Open AccessGifting and philanthropy environment in contemporary Kenya : agency and structural determinants
Author(s) -
Jacob Mwathi Mati
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international review of philanthropy and social investment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2708-3322
pISSN - 2708-3314
DOI - 10.47019/irpsi.2020/v1n1a1
Subject(s) - habitus , kenya , agency (philosophy) , sociology , structure and agency , structuring , value (mathematics) , ideal (ethics) , faith , product (mathematics) , social science , political science , epistemology , law , cultural capital , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , machine learning , computer science
Why is giving a ubiquitous human behaviour in Kenya? What shapes Kenyan gifting practices? This paper argues that philanthropicbehaviour is a product of multi-directional interactions between individual agency, experiences, and the socio-institutional structures.In Kenya, the socio-institutional structuring results from faith, African philosophical worldviews, the legal environment, and thewidespread socioeconomic precariousness. Drawing from existing literature, analysis of legal documents and primary interviews,this paper utilises habitus – durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures and practices – along with Max Weber’s fourideal type rationalities – instrumental, value, affectual and traditional – to explain why the philanthropic landscape in Kenya looksthe way it does. It is argued that gifting and philanthropic behaviour is shaped and given form by both individual experiences andthe socio-institutional structures within which they emerge.