Philantrocapitalism and the re-making of global water charity

Abstract

In recent years, philantrocapitalism has surfaced as one of the liveliest expressions of neoliberalism. The current global concern and anxiety over an unfolding socioecological catastrophe provides fertile ground for the emergence of self-proclaimed capitalist saviours and of new forms of aid governance. Water has not been exempted from this trend. Using assemblage thinking, the paper takes as case studies three water charities involved in the global quest to solve the water crisis to illustrate how they deterritorialise – differently but in an interconnected way – water into a commodity. We show how these charities contribute to reterritorialize water on commercial and financial circuits, thus leading – to varying extents – to the insulation of water from public debate and foreclosing the opportunity for an active public engagement of the civil society. The paper thereby also serves to demonstrate how charities both reproduce and are produced by the neoliberalisation of the water crisis.