Articles

12th issue of Voluntary Action - Volume 4 Number 3

Unfotunately articles from this issue are not currently available

 

Talking about volunteering: a discourse analysis approach to volunteer motivations

Kate Brooks, University of Sheffield

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We know that volunteers have more complex personal reasons for volunteering other than simply ‘to do good’ – the so-called ‘dominant model’ of volunteering. By drawing on forty in-depth interviews with charity shop volunteers, this article attempts to develop our understanding of the current, taken-for-granted concept of a dominant model, by asking how this model operates. To do this, it is argued, we need to focus on volunteers’ own talk. By using the discourse analysis tool of ‘orientations’ – defined as ‘recognised cultural repertoires of possible responses’ – this article shows that there are at least three widely recognised, socially acceptable, dominating rules governing the ways in which volunteering can be talked about, which subsequently affect volunteers’ talk about what they do.

On the prospects of volunteering in civil society

Paul Dekker, Social and Cultural Planning Office of the Netherlands, The Hague, and Globus, Institute of Globalisation and Sustainable Development, Tilburg University

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The article starts with a brief discussion of the concepts of civil society and volunteering, and the presentation of some comparative data about the phenomena in western Europe and north America. It deals in more detail with trends in volunteering in the Netherlands and the USA. In both countries there appears to be a shift in volunteering from ‘active membership’ and ‘active citizenship’ to ‘unpaid work’. This shift is a serious threat to the benefits of volunteering for civil society: the formation of social capital and contributing to public discourse. The challenge is to find ways to combine the openness of modern volunteering with the associative and discursive qualities of traditional volunteering.

Older women as local community educators in Australia

Deborah Setterlund and Jeni Warburton, School of Social Work and Social Policy, University of Queensland

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This study investigated the health benefits experienced by a group of older Australian women as a result of their involvement in a community development project aimed at increasing their participation in their local community. Fifteen older women, many of whom experienced a physical disability and social isolation, were involved as volunteer educators in a local school. The findings provide insights into the social health benefits related to participation in community life. The older participants reported improved self-esteem, increased confidence and reduced social isolation as a result of their participation. The study concludes that personal and structural barriers need to be addressed if all older people are to be offered the opportunity to be fully participating citizens in our communities.

Marginalising volunteers? – the case of credit unions

Alastair Thomson, IDK Consult

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This article looks at the operation of credit unions in Scotland and shows how a laudable public policy objective – extending consumer services and choice in the financial sector – can lead to increased demands on volunteers and may even shift the direction of their involvement. The background to credit union activities in Scotland is examined, as is the developing policy context within which such organisations operate. The article goes on to describe the new regulatory framework and to discuss its implications for volunteers in this sector. The conclusion is that policy pressures on credit unions, plus increased regulation, may marginalise volunteers to being passive service deliverers. This could exclude some would-be volunteers and diminish the role of those who are already volunteering.

Charitable giving by those who also give time: a case study of volunteer donor behaviour

Gianni Zappalà and Tracy Burrell, Research and Social Policy Team, The Smith Family

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In order to undertake many of their activities, nonprofit organisations often rely on people who donate their time or money. Although evidence suggests that there is a strong relationship between volunteering and giving, these two dimensions of philanthropic behaviour have tended to be examined in isolation from one another in Australia. A better understanding of this relationship may be beneficial to nonprofit organisations striving to improve their volunteer management as well as their fundraising efforts. This article examines the charitable giving behaviour of volunteers at The Smith Family, a large Australian public-serving nonprofit organisation in community services. The key findings are that age, income and education level are positively related to giving. There is also a significant and positive interaction between age and income. Another key finding is that ‘infrequent’ volunteers (those who gave less time) were more likely to give larger financial donations to charitable causes, while ‘frequent volunteers’ (highly committed in terms of time) gave less money to charitable causes.