1,720,966 research outputs found
Understanding Networked Affect in Online Appeals for Giving in Thailand
No full textThis thesis explores networked affect in online charity appeals, focusing on the nature and implications of digital representations of suffering. It contributes to theories of affect and emotion, charity and philanthropy, and cultural and media studies. Specifically, it introduces a transdisciplinary approach to explore the affective mediation of proximal suffering from a transnational perspective, with an empirical focus on South East Asian Buddhist culture. Using as a case study the Thai celebrity philanthropist Bhin Bunluerit's Facebook fan page and its regular emotional appeals for fundraising, the thesis is empirically grounded in the context of Thailand and makes use of digital ethnography to gather information and affective material to understand how digital media users engage with and respond to these appeals and the wider cultural and socio-political implications of this engagement. I develop an analytical framework that identifies key features of networked affect - including multiplicity, accessibility, virtual collectivity, and indexicality - to bring into critical conversation three key academic areas: celebrity philanthropy, the mediation of suffering, and the logics of gift-giving. The thesis argues that the modes of affect operating within Thai online charity appeals and public responses to them reinforce social hierarchies and asymmetrical power relations between philanthropic individuals and beneficiaries, which are embodied within Thai Buddhist belief systems and reproduced by insufficient welfare governance and support structures.
The empirical analysis suggests that the Buddhist ideology of power legitimises and sacralises Bunluerit's celebrity philanthropist and hero status while supporting the operation of the patron-client-based affective bond of gratitude (khun) and punitive correction (dej) that allows him to exercise ideological influence over beneficiaries and fans. Bunluerit regularly mobilises graphic representations of vulnerability and suffering to induce songsarn, a Thai form of compassion often associated with Buddhist giving (dāna), to elicit donations through the commodification of pain. Beneficiaries consequently become 'abject subjects' within ongoing processes of inclusion through exclusion that shore up the sovereignty of the Thai state. That is, beneficiaries who have been epistemically excluded from the state through being culturally stigmatised as ngoa, joan, jeb (stupid, poor, sickly), are, through Bunluerit's charity, brought back into the affective space of the nation in ways that nonetheless underscore the capacity of celebrity philanthropy to adjudicate the boundary of what it is to be Thai. The digitally mediated dāna which Bunluerit's fan page facilitates is, I argue, a 'transaction of compassion' underpinned by patron-client reciprocity. These relations of reciprocity are enacted by khun, wherein beneficiaries (clients) offer visual imagery of their extreme vulnerability, which symbolises their submission to donors' (patrons') power in order to receive the gift of their donation. Donors, in turn, benefit from their digital dāna through accumulating merit - a supernatural force believed to produce positive consequences in this and the next life - while also experiencing the self-serving joy of giving, which can pass for a real contribution to beneficiaries' well-being in ways that elide the more complex factors that reproduce social suffering and inequality in Thailand.
By examining the affective dynamics of Thai online giving and celebrity philanthropy, the thesis enriches and extends Euro-North American-centric theories of affect, charity, gift-giving, and the representation of suffering. It underscores how digitally mediated giving in South East Asia comprises complex entanglements of the supernatural, patron-client culture, normalised depictions of embodied vulnerability, class-stratified accounts of Buddhist merit-making, and affective dynamics that reinforce submission to cultural and religious authority
Hidden History: Philanthropy at the University of Kent
Full text linkThe University of Kent stands proudly on land that was originally a gift to Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, from King Æthelberht of Kent. The philanthropic heritage at its heart and in its very foundations continued, as the university was built with the aid of gifts from local people, businesses and charities. It has been a prominent institution within the county since it first opened its doors in 1965; yet the philanthropy that continues to spur the University’s development has never received due recognition.
Hidden History: Philanthropy at the University of Kent contributes to the historic legacy of the University, highlighting its many achievements and the gifts of time, money and effort that enabled them. It also contributes to debates about the changing role of philanthropy in higher education, as we progress towards an increasingly international and business-like higher education marketplace.
This book is a Beacon project, produced in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the University of Kent, 1965- 2015
Touring the Online Learning Environment: An exploration using Screencast-O-Matic
Full text linkThis report is an enquiry into, and reflection upon, the use of Screencast-o-Matic software in distance learning, specifically for creating an introductory “walkthrough” of the online learning environment Moodle. Screencast-o-matic is an online video capture tool designed for use in tutorials, online presentations and demonstrations to deliver online modules. This report will set out and explain with reference to the associated project video the following elements of this case study project: the background and context of the online learning environment and software used, alongside theory that supports the selection of these; The identification of the problem, which is that new students can struggle with navigating the software and online environment; and the description of a solution in the form of an introductory tour video (PV) which can be used as 1.) A resource for new students on a particular Masters-level course, the MA in Philanthropic Studies, and 2.) A marketing tool for potential applicants. This report ends with a reflection upon the potential utility of this resource and some constraints experienced in the project
Learning to \u27Write Right\u27: Examining the impact of targeted interventions upon students experiencing intersectional disadvantage
Full text linkThis case study analyses two initiatives at the University of Kent that aimed to tackle student degree awarding gaps (DAGs), specifically those between black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students and white students and those who have studied for Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) qualifications and A-level students. The initiatives involved inclusive academic skills workshops alongside supervision sessions that sought to direct, develop and demystify academic study for disadvantaged students. Assessment of quantitative data and the findings from a cohort focus group indicate that students experiencing the most intersectional disadvantage (viz. students with both BAME and BTEC characteristics) in a University of Kent social sciences department benefited from these initiatives and their grades improved, narrowing the awarding gap significantly in that academic year
Pricing up & Haggling Down: Value Negotiations in the UK Charity Shop
Full text linkThis article uses a micro-ethnographic approach to investigate the shop-floor presence of ‘professionalisation’ in the UK charity shop sector. Previous literature on charity retail has described how business-like, professionalising practices have invaded their operations (Gregson and Crewe 2003, p. 75). However, these arguments focus upon top-down processes, without observing how these are played out by actors within the physical space of the charity shop itself. A key component of second-hand culture is the variable nature of value within it – and value is all the more unpredictable in a time of global flux. Using the examples of price negotiation and haggling behaviours on the charity shop floor, this study concludes that professionalisation of charity retail is tempered by customer/worker interaction and social imperatives. Thus, charity shops house a hybrid of professionalised and non-professionalised actions and behaviours that demonstrate the value systems and humanity of shop actors. These ‘participant-driven experiences’ of value negotiation enable those on the shop floor to challenge the ‘iron cage’-like characteristics (Weber, 1977) that have infiltrated the 21st century second-hand world: bureaucracy, rationality and impersonality
Thanaleisure and the super-rich: the case of the Titan submersible disaster
Full text linkThis commentary reflects on the Titan submersible disaster as a case study of the thanatic leisure habits of the super-rich. Previous analyses of elite consumption have explored their tendency to seek out exclusivity and luxury, and to monopolise space (Thurlow and Jaworski 2012; Featherstone 2014; Atkinson 2021). Drawing on literature from the fields of thanatourism and dark leisure, the commentary theorises how deep sea submersible tourism offers adjacency to death and suffering as a means to pursue mythical masculine desires, confront artificial frontiers and hardships, and assert status. It concludes with a discussion of how the wastefulness, pollution and redemption struggles that characterise what is here defined as thanaleisure add to our understanding of thanacapitalism (Korstanje 2016). That is, as an economic system that not only commodifies death and suffering, but justifies its own existence through promoting the hypermobility of the few at the expense of the majority
Practicing What You Preach: UK Philanthropy Practitioners’ Experiences of Theoretical Academic Study
Full text linkAnalysis of UK educational provision in philanthropic studies (Carrington, 2009; Keidan et al., 2014; Palmer & Bogdanova, 2008) has demonstrated a need for further provision of philanthropy education for the UK sector. Taking its lead from debates around the role of academic theory in this growing field of study, this project aims to determine how theoretical (rather than practical) master’s-level study of philanthropy is understood and perceived by those working in the philanthropy, charity and fundraising sectors. Using a qualitative case study, this paper will present and discuss three key themes emergent from the data. These are: the ethical soup philanthropy practitioners experience as a result of reflection on their practice, the trickle effect of how literature and theory is shared around their networks, and the interdisciplinarity problem whereby the teaching of philanthropic theory from multiple disciplines can make application of the theory to practice difficult. The paper will conclude with some suggestions of what theory in the academy can contribute to practitioner skills in the philanthropy sector, including both strengths and some limitations
Interpretive ethnography: a UK charity shop case study
Full text linkEthnographic research is widely used across social research disciplines examining the voluntary sector, yet its value can be often overlooked in the age of big data and impact measurement. This chapter will provide a brief overview of this methodology within voluntary action research, and highlight the key uses of ethnographies as a qualitative research tool. Drawing on an interpretivist approach, it will outline the utility of ethnography in a case study analysis of professionalisation within a charity retail setting. Using participant observation in two charity shops and interviews with shop workers and volunteers, the case study will illustrate the importance of participation and immersion within the research setting in terms of observing, recording and analysing ‘natural’ interactions and behaviours. It also explores the role of researcher reflexivity, and how micro-level “shop floor” examination of voluntary action can serve as a critical measure against data driven assumptions about contemporary charity work
Doing good, doing wrong, doing time and doing harm: criminalising the marginal in charity shops
Full text linkThis paper builds upon theories of carceral spatiality and criminalisation to explore the extension of the carceral state into everyday spaces. In particular, here we consider the UK charity shop, which not only covertly relies on carceral labour from people ‘doing time’, but also abets the carceral state by criminalising everyday lives on the social and economic margins, thereby doing harm. Moreover, this criminalisation means charity shops become part of a broader system of governing in which social issues are treated as criminal problems with carceral solutions. We draw on ethnographic fieldwork in charity shops and news discourse over more than a decade to consider the pivotal yet hidden role of charity shops as instruments of criminalisation. We explore how charity shops as liminal spaces play a significant role in criminalisation through: sensationalising stories of ‘good’ charities and ‘bad’ criminals; policing theft, scams, and salvage; judging moments of what, and who, is criminal; and guarding against breaches of the terms of penal work orders. We argue that unpicking how charity shops criminalise the marginal matters, particularly in a context of both rising social inequality and the popularity of second-hand spaces, and brings into focus overlooked aspects of carceral power
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