Preserving Space for Volunteers: Exploring the Links between Voluntary Welfare Organisations, Volunteering and Citizenship

Abstract

While contemporary social and political theory views voluntary activity as key to the promotion of active citizenship, this paper argues that the connections between voluntary welfare associations and citizenship are more complex than these discourses allow. Drawing on research undertaken in the Scottish city of Glasgow and debates about an increased bifurcation of the voluntary sector, it considers how the different settings within which voluntary welfare associations are organised can act to facilitate or constrain the development of active citizenship. In doing so, it focuses on the tensions voluntary associations face between organisational growth and restructuring in order to provide good quality services, on the one hand, and the positive engagement with volunteers and empowerment of local people on the other. It demonstrates how the drive towards organisational growth can result in disempowerment and the promotion of passive citizenship; however, it is argued, that this is not a necessary outcome. Organisations can and do address the need to deliver professional and complex welfare services while remaining committed to active participation.

Making Sense of Organizational Change: Voices of Older Volunteers

“…Nevertheless, the organization still works very hard to manage the pressures to innovate and to be enterprising, due to changes in funding streams, while at the same time maintaining the goodwill of volunteers and making sure they enjoy all the benefits of volunteering described above. Evidence from other organizations that operate within a ''federal'' system as Age Concern Newcastle does indicates that a collectivistic model of organization that maintains a commitment to local participation and empowerment is still possible (Milligan and Fyfe 2005). This paper has drawn upon lessons from one organization to highlight the importance of understanding the impact of reforms in the voluntary sector on organizations and individuals who participate in them.…”

“…In Age Concern Newcastle, this did not happen as older volunteers were more likely to accept the circumstances than to stage a protest. This appears to be symptomatic of organizations at the ''corporatist'' end of the spectrum with its more passive forms of citizenship (Milligan and Fyfe 2005). In a few cases however, when lunch clubs were closed, other means were found to continue the service, but at a price:…”

“…Milligan and Fyfe (2005) describe a spectrum of voluntary welfare organizations that range from those that are grassroots, i.e., characterized by mutuality, solidarity, and empathy, to those that are corporatist, characterized by a professionalised workforce of paid staff, bureaucratisation, and pressures towards marketisation. They argue that reforms in the voluntary sector have resulted in greater bifurcation between the two extremes; corporatist organizations that engage closely with the state move away from self-help activities to complex service provision and tend to support more passive forms of citizenship (ibid).…”

Institutionally Individualized Volunteering: Towards a Late Modern Re-Construction

“…In such a paradigm, the distinction between 'volunteers' and 'members' is blurred, and participation is primarily considered a socially meaningful activity with positive impact on community, democracy, and social capital (Lyons, Wijkström, & Clary, 1998). It is the idealtypical and almost immaculate world of spontaneous, uncoerced, informal, and community-based, grassroots association, with multipurpose types of volunteer involvement (Dekker, 2002;Eliasoph, 2008Eliasoph, , 2009Hustinx & Lammertyn, 2003;Meijs & Hoogstad, 2001;Milligan & Fyfe, 2005;Salamon & Sokolowski, 2000;Wuthnow, 1998). Primary contexts have a low degree of institutionalization: 'Volunteering … is not directed from the top down, not funded, and therefore, does not need to justify itself to any public beyond itself' (Eliasoph, 2009, p. 306).…”

Volunteering

“…A second rationale behind the intensifying relationships between the statutory sector and the voluntary sector has to do with public policy geared toward promoting civic renewal and reinvigorating civic life (Lie and Baines 2007;Milligan and Fyfe 2005;Musick and Wilson 2008). Volunteering is increasingly seen as a means through which citizenship and civic responsibility can be resuscitated.…”