Child sponsorship, ordinary ethics and the geographies of charity

Charitable donation, far from being done in a vacuum, is practised inseparably from the messy spatialities of everyday life. Drawing on literature from the geographies of care, this paper analyses the practices and experiences of giving that surround child sponsorship, a popular charitable scheme that directly links each donor with a child somewhere in the Global South. Through this, the paper argues for a more nuanced approach to the spatialities of charity. It affirms the significance of donation not just as a one-off response to a tear-jerking campaign, or as a mundane regular commitment, but also as a deeply personal engagement that draws into play multiple different aspects of people's everyday lives and intersects with existing identity- and community-building projects. Throughout, therefore, the paper focuses specifically on the micro-geographies of donation, engaging with the messy details of everyday performances of charitable ethics and identity. To achieve this, it draws empirically on interviews with a small number of British sponsors, most of whom expressed an affiliation with the Christian faith. The paper therefore foregrounds a particular focus on the dialogic relationship between the spatialities of charity and the landscapes of faith, religion and spirituality.

► I show how charity donation is inextricably bound up with everyday life. ► Charity donation is re-conceptualised as rooted in the social. ► I examine both the ethics and praxis of child sponsorship schemes. ► Critical accounts of charity should take into account ordinary networks and spaces.