Call for papers 'Philanthropy and urban governance'
Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference,
London UK, 27-30 August 2024
Call for papers ' Philanthropy and urban governance'
Session Title: Philanthropy and urban governance: intersections and divergences in the geographies of giving
Organizers: Pablo Fuentenebro (University of Helsinki) and Michele Acuto (University of Melbourne)
Deadline for submissions: Friday, February 16th, 2024.
Session Abstract:
In recent years there has been a renewed interest by geographers and urban scholars on the intersections between philanthropy and urban governance, motivated both by the long history of philanthropic involvement in cities as well as the unprecedented concentration of wealth by High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) and corporations alike, and which has paved the way to a new ‘Golden Age’ of philanthropy (Hay and Muller 2014). As we have argued elsewhere (Fuentenebro and Acuto 2022), institutions and private actors have been taking an increasingly active role not only allocating gifts and grants to cities but also explicitly intervening on questions about urban governance (Montero 2020; Parnell 2016). From the (now extinct) Rockefeller Foundation ‘100 Resilient Cities’ Program (100RC) to the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Rapid Response Initiative during the Covid-19 pandemic, these institutions have become key players shaping urban agendas and local decision-making (Nielsen & Papin 2021; Puttick 2023).
In all these cases, one of the elements that has come under much scrutiny (both within an urban and on a global scale) is the disproportionate amount of political power that both new and traditional philanthropic actors (whether institutions or individuals) have come to amass (Roelofs 2015), making us question whose interests these institutions are actually serving (Reich 2018). These issues have been further accentuated by the irruption of different philanthropic instruments such as Donor-advised funds (DAFs) and Limited Liability Companies (LLCs), characterized by their little transparency and lax reporting criteria placed at the service of the super-rich (Olen 2017; Piper 2019).
This session seeks to address and discuss the different intersections and divergences between the processes of giving to cities and the implications for urban governance and decision-making. We are particularly interested in understanding how institutions and individuals influence urban governance through different philanthropic endeavors, as well as the kind of ‘urban agendas’ that they seek to promote. We would like to discuss as well how all of the above relates, for example, to the question of ‘urban entrepreneurialism’ in urban studies (Phelps and Miao 2020).
Accepted papers will also be given consideration for a special issue / edited volume.
Please submit your abstract of no more than 250 words together with complete contact information to pablo.fuentenebro@helsinki.fi by Friday, February 16th, 2024.