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E-book
Author Kohl-Arenas, Erica, 1968- author.

Title The self-help myth : how philanthropy fails to alleviate poverty / Erica Kohl-Arenas
Published Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2016]
©2016

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Description 1 online resource (xix, 252 pages .)
Series Poverty, Interrupted ; 1
Poverty, Interrupted ; 1.
Contents Private philanthropy and the self-help myth -- The hustling arm of the union : nonprofit institutionalization and the compromises of Cesar Chavez -- Foundation driven initiatives : civic participation for what? -- Selling mutual prosperity : worker-grower partnerships and the "win-win paradigm."
Summary "The Self-Help Myth reveals how philanthropy maintains systems of inequality by attracting attention to the behaviors and responsibilities of poor people while shifting the focus away from structural inequities and relationships of power that produce poverty. The book features foundation investments in addressing migrant poverty in California's Central Valley, simultaneously one of the wealthiest agricultural production regions in the world and home to the poorest people in the United States. The case studies show how compromises between foundation staff and community organizers produce programs that ask farmworkers to help themselves while excluding strategies that address the role of industrial agriculture in creating and maintaining regional poverty. Through archival and ethnographic case studies of foundation investments leading up to the historic Farm Worker Movement, to large scale foundation-driven initiatives to improve conditions in agricultural communities during the 1990s and 2000s, foundations set firm boundaries around definitions of self-help - excluding labor organizing, immigrant rights, and advocacy approaches that hold industry accountable for the enduring abuses of farmworkers and immigrants. Processes of professionalization and institutionalization required to maintain philanthropic relationships further frustrate nonprofit organizational staff increasingly accountable to foundations and not to the people they aim to represent and serve."--Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-237) and index
Notes In English
Print version record
Subject Farmers -- California -- Central Valley (Valley)
Charities -- California -- Central Valley (Valley) -- Case studies
Poverty -- California -- Central Valley (Valley)
Immigrants -- California -- Central Valley (Valley)
Charities
Economic history
Farmers
Immigrants
Poverty
SUBJECT California -- Economic conditions -- 20th century
California -- Economic conditions -- 21st century
Subject California
California -- Central Valley (Valley)
Genre/Form Case studies
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2015018715
ISBN 9780520959293
0520959299
Other Titles How philanthropy fails to alleviate poverty