ABSTRACT
Caring for the poor integrates elements of both community-generation and domination-sustenance; but historical and political conditions determine the specific combination and relative weight of each dimension. More importantly, caring for the poor has the potential of going beyond both, though this potential is heavily circumscribed. This chapter discusses the major theories of generosity have been formulated against the background of commodification. It emphasizes the study of interactions between institutions and individuals and historical changes can help us reconstruct theory rather than test it. Pushing such doubts to their logical conclusion, some scholars emphasize the benefits of generosity to especially dominant groups. Organizational studies underemphasize the global and centuries-long making of the liberal ethical subject. The transformations are not simply dictated by institutional pressures and organizational reform. In order to historicize the predominance of neoliberal charitable dispositions, the chapter brings into two literatures: analyses of neoliberal subjectivity and political economy. These literatures enlighten us on many dimensions of neoliberalization.
