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No Such Thing as a Free Gift

The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

Linsey McGoey

$39.99

Hardback

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English
Verso Books
18 November 2015
The charitable sector is one of the fastest-growing industries in the global economy. Nearly half of the more than 85,000 private foundations in the United States have come into being since the year 2000. Just under 5,000 more were established in 2011 alone. This deluge of philanthropy has helped create a world where billionaires wield more power over education policy, global agriculture, and global health than ever before.

Charities link the farmers in Africa to the boardrooms of corporate foundations and the corridors of the World Economic Forum at Davos. Far from being selfless, plutocratic philanthropy may be the ultimate profit-making tool.

In No Such Thing as a Free Gift, author and academic Linsey McGoey puts this new golden age of philanthropy under the microscope-paying particular attention to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As large charitable organizations replace governments as the providers of social welfare, their largesse becomes suspect. The businesses fronting the money often create the very economic instability and inequality the foundations are purported to solve. We are entering an age when the ideals of social justice are dependent on the strained rectitude and questionable generosity of the mega-rich.
By:  
Imprint:   Verso Books
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 235mm,  Width: 156mm,  Spine: 28mm
Weight:   503g
ISBN:   9781784780838
ISBN 10:   1784780839
Pages:   304
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Replaced By:   9781784786236
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

LINSEY MCGOEY is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex. She has been a member of the World Health Organization's expert steering group on the impact of a human rights-based approach to health. She has published reviews and op-eds for the Guardian, Open Democracy, Spectator, and Globe and Mail. Prior to Essex, Linsey held research fellowships at the University of Oxford.

Reviews for No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

A brave, intelligent and important book that raises vital questions about the full impact of a key source of the world's public health funding. Arthur Caplan, New York University A book that is by equal measure provocative and compelling that finally gives a voice to concerns that many have silently harbored ... charts the speed of the Foundation's emergence and influence with conceptual fluency and historically referenced gusto that in parts left me gobsmacked. Sophie Harman, Queen Mary, University of London Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Linsey McGoey's book is the best and most complete examination of the Gates Foundation and the workings of big philanthropy. A must-read for anyone concerned with where the world is heading. Michael Edwards, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos, New York


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