Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Francisco, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-10, Section: A, page: 4073. Adviser: Ruth Malone.

The discipline of social anthropology has been remarkably inattentive to the phenomenon and organizational practices of 'charity', and, associatedly, has been non-discursive in its treatment of social welfare. In this thesis, I endeavour to indicate that this disciplinary ignorance of charity and social welfare is to be regretted. Through my case-study analysis of the role of a key charitable organization in Hong Kong I hope to convince my readers of the relatively untapped potential of 'an anthropology of charity'. Cultural practices of charity and social welfare are sociologically significant and interesting in their own right, but can also illuminate wider social and political processes and structures from an unusual perspective. Attention to 'charity' has much to offer anthropology, but the obverse also holds, understandably, not been properly mindful of anthropological - particularly ethnographic - approaches. The nucleus of my research is the Community Chest, the most influential nongovernmental charitable organization in the colony (soon to be post-colony) of Hong Kong. In my thesis I examine inter cilia: the setting in which the Community Chest operates; its organizational structures and procedures; the cultural logic of donation; issues of entitlement; and the relationship between donors and recipients of charity. Throughout I am attentive to the linkages between charity provided by fiat is often called 'the voluntary sector', and social welfare as dispensed by the Hong Kong state. A key theme is the extent to which the Community Chest, despite its epithet as a nongovernmental organization, should be viewed as having a definite brokerage role between the state and Hong Kong's people. The institutionalization of altruism, which the Community Chest represents, does not escape the reach of the Hong Kong state. In a deliberate manner I utilize the Community Chest as a prism by which to scrutinize the 'borrowed time and borrowed place' that is contemporary Hong Kong. Not only is Hong Kong a global (and arguably postmodern) city, which has changed dynamically in recent decades, but existentially and psychologically its population is affected by the ever lurking shadow of the PRC regime to which Hong Kong will be handed over in July 1997. The Community Chest was established in 1968 at a time written both the Hong Kong state and society were undergoing radical changes. From the vantage point of the Community Chest I have been able to calibrate the transformations and continuities of the last three decades, and the not insignificant role played by charity and social welfare over that period. In addition to illuminating Hong Kong' s extraordinary contemporary situation, I hope also to have contributed to on-going theoretical debates in anthropology, sinology, and the social sciences generally. There is a burgeoning literature on gift exchange, entitlement, altruism, concepts of need and poverty, the role of NGOs in alleviating hardship, clientelism, and the role of mass media representations. I feel that my fieldwork research makes a contribution to discussion of each of these issues. My work contributes a further perspective from which to understand guanxi (personal networks) and renging (moral norms and human feelings) as axiomatic Chinese cultural constructions. I am also concerned with questions of citizenship, of community, of hybridity, of identity, of belonging, and of nationalism, all of which are especially fraught issues for people in contemporary Hong Kong. Finally, but deserving special mention - one of my chief ambitions has been to appraise the claims that the New Right makes for Hong Kong as the epitome of a ' leissez-faire' policy in which the state's interventions in terms of welfare provision are based on residualist principles. The New Right profess that Hong Kong is the free market economy, and that the voluntary sector and the market provide welfare effectively in the absence of state intervention. My research indicates that the Hong Kong state, despite its laissez-faire rhetoric, has been decisively interventionist. The Community Chest, set up ostensibly to generate and dispense charity from the voluntary sector, is ambivalently entangled with the hidden hands of both big business and the state.

This thesis looks at the organisation of social welfare in the town of Eldoret in Kenya. It outlines the structure of welfare services provided by a number of different individuals and agencies and the way the giving and receiving of aid performs a structuring role in this multi-racial and multi-tribal town. I have used an anthropological approach to investigate the nature of 'welfare', showing that it is often approached from the wrong direction. 'Welfare needs' are not something 'out there' waiting to be met, they are defined and highlighted by the welfare services themselves. An overview of the situation and the complexity of the urban structure reveals how problematical a definition of the concept of 'need' is. The history of welfare activity and the contemporary situation are described and discussed. It is shown that there is in the town a juxtaposition of many international, national and local groups willing to be involved in welfare work, and a number of people who feel that the problems which they encounter in the urban setting make them eligible for this aid. Throughout the history of the town the giving and receiving of aid has been one of the activities contributing to the acquisition of power and status for individuals and for groups. There is no form of coordinating structure to organise the many participants in the social welfare activities and gaps in the provision therefore exist. It is shown that self-help groups have often been formed which bridge the gaps and help the recipients, their members, gain access to welfare donors. These groups provide their members, and particularly their leaders, with the chance to accrue status and advance socially in the urban environment which, because of their lack of education or contacts, prevents their access to other sources of personal advancement. The role of the broker is highlighted both in the self-help groups and in the formal welfare agencies. It is argued that these actors, moving between the donors and the recipients provide structure and linkages in the fluid urban system. The implications of the research findings for welfare and aid planning in Kenya suggest that more attention should be paid to encouraging these self-help groups. There is also a need to adopt a means of coordinating the use of aid in the towns, perhaps making use of the broker role, so that the aid reaches the target population.

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This thesis is an attempt to gain a better understanding of how the Ottawa Police Youth Centre functions, by examining its organizational structure, and the links it has created with the community, by means of a case study. The thesis uses organizational theory and studies on youth programs to which the case study is compared. The research examines the Ottawa Police Youth Centre historically, it then describes the present organization and functions, and finally it critically presents the Centre's measures of success.

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