Philanthropy and Social Media

We define social media as online or digital technologies that serve to connect people, information and organisations through networks. The term evolved as a way to -distinguish the emerging online -information platforms from traditional "broadcast media" -- TV, radio, film, newspapers -- by highlighting that these new tools -were "socialised" and allowed the audiences to contribute to their content. Social media have therefore become defined in relation to these existing media channels, but in fact they have their ancestry in existing social technologies, like the telephone and the letter. If traditional media connect people to information, social media connect people to people

Brazil elections 2022: a critical moment for elite Brazilian philanthropy

The Brazilian election is an opportunity for local philanthropy to show its support for a more just and equitable future for the country. But will elite philanthropists rise to the challenge? In recent years, this elite has done little to challenge Brazil’s structural inequalities, Jessica Sklair (Queen Mary University of London) found

The corporate capture of sustainable development and its transformation into a 'good Anthropocene' historical bloc

Inspired by Antonio Gramsci's analysis of bourgeois hegemony and his theoretical formulation of historical blocs, this paper attempts to explain how the concept and practice of sustainable development were captured by corporate interests in the last few decades of the twentieth century and how they were transformed into what we can name a 'good Anthropocene' historical bloc at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This corporate capture is theorised in terms of the transnational capitalist class as represented by corporate, statist/political, professional and consumerist fractions operating at all levels of an increasingly globalising world. In this essay, I propose the term 'critical Anthropocene narrative', highlighting the dangers posed by the Anthropocene and the need for radical systems' change entailing the end of capitalism and the hierarchical state. The critical Anthropocene narrative, thus, stands in radical opposition to the 'good Anthropocene' narrative which I argue was invented as a strategy to defend the socio-economic status quo by the proponents of sustainable development and their successors in the Anthropocene era, despite the good intentions of many environmentalists working in corporations, governments, NGOs, and international organizations. The paper concludes with some suggestions on how to deal with the potential existential threats to the survival of humanity

Happiness, debt & depression Is there a relationship between debt and depression in South Africa?

While poor financial circumstances have been associated with an increased likelihood of depression, the role of personal debt in determining individual mental health is not fully understood. This paper investigates the existence of a causal relationship between individual debt and depression across 5 waves of panel data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS). This paper adds to the existing literature on the relationship between consumer debt and mental health. The paper (i) explores the causal relationship between debt and mental health, (ii) conducts research between debt and mental health in a non-western economy, and (iii) considers the effect of various categories of debt on mental health e.g. mortgage debt, student debt, formal debt and informal debt. By using logistic fixed effects analysis, and exploiting the panel, the analysis controls for unobserved heterogeneity in the causal relationship between debt and depression. The paper finds that (I) Individuals who acquire informal debt in the current period have an increase in the odds of being depressed in both the current and future period. On the other hand, individuals who exhibit evidence of depressive symptoms in the current period have an increase in the odds of acquiring debt in the current period – but past period depressive symptoms do not appear to predict future period informal debt. Therefore, informal debt appears to exhibit characteristics of a bi-directional causal relationship in the current period, with informal debt associated with long term depressive symptoms. (II) Individuals with secure or mortgage debt exhibit a decrease in the odds of being depressed in the future, and (III) There is evidence that an individual who aquires formal debt and already depressed in the current period has a decrease in the odds of exhibiting symptoms of depression in the future period. This means that for unproductive debt categories debt appears to exhibit a negative effect on mental health and thus a decrease in lifetime utility. However, for productive debt categories such as secure debt, there is a positive effect on future mental health which may be argued to be an improvement in lifetime utility

Beleaguered city, beleaguered planet

This article sets out to analyze the connections between three different but related phenomena (capitalist globalization, the Anthropocene, and the coronavirus epidemic) through the lens of iconic buildings and spaces and the cities in which they are mostly found. I argue that the transnational capitalist class uses cities as competitors in a global system of lucrative investment opportunities. Capitalist globalization is widely implicated in the Anthropocene (signifying human impacts on the Earth system, usually destructive) and together they facilitate the spread of the coronavirus. The concept of "administrative evil"is mobilized to highlight the ethical dimensions of city planning, and the increasingly "beleaguered city.

Book review: Beyond money: a postcapitalist strategy by Anitra Nelson

In Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy, Anitra Nelson makes the case for abolishing money to achieve a truly postcapitalist future and explores how societies without money might be organised in everyday life. Through its expansive coverage and imaginative connections, this inspiring book encourages us to ponder why it might be ‘easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of money’, writes Leslie Sklair. Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy. Anitra Nelson. Pluto Press. 2022

Funding Strategically in the Field of Climate Change

This paper aims to help donors identify strategic intervention points for effective funding and action in the arena of climate change. It is a summary of remarks from learning forums convened by the Institute for Philanthropy and Synergos in New York and London in May 2009, with the support of Oak Foundation and Zennström Philanthropies

Book review: Beyond money: a postcapitalist strategy by Anitra Nelson

In Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy, Anitra Nelson makes the case for abolishing money to achieve a truly postcapitalist future and explores how societies without money might be organised in everyday life. Through its expansive coverage and imaginative connections, this inspiring book encourages us to ponder why it might be ‘easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of money’, writes Leslie Sklair. Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy. Anitra Nelson. Pluto Press. 2022