Life at the Center

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.

“One could read Life at the Center multiple times and, with each reading, encounter new dimensions. Erica Caple James’s work is exceptional.” — LINDA BARNES, Professor of Family Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine

“James has written an important book that deftly disentangles the complex relationships between a Catholic institution, Haitian immigrants, and the work of charity in Boston. The compelling ethnography of local worlds is matched by more general explications for understanding religion, immigrants and refugees, and their transformation into Americans.” — ARTHUR KLEINMAN, author of The Soul of Care

ERICA CAPLE JAMES is Professor of Medical Anthropology and Urban Studies at MIT and author of the award-winning book Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti.