Capitalist Humanitarianism

by Lucia Hulsether

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.

264 pages, Hardcover

Published February 3, 2023

Reviews

[Karis · Rating 4 out of 5]

bc of the way the pdfs downloaded i read the intro last which was on me bc the book made more sense after that, but wowee lucia hulsether is fucking brilliant and i appreciate this a lot for the way it does what it does and makes me think

[John Brugge · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of hard and sad truths here and no easy fixes. But the issues laid out are no less important just because they are thorny. Being able to face them and wrestle with them is an inescapable part of our lives in this world so I am really glad that there is a guide like this to help us understand what is going on.