Life at the Center : : Haitians and Corporate Catholicism in Boston / / Erica Caple James.

• VerfasserIn: James, Erica Caple,
• Place / Publishing House: Berkeley, CA : : University of California Press, , [2024]; ©2024
• Year of Publication: 2024
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century ; 15
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (318 p.)

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit 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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Life at the Center -- 2 Building the Brand Migrants and Roman Catholic Charity -- 3 Life in Purgatorial Spaces: Haitian Migrants between Church, State, and Law -- 4 Memory Palace I: The Birth of the Center -- 5 Corporate Secrets -- 6 Corporate Schisms: Life and Death between Church, State, and Law -- 7 Memory Palace II: Everyday Life and Death at the Center -- 8 Inscribing and Incorporating Life -- 9 Bureaucratic Disenchantments and Wounds of Charity -- Notes -- References -- Index