Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

My research examines the emergence of cash transfer (CT), or grants to targeted populations, in development work. Many insist these programs will revolutionize development work and create a more inclusive and equitable society. By redistributing small amounts of wealth to vulnerable populations, CT advocates insist, recipients can begin self-sustaining cycles of growth and escape poverty. As they attract a diverse coalition of supporters, from African heads of state to Silicon Valley billionaires, CTs bring together a set of distinct and often conflicting interests. However, few have critically examined the emergence of these programs and how they operate. Rather than end poverty, I argue that CTs merely assist in the widening and deepening of financialized capitalism and the development of new tools of governance. To investigate this hypothesis, I am studying GiveDirectly (GD), a US-based NGO that distributes unconditional CTs in Kenya, Uganda, the DRC, and Liberia. The organization aims to “disrupt the aid sector” by making cash the benchmark for all development work. Backed by high-profile donors such as Facebook and Google.org, GD has begun to exert global influence in development practice and exemplifies this trend in the development industry. While they claim to revolutionize aid, I argue that their programs merely facilitate both the ‘enclosure’ of populations previously outside of financial markets and the ‘surveillance’ of these populations by state and non-state actors. While GD attempts to address the fallout of neoliberal policy, they merely reinforce the fundamental tenets of neoliberalism and assist in revitalizing global capitalism.