Global philanthropy is a topic that invites examination across disciplines, including law, ethics, economics, sociology, political science and more — particularly as activity in the field grows in a globalized world. So I’d like to welcome a new volume of essays,
Giving Well: The Ethics of Philanthropy, edited by Patricia Illingworth, Thomas Pogge, and Leif Wenar (Oxford 2011).
Although the title is philanthropy generally, the essays in the book tend to emphasize global and cross border philanthropy, with all the attendant issues of cosmopolitanism, community, etc. The contributors include major figures such as Jon Elster, Peter Singer, and Alex de Waal. Like many readers, I resist edited books, but this one is finely edited and the contributions fit together well. It would make, for example, a useful book of readings in courses in international relations, law, economics, etc. I think general readers would find it a coherent volume.
I have a contribution in the volume, “Global Philanthropy and Global Governance: The Problematic Moral Legitimacy Relationship Between Global Civil Society and the United Nations.” I’m afraid it is the outlier essay in the book with respect to the admirable coherence otherwise noted above — the one that least connects to the topic of philanthropy in a specific sense of philanthropists and their ethics. It is an essay instead fundamentally about the role of NGOs in the global political space, and a challenge to some of the legitimating roles assumed even at this late date for NGOs. I’ve been making this critique for a long time, of course.
Cover flap description, below the fold.
