The Self‐Help Myth: Towards a Theory of Philanthropy as Consensus Broker

• Published date: 01 September 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12114
• Date: 01 September 2015
• Author: Erica Kohl‐Arenas

The Self-Help Myth: Towards a Theory of

Philanthropy as Consensus Broker

By ERICA KOHL-ARENAS*

ABSTRACT. This article presents a theoretical and methodological

approach to studying how philanthropic power is maintained through

the process of negotiating consensus between greatly unequal partners

such as wealthy funders and social movement leaders. It is proposed that

grant agreements between private foundations and social movement

organizations construct idealized spaces of public participation and

discursive theories of change that draw attention away from structural

inequality and antagonism, ultimately generating consent. Drawing upon

archival and ethnographic research on philanthropic investments in

addressing migrant poverty in California’s Central Valley, the article

shows how consensus between foundation staff and far mworker and

immigrant organizers promote funding frameworks that exclude

questions that challenge relationships of power and systems of

agricultural production that contribute to enduring poverty across the

region. The Gramscian conceptual frames of “discursive power,”

“hegemony as politics,” and “strategic articulation” are presented as a

theoretical framework from which to understand the power of private

philanthropy as consensus broker during historical moments of crisis.

***

With the demise of Marxism, the illusion that we can finally dispense

with the notion of antagonism has become widespread. This belief is

fraught with danger, since it leaves us unprepared in the face of un-

recognized manifestations of antagonism.

—Chantal Mouffe ([1993] 2006: 2)

*Erica Kohl-Arenas is an Assistant Professor at the Milano School of International

Affairs, Management,and Urban Policy at The New School. Kohl-Arenas’s book, The Self-

Help Myth: How Philanthropy Fails to Alleviate Poverty (University of California Press,

2015), analyzes the history of philanthropic investments in addressing farmworker and

immigrant poverty across California’s Central Valley.Prior to her graduate studies, Kohl-

Arenas worked asa popular educator and community developmentpractitioner.

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 74, No. 4 (September, 2015).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12114

V

C2015 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

Consensus politics can mean, from the general sense, policies under-

taken on the basis of an existing body of agreed opinions. It can also

mean, and in practice has more often meant, a policy of avoiding or

evading differences or divisions of opinion in an attempt to “secure the

centre” or “occupy the middle ground.”

—Raymond Williams (1959: 67)

Introduction

Soon after the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests against economic

inequality emerged in the fall of 2011, thousands of New York City col-

lege students participated in a citywide walkout. Their aim was to draw

attention to the increasing cost of tuition, rising student debt, and gen-

eral concerns about the state of higher education across the nation.

I had just begun my second year on the faculty at The New School and

eagerly watched and sometimes participated in OWS activities across

the city. The day of the walkout, a group of 18 to 20 graduate students

from various universities, apparently being chased by police, decided

to take up residence in a recently opened New School study center.

The excitement about becoming a part of a growing student wing of

the Occupy movement was palpable. Manywho believed in the partici-

patory, consensus-based approach promoted by OWS initially wel-

comed the study center occupation.

After class one evening a group of students invited me to join them

in visiting the then almost four-day occupation, which became known

by its street address, 90 5th Avenue. In front of 90 5th Avenue I met

Clarissa, Rebecca, Daniel, Anjali, and Tanzeem—mostly students of

color with activist and community organizing backgrounds. As we

entered the building, The New School evening door guards greeted

us, on duty despite the occupation. They pointed us towards a

stopped escalator leading up to the second floor. We walked up the

escalator to find three young white men, wearing well-worn clothes

familiar on the Occupy scene, sitting at a table blocking the entrance.

“We are security,” they announced. “No cameras, notebooks, or

administrators. We are being surveilled.” It was hard to get by without

asking the “security” to move the table. So we asked. Once let in we

decided to wander around before gathering for what was to be a

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