Life at the Center: Haitians and Corporate Catholicism in Boston (Volume 15) (Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century)

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit (https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.188) www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In Life at the Center , Erica Caple James traces how faith-based and secular institutions in Boston have helped Haitian refugees and immigrants attain economic independence, health, security, and citizenship in the United States. Using the concept of “corporate Catholicism,” James documents several paradoxes of assistance arising among the Catholic Church, Catholic Charities, and the Haitian Multi-Service Center: how social assistance produces and reproduces structural inequalities between providers and recipients; how these inequities may deepen aid recipients’ dependence and lead to resistance to organized benevolence; how institutional financial deficits harmed clients and providers; and how the same modes of charity or philanthropy that previously caused harm can be redeployed to repair damage and rebuild “charitable brands.” The culmination of more than a decade of advocacy and research on behalf of the Haitians in Boston, this groundbreaking work exposes how Catholic corporations have strengthened—but also eroded—Haitians’ civic power. For years the Catholic Church, Catholic Charities, and the Haitian Multi-Service Center in Boston have helped Haitian refugees and immigrants attain economic independence, health, security, and citizenship in the United States. In Life at the Center ,Erica Caple James traces this aid work and discovers at its heart a fundamental paradox, arising from what she calls "corporate Catholicism": social assistance produces and reproducesstructural inequalities between providers and recipients, which can deepen aid recipients' dependence and lead to resistance to organized benevolence. James documents howinstitutional financial deficits harmed clients and providers, yet alsohow modes of philanthropy that previously caused harm can be redeployed to repair damage and rebuild "charitable brands." The culmination of over a decade of advocacy and research on behalf of the Haitians of Boston, this groundbreaking work exposes how Catholic corporations strengthenedbut also erodedHaitians' civic power. Cover Series Title Copyright Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments 1. Life at the Center 2. Building the Brand 3. Life in Purgatorial Spaces 4. Memory Palace I 5. Corporate Secrets 6. Corporate Schisms 7. Memory Palace II 8. Inscribing and Incorporating Life 9. Bureaucratic Disenchantments and Wounds of Charity Notes References Index