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Content archived on 2024-05-24

Globalisation and civic activism : financial markets, soros philanthropy and social science training in eastern europe

Objective

The project focuses on the role of philanthropy as a force of globalization. Previously based on industrial capital, philanthropy is now increasingly dependent on global financial markets. At the same time, it is often used for activist purposes, to ensure, by definition, certain forms of redistribution and to develop new forms of regulation. On the basis of a case-study of G. Soros's philanthropic activities, the project seeks to account for this paradox: how does financial capital generate regulatory functions ? The question necessarily entails a sociological level and an analytical level. At the sociological level, the project investigates what predisposes a speculator to support the Tobin Tax proposal, to advocate strong international economic institutions, and to develop philanthropic activities, notably in higher education. At the analytical level, the project tentatively seeks to characterize philanthropy as a flexible instrument of redistribution that financial capital has developed in order to sustain its own specific needs without the mediation of the Welfare State. This points at a possible shift from a collective-deliberative model to a private-ethical model of social solidarity as an alternative to the Welfare State. In order to specify these new forms of private redistribution, the project analyses the philanthropic funding of the social sciences and higher education in Eastern Europe and its role as a productive investment in cognitive and human resources.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Topic(s)

Data not available

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

RGI - Research grants (individual fellowships)

Coordinator

LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EU contribution
No data
Address
Houghton Street
WC2A 2AE LONDON
United Kingdom
Total cost
No data