Giving and Refusing: The Contested Reception of Transnational Philanthropy in the Case of the Prague Central European University Foundation

Abstract

This article builds on the identification theory of philanthropy. It examines transnational philanthropy as a social phenomenon dependent on transnational “communities of participation” and their perceived needs. An empirical case study of the Prague Central European University (CEU) Foundation, founded in the Czech Republic by the American philanthropist George Soros, is used to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of the rejecting of a philanthropic project. Discourse analysis was conducted on a public media debate to uncover the key discursive categories that shaped the public controversy over the Prague CEU Foundation and made it possible to refuse the gift: philanthropic giving versus government control, gift versus calculation, cosmopolitism versus national interest, elitism versus egalitarianism. The article proposes that the acceptance or rejection of a charitable gift is a sensitive indicator of changing values, one that can be used in the study of social and political conflict and change.