Philanthropy Research Workshop: Diversity Capital in Periods of Social Activism: Race-Related Corporate Philanthropy

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Drawing on a unique longitudinal archive of social media posts by large firms, this presentation elaborates how racial justice activism shapes the philanthropic commitments of businesses.

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Abstract

Research on diversity capital demonstrates that firms respond to social externalities by making race-related philanthropic commitments. However, there is a gap in the scholarly literature about the links between social activism and ethnic community support by companies. Drawing on a unique longitudinal archive of social media posts by large firms, this presentation elaborates how racial justice activism shapes the philanthropic commitments of businesses. Content analysis of social media discourse shows how social movements are associated with shifts in the types of populations firms commit to supporting through community partnerships. By examining social movements this analysis provides a richer understanding of the field-level drivers of ethnic community support. It also offers new insight into corporate diversity in the contemporary era.

Bio

Patricia A. Banks (Harvard University Ph.D. & A.M./Spelman College B.A.) is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Poetics and Professor of Sociology at Mount Holyoke College. As a cultural sociologist, her research elucidates how social boundaries, such as race and ethnicity, intersect with consumption and consumption-related processes. Banks is the author of four books, including Black Culture Inc: How Ethnic Community Support Pays for Corporate America (Stanford University Press 2022), Race, Ethnicity, and Consumption: A Sociological View (Routledge 2020), Diversity and Philanthropy at African American Museums (Routledge Research in Museum Studies 2019) and Represent: Art and Identity Among the Black Upper-Middle Class (Routledge 2010). Banks is Chair-Elect of the Section on the Sociology of Consumers and Consumption at the American Sociological Association and serves on the editorial board of Cultural Sociology and the boards of the Black Trustee Alliance and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. She has been in residence at Stanford University as a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) and at Harvard University as a Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.