Capitalist Humanitarianism

Lucia Hulsether's book "Capitalist Humanitarianism" explores how neoliberal self-critique creates new institutional hegemonies that reproduce racial and neocolonial dispossession, fueled by a profit motive and a hope that racial capitalism can redeem its losses.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 22 February 2023
Publisher: Duke University Press

Over the past five decades, the fight against the neoliberal order has gained significant momentum, resulting in economic elites adapting to and incorporating Left critiques into their capitalist expansion strategies. This transformation has reached a point where venture funds openly acknowledge their ties to slavery and make commitments to invest in racial equity. Banks promote microloans as a means of empowering indigenous communities to achieve self-determination. Fair-trade brands frame consumer choices as acts of feminist solidarity with women artisans in the global South. In her book, Capitalist Humanitarianism, Lucia Hulsether delves into these projects and the contexts in which they emerged. Hulsether employs a blend of historical and ethnographic approaches, traversing intimate and global scales, to trace how neoliberal self-critique fosters the creation of new institutional hegemonies that, in turn, perpetuate racial and neocolonial dispossession. Through a comprehensive examination of archival materials from Christian fair traders to luxury social entrepreneurship conferences, financial offices in the United States, and communities in Guatemala affected by the loan products offered by these institutions, Hulsether argues that capitalist humanitarian initiatives are driven by a combination of profit motives and a hopeful belief that racial capitalism can address the losses incurred by its practices.

Weight: 386g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478019206