The Good It Promises, the Harm It Does
Critical Essays on Effective Altruism
Carol J Adams editor Alice Crary editor Lori Gruen editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:15th May '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£20.99(9780197655702)
This edited volume critically examines Effective Altruism by featuring diverse voices that highlight grassroots movements. It critiques top-down solutions and advocates for more meaningful social engagement and activist traditions.
The Good It Promises, the Harm It Does is a critical examination of Effective Altruism (EA), presenting a collection of essays from a range of activists and scholars. This edited volume delves into grassroots movements and community organizing efforts that often go unnoticed within the mainstream EA framework. By highlighting these diverse perspectives, the book underscores the importance of recognizing various voices and initiatives that might be overlooked or undervalued by the EA movement.
The contributors to this volume articulate the limitations of EA's top-down solutions to global challenges. They argue that these ready-made approaches can sometimes overlook the complexities of human and animal suffering, potentially causing more harm than good. Through detailed case studies and personal narratives, the authors provide a compelling critique of how EA's focus on quantifiable outcomes can lead to the marginalization of community-driven responses that prioritize justice and meaningful engagement.
Ultimately, The Good It Promises, the Harm It Does serves as a call to action, encouraging readers to reconsider the effectiveness of conventional altruistic strategies. By elevating the voices of those engaged in grassroots activism, the book advocates for a more nuanced understanding of social engagement that values local knowledge and community resilience. This volume is an essential read for anyone interested in the intersections of altruism, activism, and social justice.
The entries of this book truly help draw attention to just how dangerous EA is...All in all, reading this book would benefit just about anyone. * Corvus Strigiform, Weight Less State Blog *
The story of Effective Altruism is told here not by its proponents, but by those engaged in liberation struggles and justice movements that operate outside of Effective Altruism's terms. There is every possibility that Effective Altruists will ignore what these voices have to say…That would be a deep shame, and what's more, a betrayal of a real commitment to bring about a better world. * Amia Srinivasan, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford *
Effective Altruism has made big moral promises that are often undermined by its unwillingness to listen attentively to the voices of its detractors, especially those from marginalized communities. In this vital, stimulating volume, we hear from some of the most important of these voices on some of the most important criticisms of Effective Altruism, including its racism, colonialism, and technocratic rationalism. This book is essential, inviting reading for both Effective Altruists and their critics. * Kate Manne, Associate Professor at the Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University *
What could possibly go wrong when a largely white and male alliance of academics, business and nonprofit arrivistes, and obscenely rich donors reduce complex situations to numbers and plug those numbers into equations that claim to offer moral and strategic clarity about how we should live in a suffering world? In this book, dissenting activists and academics speak passionately and plainly about what has gone wrong * and provide an armamentarium for those keen to free action and imagination from the alliance's outsized grip on the work of liberation.Timothy Pachirat, author of Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight *
This is a collection of works that embodies the both/and approach: that there can be a unity in purpose, divergence in how that is achieved, and an acknowledgment of the value and legitimacy of all those efforts. * Michelle Strauss, Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy *
ISBN: 9780197655696
Dimensions: 235mm x 140mm x 22mm
Weight: 499g
310 pages