Introduction

According to Martin (1994), kindness is an act of benevolence along with compassion, generosity and love, and is a foundational concept of philanthropic behaviours. Therefore, it seems to be a good place to begin our conversation on children's philanthropic citizenship in action. Indeed, like many parents, carers and educators, I have constantly encouraged and told my children to ‘be kind’. But rarely have I sat back and thought what this really means: be kind to whom, why and to what ends?

Kindness itself is a concept that collectively still matters, which is universally valued (Hanel et al, 2020). As Martin (1994) argues, kindness seeks to further the wellbeing of other people. Indeed, the world is awash with people, organisations and even governments telling us to ‘be kind’. It has become a popular hashtag on social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and has multiple books published from gurus to academics, on the merits of kindness. We have World Kindness Day, a global 24-hour celebration dedicated to paying it forward and focusing on the good. We are encouraged to perform acts of kindness, such as giving blood, helping a neighbour or volunteering in the community. It even has the international festival ‘Kindfest’ dedicated in its honour each year. In these spaces we are constantly being reminded of research which consistently tells us that kindness is overall good for society's wellbeing (Curry et al, 2018), for fostering connections and communication across differences. Kindness matters.

Nonetheless, as I will explore in this chapter, there is a darker side to kindness, one which can silent the voices of the marginalised and disguise privilege behind a veneer of good acts rather than justice (Inayatullah and Blaney, 2012). It is in danger of becoming a concept which denies individual experiences and structural injustice, with the simple motto of ‘be kind’. It has been boxed up and marketed as a saleable virtue, merchandised across the planet as the neoliberal world has been quick to commodify, individualise and package up this concept. Indeed, the irony of fast fashion, which we know causes huge harm both environmentally and in vulnerable communities, producing t-shirts and merchandise embezzled with this motto, never escapes me.