To give and to accept: Relations of recognition in philanthropy of hungarian ethnic kin support

Abstract

Abstract This paper addresses the ways philanthropy and civic helping are embedded into power relations. Specifically, power will be described as experienced from ’below’, through subjective perceptions and interpretations of the recipients of help. Second, the working of power will be identified in moments of suffering, or the lack thereof, implied by helping practices and interactions. Critical descriptions of philanthropy and charity often tacitly assume that these practices imply negative experience on the part of recipients (’charity wounds’). However, such experiences are rarely explicitely addressed, empirically described, or embedded into theoretical descriptions of civic helping. Based on Axel Honneth’s recognition theory, this paper suggests an interactionist model of philanthropy. First, we highlight that philanthropic intentions and interactions are embedded into preexisting ideologies and discourses. These discourses, by providing the value system behind solidarity, may carry the potential for recognition of recipients. However, such discourses simultaneously offer assymmetric positions for participants in helping interactions, denigrating recipients or offering them incomprehensible positions and roles, implying their misrecognition. Recognition theory claims that individuals and groups react to such conditions by struggling for recognition. These processes will be described on a specific terrain of volunteer programs, organised in Hungary, supporting ethnic Hungarian minority communities. Three such programs initiating Hungarian language education, and supporting Hungarian language teachers, schools and enrolled children and their families in Moldavia (Romania) and Transcarpathia (Ukraine) will be analysed, based on participant observation and semistructured interviews carried out between 2009 and 2014. Keywords: philanthropy, Othering, recognition, recipient experience