Charity

The Venerable Cheng-yen is an unassuming Taiwanese Buddhist nun who leads a worldwide social welfare movement with five million devotees in over thirty countries—with its largest branch in the United States. Tzu-Chi (Compassion Relief) began as a tiny, grassroots women’s charitable group; today in Taiwan it runs three state-of-the-art hospitals, a television channel, and a university. Cheng-yen, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is a leader in Buddhist peace activism and has garnered recognition by Business Week as an entrepreneurial star.

Based on extensive fieldwork in Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, and the United States, this book explores the transformation of Tzu-Chi. C. Julia Huang offers a vivid ethnography that examines the movement’s organization, its relationship with NGOs and humanitarian organizations, and the nature of its Buddhist transnationalism, which is global in scope and local in practice. Tzu-Chi’s identity is intimately tied to its leader, and Huang illuminates Cheng-yen’s successful blending of charisma and compassion and the personal relationship between leader and devotee that defines the movement.

This important book sheds new light on religion and cultural identity and contributes to our understanding of the nature of charisma and the role of faith-based organizations.

This volume examines the role of charity in empire formations from a diachronic and transregional perspective. It focuses upon the beliefs, discourses, and practices of charity that developed within Christianity and the roles they played in the West’s imperial projects, from the first global empires that emerged from the Iberian Peninsula in the sixteenth century to projects of philanthro-imperialism in modern China. This volume exposes the complex religious, economic, political, and cultural roles that charity has played in imperial projects and increases our consciousness of the ways it continues to shape global politics. It shines light on the way in which governing bodies, institutions, and individuals have instrumentalised charity to achieve a range of strategic functions whilst shaping the narrative and image of their power. Viewing empire through the lens of charity also provides the opportunity to bring not only the rich but also the poor into focus and to explore the ways they have been active subjects negotiating for a range of material and immaterial resources in imperial contexts.

Food charity in the United States has grown into a critical appendage of agro-food supply chains. In 2016, 4.5 billion pounds of food waste was diverted through a network of 200 regional food banks, a fivefold increase in just 20 years. Recent global trade disruptions and the COVID-19 pandemic have further reinforced this trend. Economic geographers studying charitable food networks argue that its infrastructure and moral substructure serve to revalue food waste and surplus labor in the capitalist food system. The political-legal framework undergirding this revaluation process however is still poorly understood. Drawing on a 6-year institutional ethnography of the food banking economy in West Virginia, this paper takes a supply-side approach to examine the material and moral values driving the expansion of food waste recovery as hunger relief. Empirically, it focuses on the laws, contracts and fiscal incentives regulating charitable food procurement at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Feeding America. The assemblage of government agencies, private businesses and non-profit organizations enrolled into this gift economy at different scales I argue, serves to enclose food waste into a public-private governance structure that regulates food surpluses and ensures these will not disrupt the scarcity logics driving profitability along primary food circuits.

... Public opinion of violence is dependent on its contextual advertising as a mode of resistance or inherently negative phenomena. Advertisers can preach anti-violence when broaching issues of gender-based or cultural violence, promote violence as a means of ideological preservation, refuse to create any progressive discourse surrounding violence, or mobilize spending power as support against violence. Regardless, it is of the utmost importance that we are able to identify the moralistic basis of marketing violence, discern the nuances within this understanding, and implicate ourselves in both processes: that of advertising, and that of violence.

Homeless people, social exclusion and John Milbank on Charity.

In this paper I want to address two issues.  The first is that homeless people are ‘socially excluded’; marginal to mainstream society and in need of transformation or re-integration. The second is the common presumption that this is an incorporation that charities, to various degrees, can engender. For ‘Third-Way’ and ‘Big Society’ one can now read ‘Blue Labour’ and ‘Red Tory’, all of which endorse the charitable sphere as an emancipatory zone.

Using the work of the theologian John Milbank I will contend that both the obviousness of charitable solutions and the presumed location of homeless people (excluded) stem from a common root - a widespread social imaginary, or social topography - that envisions our society as fundamentally riven by difference. In short: political atomism. This modern account of public space, which Milbank describes as ‘univocal’ or ‘secular’ (and I will briefly outline), sources and sustains the organisation of our bodies (the hard working and home buying subject vs feckless and idle degenerate) and gives coherence to our altruistic proclivities and activities.

However as the paper progresses I will also suggest that this topography has its aporias. Firstly, construing homeless people as ‘excluded’ fails to account for the way homeless people are utilised as a way of defining those in the center. In an analogous fashion altrusim, I will contend, needs poverty as the occasion of its demonstration. In both cases the homeless are not external but overdetermined; not too far, but too close.

Malynovska N., Say D. CHARITY AS A HISTORICAL AND SPIRITUAL-MORAL BASIS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL WORK

Charity is a special type of social interaction which differs from the other types due to its optional institutional ties. On
the one hand, charity is determined by an objective social factor, namely – the existence of those who need assistance – the needy
and the objectively existing need for help from one party, and on the other hand – the subjective desire of the other party to
provide such assistance. The phenomenon of charity is a stable concept. Its essence remains unchangeable under various social
conditions and time periods, however, its forms of manifestation change and adapt to the specific socio-cultural conditions.
This is confirmed by the fact that charity has transformed from a purely subjective private phenomenon and a traditional
approach within Christianity, to the functional direction of public policy and later public activity in the functioning of public organizations. This transformation was also reflected in the forms of manifestation of the moral and value component,
which was part of interpersonal relations and charity. It has partly lost its significance and partly shifted to the professional
requirements for the profession of a social worker and other persons who provide assistance or services to others.
Charitable activities very often help to find effective ways to solve problems in the social sphere, which the state cannot,
due to certain circumstances, promptly solve, covering both specific individuals and entire levels of society. A study of the local
history of charitable and social work provides a real-life context and concrete examples for shaping the professional identity
of future social workers. The local aspect of social work is revealed, first of all, through the work of charitable organizations
and individuals who created or funded these institutions, or took an active part in their activities. It is noted that charitable
activities contribute to the psychological changes in the consciousness of students. In particular, such changes in the minds
of students are characterized by changes in the level of their social responsibility, status, role positions and values.
Understanding charity as a historical and spiritual-moral basis of social work can help increase its effectiveness,
expedite recovery from difficult life circumstances, and at broader levels – to prevent and preclude the emergence of dif- ficult life circumstances as a mass phenomenon.

U radu se nastoji utvrditi točan broj društava koja su se bavila dobrotvornim radom u Zagrebu za vrijeme Prvoga svjetskoga rata, te koliko se njihova ratna djelatnost razlikovala od one mirnodopske. S obzirom da je rad nastao na temelju izvorne arhivske i novinske građe, u njemu se iznosi niz novih spoznaja o druš-tvenome životu ratnoga Zagreba. Ključne riječi: Prvi svjetski rat, Zagreb, društva, dobrotvorni rad

Although the quest for God’s Wisdom is something very personal for Augustine, the paper sets the ecclesiological context of his doctrine. Augustine’s way to the wisdom is not a way accessible to intellectuals only: it is open to anybody who does not remain closed to other man and is willing to love with charity, laid to his heart by God to whose image and likeness he was created. The paper lays the ecclesiological background of Augustine’s search for wisdom and his spirituality. The Bishop of Hippo Regius teaches that it is only through the mediation of the Church, where man can find God’s Wisdom: and the way is Christ himself that allows his believers, parts of his Body, to accept God’s Wisdom as a gift and grow in it through charity. This anti-individualistic way of charity remains a credible way for today where “only love remains credible”.

L'IRIS a effectué un sondage auprès de plus de 700 groupes du mouvement communautaire autonomes cet automne pour en savoir plus sur leur situation pendant la première vague de COVID-19.
Pendant la première vague, les groupes ont surtout augmenté le travail d’accueil et de référence et de dépannage alimentaire, donc la réponse aux besoins de base pressant, alors que les activités fortement ralentis ou arrêtés, ont été la mobilisation, l’action collective et la représentation politique.
Un peu plus de la moitié des activités ont été faites à distance en moyenne. Cela a posé des enjeux pour plusieurs en raison du manque d’espace physique ou mental, mais aussi d’accès à la technologie et à des connexions internets rapides et stables.
Bien que 20% des groupes sont encore dans une situation précaire en raison du sous-financement chronique, les groupes communautaires du Québec s’en sortent généralement mieux qu’ailleurs au Canada grâce à leur modèle de financement basé sur le financement à la mission.
Cette résilience a toutefois un coût humain : pour les deux tiers des groupes interrogés, la charge de travail était immense et difficile à prévoir ce qui a eu des conséquences sur l’équilibre vie personnelle-travail et sur le sentiment d’accomplissement des travailleuses.
Près d’un groupe sur cinq est dans une situation précaire en raison du sous-financement et de la pandémie, et le quart de ceux-ci sont dans une situation qui met en danger leur existence.

Purpose This paper aims to explore how volunteers choose one nonprofit organisation (NPO) rather than another. It identifies the drivers of choice, and the relationship between them, to enable NPOs to strengthen their volunteer recruitment. Design/methodology/approach A total of 51 service-delivery volunteers were interviewed, drawn from 5 leading NPOs. A laddering technique was used to understand the context in which the choice of organisation was made and the underlying personal needs and goals. The data was analysed using means-end chain (MEC) methodology to uncover the relationships between, and hierarchy of, the decision drivers. Findings Brand, cause, and role were found to be important in meeting personal needs and goals through volunteering. The paper makes three contributions. Firstly, it presents a clearer understanding of NPO choice through adopting an integrated theoretical perspective. Secondly, it identifies the decision-making process and key relationships between the...

The article discusses the life and work of Mitropane Lagidze, a
well-known Georgian non-alcoholic beverage specialist, prominent
industrialist and philanthropist, creator of the famous brand of Lagidze
Waters during the Soviet period.

Prior to the Bolshevik occupation of Georgia and the establishment
of the Soviet regime in the country, Mitropane Lagidze
owned two lemonade factories (in Tbilisi and Kutaisi), several shops
and a pavilion, as well as a well-maintained power plant (in Kutaisi).
He achieved great success in the production of fruit waters in the
1900s and also won the honorary title of a supplier of lemonade to the
Russian Imperial Court. M. Lagidze also received high awards at
international exhibitions for the best product.

Mitropane Lagidze's property was nationalized in the spring of
1921, but as soon as a new economic policy (NEP) was introduced, he
was allowed to continue rent the production. After the completion of
NEP, the factories of the businessman were finally taken over by the
state, and Mitropane himself and his brother Mikhako were appointed
as specialists at the Tbilisi Lemonade Factory.

During the years of the NEP, Mitropane Lagidze was also
deprived of real estate in Kutaisi - two plots of land, and the state
Political Directorate also held him criminally liable. The two sons of
the businessman, who went to study in Germany remained in emigration.
In 1937, Mitropane's brother Grigol Lagidze was arrested and
shot, and another brother, Mikhako, was fired from the job. Mitropane's
son Vakhtang Lagidze was released from prison only after two
years of imprisonment.

After World War II, the attitude of the Soviet authorities towards
M. Lagidze changed for the better. In 1952, he was appointed a
chief consultant for “Glavfructovod” in Moscow and was tasked with
the monitoring the quality of soft drinks throughout the Soviet Union.

From 1921, Mitropane Lagidze was forced to stop the most
important work of his life - charity, because the private charity was
banned throughout the Soviet period.

Despite significant government efforts to
bolster individual philanthropy, giving by
individuals (as a percentage of household
income) has remained remarkably static and
participation in many western countries is
declining. This article explores the role that
governments might play in facilitating
growth, from a social marketing perspective.
Drawing on research from multiple domains
this article proposes an easily accessible and
actionable framework (1) to inform public
policy and (2) to guide further impactful
academic research, with the objective of
increasing both participation in, and the
monetary value of, individual giving.

Background National Ugly Mugs (NUM) is a UK-wide violence prevention and victim support charity that provides a mechanism for sex workers to share safety information and obtain support for harms that they may experience during the course of their work. Over the past several years, NUM has witnessed a decline in sex workers willing to access police as part of their recovery journeys after experiencing victimisation. In 2012, 28% of those reporting to NUM chose to engage with the legal system; in 2020, this was down to 7.7% amongst off-street independent workers. Statistics for 2021 indicate a continuation of this downward trend. Furthermore, anonymous consent to share information with police also declined from 95% in 2012 to 69% in 2020. Methods NUM conducted a survey of 88 sex working members in 2020. This information combined with our data on victimisation provides insights of the factors that deter sex workers from involving police as part of their justice-seeking efforts. Results Survey results reveal that sex workers feel alienated and untrusting of police and courts. Conclusions The implications of sex workers not sharing information about dangerous individuals with police and choosing not to participate in court processes signal significant flaws in our legal system regarding safe and inequitable access and pose dangers for all of us.

“'Even a Horse, Even a Slave'?: The Provision of Personal Needs versus the Application of Uniform Standards in Rabbinic Almsgiving.” Pages 369-399 in Pursuing Justice: Society and Economy in Jewish Sources. Edited by Hanoch Dagan and Benjamin Porat. Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute, 2016. [Hebrew]

This article discusses the genre of 'benevolence literature' (liefdadigheidsliteratuur), which was highly popular in the Netherlands during the first part of the nineteenth century. In these texts, the early nineteenth century dogma of national 'brotherhood' was confirmed by way of the 'reading agreement' between the bourgeois writer and his readers. However, a flood in 1861 caused some critical responses to benevolence literature and this reading agreement, some of which are investigated here.

Anthropological analyses of charity are often based on Maussian theories of gift exchange and inequalities between donor and recipient, sometimes compounded by spectacular displays of giving or by aid, both humanitarian and faith-based, from the global north to the south. Other accounts complicate this understanding, variously showing the charitable gift as the recipient's right or considering charitable work as a technology of self care. The context and nature of the donation also affect both donor and recipient; money and blood have very different connotations and effects as charitable gifts. Ethnographies of charitable action suggest it is a total social fact, entangling economic, politics, religion and notions of relatedness. 108 words

In this essay, I offer a twofold defense of homelessness. First, I argue that specifiable socio-economic forms of organization that are common among the homeless and that operate at least partially independently of state and philanthropic institutions embody valuable and worthwhile ways to live and to make a living. Second, the norms underlying the current institutional response to homelessness facilitate psychological distress and social fragmentation not just among the homeless but among the housed as well. As a result, the ways in which the homeless seek to live and to make a living may be conducive to the well-being of the housed as well.

A PAPER ON CHRISTIAN GENEROSITY:
PHILOSOPHY OF BIBLICAL STEWARDSHIP

Giving is a highly neglected topic that is rarely discussed in churches, seminaries, and other Christian institutions, and thus most people do not have correct perspective on the philosophy of giving, creating a need for more “…trained staff… within the area of biblical stewardship.” For most people, fundraising is incorrectly considered unpleasant and is thought of as something that is exercised in the event of poor planning or lack of trust in God’s providence. There are contextual differences in cultures, and one needs to understand those, while communicating the Biblical truths concerning giving to people; for “…in different cultures the use of communication techniques varies.” This does not call for change in culture, but the contextualization of biblical teachings to raise up global stewards. Generosity which is ἀγαθωσύνη in Greek, is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and according to Strong's Concordance, it is “…the goodness that comes from God.” This paper aims at formulating a philosophy of biblical stewardship grounded in biblical principles by walking through the biblical themes found in the OT, Gospels, and early church in the rest of the New Testament, and in church history. The paper shall proceed in the direction of how this philosophy of Biblical stewardship can be applied in personal and corporate ministry in church and social settings.

Članek obravnava dobrodelno pomoč žrtvam potresa v Ljubljani leta 1895. Potres, ki je povzročil veliko materialno škodo v glavnem mestu dežele Kranjske in bližnji okolici, je sprožil velik odziv po celotni Avstro-Ogrski. Pomoč je poslal širok spekter darovalcev, ki je zajemal tako državne, cesarske in cerkvene institucije kot tudi društva ter številne posameznike, ki so poskušali olajšati razmere na prizadetem območju. V članku je podrobneje predstavljeno, kako so se klicu na pomoč odzvale oblasti in prebivalstvo Goriške in Gradiške dežele, dodana je tudi analiza denarnih darov, ki jih je zbralo lokalno prebivalstvo.
Th is article discusses charitable aid to victims of the Ljubljana earthquake of 1895. Th e earthquake, which had caused great property damage in the capital of Carniola and in its vicinity, triggered a massive response throughout Austria-Hungary. Aid was received from a broad range of donors, including governmental, imperial and ecclesiastical institutions, as well as societies and many individuals who wanted to mitigate the conditions in the aff ected area. Th e article presents in detail the reaction of the authorities and the population of the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca to the request for the aid, and analyses the cash donations collected by the local population.

A presente obra pretende aprofundar, a partir de São Tomás de Aquino (1224/25-1274), o que se entende por amor de Deus. A obra de São Tomás de Aquino escolhida é o Comentário ao Evangelho de São João, uma das obras da maturidade do Doutor de Aquino e que oferece, no estilo próprio de comentário bíblico medieval, muitos elementos doutrinais. Depois de se compreender o que são os comentários bíblicos medievais e o seu enquadramento na produção teológica da Idade Média (I capítulo), oferece-se ao leitor o contacto com o próprio texto de São Tomás, a partir de algumas temáticas que ajudam a aprofundar o que se entende pela caridade divina (II capítulo). Finalmente, ensaia-se uma síntese a partir de alguns temas mais relevantes, assim como se coloca a doutrina de São Tomás em diálogo com a reflexão contemporânea (III capítulo).

1. Ciencias sociales en la jungla de asfalto Una visión en panorámica de en qué consiste la práctica en España de lo que se presenta bajo diferentes títulos -«antropología de las sociedades contemporáneas», «antropología de las sociedades complejas», «antropología urbana», «antropología aplicada»...-debería plantear un cierto enigma. ¿Cómo es que una disciplina que se ha caracterizado por haber hecho su asunto central de atención la vida ordinaria de personas ordinarias en contextos para nosotros exóticos o considerados tradicionales, ha acabado entendiendo que su tarea en contextos urbano-industriales consiste en estudiar aspectos del orden social asociados a la marginalidad y a la pobreza? ¿Porqué se ha aportado en España tan poco acerca de lo cotidiano, aquéllo que había constituido el núcleo principal de la indagación etnológica en las culturas «otras» y, en cambio, se ha atendido de manera exclusiva a grupos humanos previamente problematizados por los discursos político-policiales, por los medios de comunicación o por las mayorías sociales? Ahí están, para demostrarlo, la abundancia de trabajos sobre inmigrantes, homosexuales, ancianos, sectarios, enfermos mentales, presidiarios, drogadictos, «minorías étnicas», «tribus urbanas»..., una hegemonía casi absoluta de estudios que convierten objetivamente a la antropología en una ciencia de la «inadaptación», la «exclusión» y la «desviación» sociales. Ha habido excepciones. En unos casos se han diluido entre los eflubios de la «antropología simbólica»; en otros, han acabado refugiándose literalmente en departamentos de geografía humana. Con esas salvedades, nada o muy poco sobre usos de los espacios públicos, sobre la actividad en los centros comerciales o en los mercados, sobre colectivos profesionales no conflictivizados, sobre las relaciones de vecindad en barrios no estigmatizados... Paradójicamente, las producciones relativas a la vida cotidiana han ido a parar a otras subdisciplinas, como la antropología de género o la antropología del consumo. En cuanto han abandonado sus estudios sobre los mundos rurales, en cuanto han considerado agotado el ámbito de las «identidades», en cuanto se han cansado de estudiar procesiones y romerias, fiestas y carnavales, los antropólogos españoles se han lanzado en masa a apoyar las políticas educativas especiales, los programas de asistencia social, la planificación

La misión del Centro de Estudios de Emprendimientos Solidarios es contribuir al desarrollo de las organizaciones de acción solidaria y de las intervenciones que llevan a cabo, mediante los aportes de la reflexión, investigación y educación continua pluridisciplinaria. El centro es parte de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Yael Wilfand, “‘No one can avoid this measure’: Explaining Poverty among Individuals according to the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds.” Pages 215-240 in Between Babylonia and the Land of Israel: Studies in Honor of Isaiah M. Gafni. Edited by Geoffrey Herman, Meir Ben Shahar and Aharon Oppenheimer. Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2016. [in Hebrew]

In Pakistan, one of the most significant celebrations on the Muslim calendar, Eid al-Azha (Feast of the Sacrifice), is marked by two major rituals. At the center of the festival is the animal slaughter remembering the prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. The second, dating to Pakistan’s earliest days as a nation, is the collection of animal hides from the sacrifice. NGOs, political parties, and madrasas annually compete to collect and auction the sacrificial skins. This paper examines how Alkhidmat Foundation–the social welfare branch of the Islamist party Jama’at-e-Islami–invests in a risky fundraising ritual that animates the value of sacrifice in their humanitarian work. While historically the auction of animal hides has been lucrative, over the last decade, the income has come under threat due to the rise of synthetic leathers on the global market, inflation, and climate change, which have left Pakistan’s leather commodity in peril and, with it, the fate of a major source of income for the country’s social services. Pakistan’s skins collection offers insight into a fundraising practice that instantiates sacrifice writ large: of time, safety, and resources, and sometimes, of intimate relations. Sacrifice is the motivating value that underpins dedication to the annual hide collection and articulates Alkhidmat’s humanitarianism through the human capability of sacrifice.

Jak pokazuje przykład akcji charytatywnych organizowanych przez Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM, mogą one stawnowić formę kształcenia studentów z zakresu soft skills. Jak pokazują badania są one najbardziej pożądanymi kompetencjami przez pracodawców. W jaki sposób to zrobić? Autor odpowiada na to pytanie poprzez analizę przypadku akcji "UAM Charytatywnie"