Capitalist Humanitarianism

by Lucia Hulsether

Overview

The struggle against neoliberal order has gained momentum over the last five decades—to the point that economic elites have not only adapted to the Left's critiques but incorporated them for capitalist expansion. Venture funds expose their ties to slavery and pledge to invest in racial equity. Banks pitch microloans as a path to indigenous self-determination. Fair-trade brands narrate consumption as an act of feminist solidarity with women artisans in the global South. In Capitalist Humanitarianism Lucia Hulsether examines these projects and the contexts of their emergence. Blending historical and ethnographic styles, and traversing intimate and global scales, Hulsether tracks how neoliberal self-critique creates new institutional hegemonies that, in turn, reproduce racial and neocolonial dispossession. From the archives of Christian fair traders to luxury social entrepreneurship conferences, from US finance offices to Guatemalan towns flooded with their loan products, from service economy desperation to the internal contradictions of social movements, Hulsether argues that capitalist humanitarian projects are fueled as much by a profit motive as by a hope that racial capitalism can redeem the losses that accumulate in its wake.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478019206
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	02/03/2023
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Lucia Hulsether is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Skidmore College.

Table of Contents

Preface  ix
Introduction: Capitalist Humanitarianism  1
Interlude One  19
1. May Analyze like a Capitalist: Fair Trade and Other Histories  25
Interlude Two  49
2. Ethical Vampires: Conscious Capitalism and Its Commodity Enchantments  53
Interlude Three  75
3. Marxists in the Microbank: From Solidarity Movement to Solidarity Lending  80
Interlude Four  102
4. Representing Inclusion: Humans of Capitalist Humanitarianism  106
Interlude Five  128
5. The Hunt for Yes: Archival Management and Manufactured Consent  134
Interlude Six  156
6. Hope for the Future: Reproductive Labor in the Neoliberal Multicultural Family  162
Epilogue  183
Acknowledgments  191
Notes  195
Bibliography  221
Index  239

What People are Saying About This

Jodi Melamed

“I am grateful to Lucia Hulsether for writing the book that pounds the nail in the coffin of corporate humanitarianism. It is essential reading for everyone who refuses to be swayed by the happy talk of ‘fair trade,’ ‘conscious capitalism,’ and ‘ethical investing.’ In brilliant case studies, Hulsether shows how time after time corporate humanitarianism translates critiques of capitalist violence into neoliberalism’s raison d’être. Wry, witty, and heartbreaking, Capitalist Humanitarianism does not flinch from exposing the killing that is the disavowed cost of delusional presentations of ‘good’ capitalism.”

To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise - Bethany Moreton

“In an utterly original and individual voice, Lucia Hulsether returns ‘progressive’ Christianity to its rightful place as a handmaiden of the cruel optimisms binding us to irremediable structures. Writing against the simplistic narrative that sees right-wing evangelicalism and neoliberalism locked in a marriage of convenience, Hulsether shows instead how a wistfully leftist ‘capitalist humanitarianism’ generates powerful dreams of reconciliation amid the ruins of neoliberalism. Despite the relentless demand for hope and for redemption from our inevitable complicity, morning does not come; we are not saved. And yet, Hulsether argues, we must learn to use existence ethically.”