{"title":"Elite networks for environmental philanthropy: shaping environmental agendas in the twenty-first century","authors":"Jeanine Cunningham, Michael C. Dreiling","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2021.1942604","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Examining all donations of one-million dollars or more to environmental and animal-related causes from 2000–10 in the U.S., this paper employs network methodologies to identify structural patterns in elite philanthropy. Employing k-plex algorithms, analysis demonstrates robust, overlapping donor-recipient ties forming meaningful subcomponents within the larger network. In addition to donor-recipient subgroups that partition along major environmental and animal-related issues, we find politically polarized subcomponents among organizations engaged in energy and climate change. Here it is argued that these observed substructures in the network reflect an intra-elite fracture that mirrors ideological differences of donors and a larger partisan polarization on these issues in the U.S. These findings substantiate a critical theory of foundations and elite philanthropy that accounts for their role in establishing, maintaining, and at times contesting forms of political hegemony favorable to their factional interests.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/23251042.2021.1942604","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Sociology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2021.1942604","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT Examining all donations of one-million dollars or more to environmental and animal-related causes from 2000–10 in the U.S., this paper employs network methodologies to identify structural patterns in elite philanthropy. Employing k-plex algorithms, analysis demonstrates robust, overlapping donor-recipient ties forming meaningful subcomponents within the larger network. In addition to donor-recipient subgroups that partition along major environmental and animal-related issues, we find politically polarized subcomponents among organizations engaged in energy and climate change. Here it is argued that these observed substructures in the network reflect an intra-elite fracture that mirrors ideological differences of donors and a larger partisan polarization on these issues in the U.S. These findings substantiate a critical theory of foundations and elite philanthropy that accounts for their role in establishing, maintaining, and at times contesting forms of political hegemony favorable to their factional interests.
期刊介绍:
Environmental Sociology is dedicated to applying and advancing the sociological imagination in relation to a wide variety of environmental challenges, controversies and issues, at every level from the global to local, from ‘world culture’ to diverse local perspectives. As an international, peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Environmental Sociology aims to stretch the conceptual and theoretical boundaries of both environmental and mainstream sociology, to highlight the relevance of sociological research for environmental policy and management, to disseminate the results of sociological research, and to engage in productive dialogue and debate with other disciplines in the social, natural and ecological sciences. Contributions may utilize a variety of theoretical orientations including, but not restricted to: critical theory, cultural sociology, ecofeminism, ecological modernization, environmental justice, organizational sociology, political ecology, political economy, post-colonial studies, risk theory, social psychology, science and technology studies, globalization, world-systems analysis, and so on. Cross- and transdisciplinary contributions are welcome where they demonstrate a novel attempt to understand social-ecological relationships in a manner that engages with the core concerns of sociology in social relationships, institutions, practices and processes. All methodological approaches in the environmental social sciences – qualitative, quantitative, integrative, spatial, policy analysis, etc. – are welcomed. Environmental Sociology welcomes high-quality submissions from scholars around the world.