the 1980s. This paper examines how the community foundation form has been adapted to the UK and the factors which have influenced the development and roles of British community foundations. It is argued that this study is both timely and important for three reasons. First, the analysis of new structures through which people give furthers our understanding of Britain’s culture of giving. Second, the paper examines the role of community-based philanthropy in the civil renewal of Britain’s communities. Finally, the study makes an important contribution to efforts to promote the community foundation form worldwide as it highlights the challenges of transferring philanthropic forms from one context to another.

Sexual Abuse Images in Cyberspace: Expanding the Ecology of the Child

Cyberspace has added a new dimension to the ecology of children made the subjects of sexual abuse images distributed online. These images cannot be permanently removed and can continue to circulate in cyberspace forever. A review of the current literature suggests that helping professionals are not consistently aware of or do not probe possibilities of online sexual victimization in the investigation, assessment, and treatment of child sexual abuse. Nor is this issue adequately addressed in their education and training. There are gaps in the literature regarding how to identify and provide treatment for these children. New assessment and treatment targets are needed to enhance existing practice approaches. A contemporary ecological model that incorporates an explicit consideration of the cybersystem is provided as a starting point for practitioners to be aware of the possibility that images of child sexual abuse were recorded and distributed online.     

Hierarchization,Boundary Making,and Inequality: Exploring the Structural Changes of Chinese Grassroots NGOs in a Transition Era

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Grassroots nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the world have experienced a process of hierarchization in recent...     

Constructing “Social Change” through Philanthropy: Boundary Framing and the Articulation of Vocabularies of Motives for Social Movement Participation*

I embrace Mills's (1940) conception of motives to offer new insight into an old question: why do people join social movements? I draw upon ethnographic research at the Crossroads Fund, a “social change” foundation, to illustrate that actors simultaneously articulate two vocabularies of motives for movement participation: an instrumental vocabulary about dire, yet solvable, problems and an expressive vocabulary about collective identity. This interpretive work is done during boundary framing, which refers to efforts by movements to create in-group/out-group distinctions. I argue that the goal-directed actions movements take to advance social change are shaped by participants' identity claims. Moreover, it is significant that Crossroads constructs its actions and identity as social movement activism, rather than philanthropy. This definitional work suggests that analyzing the category social movements is problematic unless researchers study how activists attempt to situate themselves within this category. Hence, methodologically attending to organizations' constructions of movement status can theoretically inform research which essentially takes social movements as a given, in exploring their structural components.     

Old and New Forms of Giving: Understanding Corporate Philanthropy in India

Corporate philanthropy in India is burgeoning due to a fast growing economy, rise in the number of billionaires, and the recent introduction of legislation that mandates spending 2 % of company profits on corporate social responsibility. Through analysis of key historical and anthropological texts, we argue that ‘business philanthropy has a long and honorable history in India’ (Sidel, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 12(2):171–180, 172, 2001), and explain this with reference to Indian giving practices from Hindu, Mughal (Muslim), British Raj, and Gandhian traditions. We then move into a review of the emerging field of literature on corporate philanthropy, to explore how these traditions synthesized with contemporary global business and economic practices to create a distinct form of Indian corporate philanthropy. We necessarily also include an overview of its salient critiques. This will be of interest to those concerned with Indian philanthropy and of culturally specific scholarship of philanthropy.     

Grassroots mobilization in revolutionary Nicaragua: The case of the squatter settlements

Examining two Nathan Farb Adirondack landscape photographs from a wall calendar, this paper asks whether or not one can read a Nature photograph as an ideological text First, the paper traces Farb's way of seeing Nature to the emergence of the 19th century bourgeoisie and the Transcendental philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau in which Nature is positioned as an alternative to modernity and urban existence. Second, it notes that the Nature photograph contains three levels of discourse: substantive, technical and aesthetic. As a photograph moves through these levels of discourse, both its exchange value and its sign value increase. Third, it investigates the ambivalent relationship between the photograph and its subject Fourth, it examines the ideological boundaries of alternative ways of photographing Nature. The paper concludes that the realistic landscape photograph is deeply rooted in the history of the American bourgeoisie, its way of seeing is an extension of bourgeois semiotics, and its value as a commodity‐sign is a function of bourgeois economics.     

Meenaz Kassam,Femida Handy and Emily Jansons: Philanthropy in India: Promise to Practice: A Book Review

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

The Development of Grassroots Chinese NGOs Following the Wenchuan Earthquake of 2008: Three Case Studies,Four Modi Vivendi

Many analysts consider 2008 to have been “NGO year zero” for China, as the relief and reconstruction process following the Wenchuan earthquake witnessed a significant surge in NGO activity. This study traces the development trajectory of three NGOs in Y City over the eight years since the area was severely struck by the Wenchuan earthquake. These NGOs actively assisted in the post-disaster recovery. By the time the reconstruction was complete, they had translated their distinct resources, development plans, and relationships with local government into different approaches to helping the local community. This study proposes an interactive model that captures the nuanced dynamics over time on both sides of the NGO–local government relationships. The model focuses on variations in NGOs’ orientations and bargaining power. This yields a matrix with four elementary types of relationship: “parent-–child,” “mercantile,” “predator–prey,” and alienated relationships. These interaction patterns and their effects are clearly seen in the case studies.     

Crowdfunding and Diaspora Philanthropy: An Integration of the Literature and Major Concepts

Crowdfunding and diaspora philanthropy are two emerging areas of research that are generating excitement in the field of philanthropic studies. However, little if any research examines the shared characteristics and advantages of these two phenomena, and if and how crowdfunding might serve to strengthen efforts in the practice of diaspora philanthropy. This article reviews relevant literature on crowdfunding and diaspora philanthropy, and then analyzes overlapping characteristics, strengths, and limitations of these practices. The article then considers the potential of crowdfunding to contribute toward diaspora philanthropy, giving particular attention to the contexts and challenges faced in philanthropy in the global South.     

The State and the State of the Art on Philanthropy in China

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - There exists a current paradox of philanthropy and the state in China: a stronger social sector accompanied with growth in...     

Pure Gold for Broken Bodies: Discursive Techniques Constructing Milk Banking and Peer Milk Sharing in U.S. News

Technological advances provide increased ability to transfer human tissues—blood, organs, milk—from one body to another. This article analyzes mechanisms of reality construction in U.S. news to construct shared human breast milk. Articles used typifications and human interest stories to convey participants as victims, lay heroes, and villains. Milk banking was portrayed as institutionally integrated through associations, expert testimonies, and formalized procedures, making banked milk “pure gold.” Peer sharing was portrayed as institutionally opposed through institutional warnings, expert testimonies, informal procedures, and hypothetical atrocities, making peer milk “fool's gold.” Findings suggest that “biovalue” of human milk is interconnected with institutional processing.     

Kiva's Flat,Flat World: Ten Years of Microcredit in Cyberspace

While microcredit has been widely praised as a new, powerful tool for enabling development and empowering the poor, this form of ‘development from below’ does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, microcredit programs are inseperable from a host of neoliberal political, cultural, and economic practices and projects. These contexts are, however, systematically missing from Kiva.org, the largest and most popular peer-to-peer microlending portal. Instead, Kiva.org presents a placeless perspective on development and poverty, where borrowers’ skin color, native dress, and picturesque backgrounds seem to vary, but the ‘fix’ of microcredit remains universal. This ‘flat’ approach is problematic for two reasons. First, Kiva.org naturalizes the financialization of poor people's disadvantage in the coercive form of debt. Second, lenders are encouraged to channel their desire to help alleviate poverty through Kiva.org's lending portal based on an illusory sense of connection, transparency and beneficence in lending, thus potentially displacing other forms of less problematic development aid and intervention.