Pamala Wiepking: Understanding Global Generosity

Philanthropisms

In this episode, we sat down to talk about how we understand and measure global generosity with Pamala Wiepking, Stead Family Chair in International Philanthropy and Associate Professor of Philanthropy at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI in Indianapolis (and also Professor of Societal Significance of Charitable Lotteries at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands). Including:

• Is “philanthropy” a helpful word in a global context?
• If not, why not: do people not understand it, or do they understand it, but with particular connotations?
• If we use terms such as ”generosity” instead, is there still a use for “philanthropy” to denote a specific subset of that activity? (And if so, what subset?)
• Is there any danger that if we broaden our definitions of generosity too far in our desire to make them more universal, they will become meaningless?
• Do we need a “grand theory” of global generosity?
• What are the obvious gaps, biases and limitations in our current knowledge about generosity at a global level?
• Is it useful to distinguish between philanthropic giving based on traditions of charity/altruism and other forms of giving grounded in traditions of mutualism/reciprocity? Or should we blur these distinctions within a wider conception of generosity?
• How important is it to “decolonize philanthropy research” as well as expanding our definitions of generosity?
• Is the role of philanthropy academics simply to observe and analyse giving and generosity, or to encourage it?
• Are current measures of global generosity useful? If not, why not?
• Apart from the challenges of finding appropriate definitions, are there other barriers to measuring generosity at a global level?
• Are we in the midst of a "generosity crisis", or is the apparent decline in giving in places like the US, the UK and the Netherlands merely a reflection of the fact that the way we measure generosity has failed to evolve in step with how people actually choose to give?
• Should the policy mechanisms we currently use to encourage and support philanthropic giving (e.g. tax reliefs) be adapted to encompass a broader range of activities that fit within an expanded definition of generosity?

Related links

• Pamala's personal website
• The call for contributors to the forthcoming volume on “Philanthropy: Key debates and contending perspectives”, edited by Pamala and Femida Handy
• Pamala's Voluntas article on "The Global Study of Philanthropic Behavior".
• Pamala's article for HistPhil, "An inclusive study of global philanthropy: how can we overcome definitional, cultural and geographical boundaries?"
• 2022's "Philanthropy in a Different Perspective: Voices from Ethiopia, Nigeria and Serbia", a volume edited by Pamala & Femida Handy.
• Rhod's WPM article asking "Is the way that we talk about philanthropy and civil society holding us back?"
• Rhod's WPM article "Why Are We So Bad at Measuring Giving and Why Does It Matter?"