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Linsey McGoey, a sociologist at the University of Essex, provides a compelling critique of philanthrocapitalism through her analysis, which centres around The Gates Foundation. The book is intended for a wide audience and I think many will benefit from reading McGoey’s critical exploration of philanthrocapitalism because it encourages us to think about the power of these organisations on the world stage and how they might be threatening democracy.
One of the book’s most important claims, therefore, is that philanthrocapitalism cannot mitigate ‘the very inequalities that its own presence might be inadvertently compounding’. This means that philanthrocapitalism might never be able to eradicate economic and social inequality because the philanthropists are themselves ‘inadvertently’ causing these.