Refusing the Market II: From Marketization to

Democratic Discourse & Beyond?

Angela M. EikenberrySchool of Public Administration

University of Nebraska at Omaha

“Doing something wonderful never tasted so good!” – Sweet Charity Cupcakes

Sprinkles’ Cupcakes for Charity

Impact of Marketization on Nonprofit/Voluntary Orgs

1. Need for nonprofits (and consumption) to “replace” government in the provision of public goods.

2. Pressures on nonprofits to take on market-like approaches to gain funding.

3. Pervasive normative ideology surrounding market-based solutions and business-like models.

4. Nonprofit and voluntary orgs increasingly look to market-like strategies to operate.

• Commercial activities• Social enterprise• Cause-related marketing

Problems with Marketization

• The ideology of the market is essentially anti-social, based on self-interest rather than disinterest or the public good (Anderson, 1990; Hjorth, 2009).

• The market erodes all social ties other than purely economic ones and/or converts social relationships into instrumental ones (Bull et al., 2010).

• Marketization de-politicizes the public realm through economic and managerial discourses (Clarke, 2004; Curtis, 2008; Nickel, 2012; Dey & Steyeart, 2012).

Problems with Marketization for Nonprofit/Voluntary Orgs

Compromise diversity and pluralism perceived as making valuable contributions to society and democracy.

Problems with Marketization for Nonprofit/Voluntary Orgs

Social enterprise:•Emphasize individual over collective—”messiah-like” figure of the social enterpreneur (Dey & Steyeart, 2010).•Introduces a de-politicized image of social change (Curtis, 2008; Dey & Steyeart, 2010; Grenier, 2009; Nicholls, 2010).

•Focus on symptoms rather than root causes (Edwards, 2008)

Problems with Marketization for Nonprofit/Voluntary Orgs

Cause-Related Marketing:•Opportunity costs

•Consumers have little incentive to understand impetus for the problem being addressed through consumption.

•Lulls people into a false sense of doing good, even as they are potentially doing more harm.•Individualizes solutions to collective problems.

•Makes virtuous action easy, thoughtless & self-satisfying.

If you just kind of go around and do “woah is me” and kind of do a pity party for all of the…I mean, there are many horrible things happening…this

can be a bright spot for people. And my five dollar bracelet I got… hey, I like it! And you

know that it went to help somebody as well as I get a pretty bracelet out of the deal.

(Interviewee #1, June 25, 2010)

Create Space for Democratic Discourse

• Consider democratic values in strategy and operations.

• Cultivate more meaningful philanthropic relationships with individuals.

• Promote alternative discourses for/with funders and volunteers.

• Talk more about democracy and the public sphere in classrooms.

Is Democratizing NPs & SEs Enough?

Country Giving as % of GDP

Gov Social Expend

% of GDP

GiniIndex

% Children w/ Income

< 50% of Median

Infant Mortality

United States 1.85 19.2 .38 20.6 6.8

Canada 1.17 19.2 .32 15.1 5.3

United Kingdom

0.84 24.1 .34 10.1 5.1

Australia 0.51 17.8 .34 11.8 5.0

Netherlands 0.49 23.2 .29 11.5 4.9

France 0.32 32.1 .29 7.6 3.6

Germany 0.13 27.8 .30 16.3 3.9