Unmasking the institutional formations of giving

The May 2011 Giving White Paper declares a concern to ‘engage people at different life stages – from primary school children to pensioners’ and to create ‘sustainable social norms around giving’ (HM Government, 2011: 9 &

32). Schools, universities, the workplace and the activities of those who are newly retired are all identified as key sites for the introduction of initiatives to ‘celebrate’ and ‘encourage’ giving. In this regard, it opens the door to a sociological approach to understanding how people are disposed to give their time and money to philanthropic and charitable causes. It also, however, quickly abandons the attempt to think sociologically about how this might be achieved.

This chapter offers a brief sociological critique of the ways in which the White Paper conceives the task of building a giving society. It further moves to outline an alternative approach that does not focus on how people might be ‘nudged’ into giving by smart informational pitches but, rather, concentrates on the project

of making giving a social norm and socializing force in everyday life.