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Abstract
The aim of this text is to find out whether the Pontis Foundation, a Slovak philanthrocapitalist NGO that also engages in development cooperation, depoliticizes unequal power relations in its discourse and if so, how. Using samples of promotional materials published by Pontis, I analyze Pontis’ discursive constructions of legitimation and interviews with respondents from Pontis. My analysis shows that documents published by Pontis do indeed depoliticize unequal power relations, for example, by highlighting the importance of education. I also find that the Foundation’s employees, with the exception of one who comments on the organization’s apolitical stance, exclude politics from their personal perspectives. The article also discusses the question of intentionality in the depoliticizing discourse and the question of the way ideology works in relation to depoliticization.
Notes
1. Due to the contested meaning of the term “development” I put it between quotation marks here; however, in order to avoid their extensive use, I do so only in this first case of its use.
2. If one can believe that their data really measure the success of their project and not of other educational interventions:
3. A moral legitimation is a “legitimation by (often very oblique) reference to value systems” (Van Leeuwen Citation2008, 106). Positive analogies legitimize social actions because these analogies claim that the actions are like other activities which are associated with positive values.