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D'aloia.Dissertation.FINAL to PRINT.March 15 LONG-TERM POST-KATRINA VOLUNTEERISM: THE ETHICS OF AN IMPORTED SOLIDARITY by Susan D’Aloia A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida May 2011 © Copyright Susan D’Aloia 2011 ii LONG-TERM POST-KATRINA VOLUNTEERISM: THE ETHICS OF AN IMPORTED SOLIDARITY by Susan D'Aloia This dissertation was prepared under the direction of the candidate's dissertation advisor, Dr. Susan Love Brown, Department of Anthropology, and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree ofDoctor ofPhilosophy. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ~ Dissertation Advisor t Carol S. Gould, Ph. ~~~h.D Emily S c d, Ph.D. Director, omparative Studies Program AA ~ ~() O~M~~ ~-=:g Dean, The Dorothy F. Schmidt College ofArts and Letters ~rj@~ 4 .. ;zu/) Barry T?Rosson, Ph.D. Date Dean, Graduate College 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to thank the members of her committee, Susan Love Brown, Carol S. Gould, and Chris Robé for their dedication and guidance during the tenure of this project. The author also has tremendous gratitude for the volunteers that trusted this investigation and the scholarly intentions behind it. In addition, the author acknowledges the unique and generous character of the people of New Orleans. She felt honored to participate and witness the recovery of this extraordinary city. Finally, the author recognizes the loyalty of her parents, Maria and Ted, her siblings and their children, and her dear friends who supported her during the execution and synthesis of this research. iv ABSTRACT Author: Susan D’Aloia Title: Long-term Post-Katrina Volunteerism: The Ethics of an Imported Solidarity Institution: Florida Atlantic University Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Susan Love Brown Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Year: 2011 The trauma and devastation that resulted from Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on August 29, 2005, produced a wide spread public perception of government neglect and ineptitude. Subsequently, a period of nationwide shame and concern for those most affected by the disaster elicited a wave of financial generosity from all social sectors. Yet, by late 2005 the media declared that the majority of Americans had become desensitized to the tragedy and its consequences, coining this shift in public perception as “Katrina fatigue.” Thousands of volunteers contradicted this phenomenon, however, by performing service in the devastated city of New Orleans. Long-term volunteers defied “Katrina fatigue” by redirecting the trajectory of their lives so they could provide service. Conventionally accepted volunteer theory predicts that volunteers provide service and that their labor operates in conjunction with institutionally supported v mechanisms of security and services. However, for the volunteer subjects in this study, Katrina and its immediate aftermath shattered the trust in such institutions. These volunteers did not assume that their service operated in conjunction with state sponsored agencies or corporations. Rather, they viewed their own acts of service as the means of promoting the recovery. This qualitative case study examines the deliberated choices and actions performed by long-term volunteers between the years 2005 and 2009. The primary subjects in this investigation include 15 volunteers who performed long-term and/or repeat delegations of service within organized networks. Volunteer subjects believed that if they did not perform the services they did, these services might not get done. Volunteers internalized contours of the larger political economy and their own perceived role within them. Performing service functioned partially to counteract this internalization and simultaneously redirect their lives. Second Line, a New Orleans street tradition of neighborhood processions, reveals more of what drives the long-term volunteer’s desire. The root practice of Second Line processions embodies a form of cognitive liberation for the disenfranchised as the processions interrupt normal arrangements of order and power in the city, albeit temporarily. Volunteers desire to connect with poor and working class Black people in this capacity, and their attempts to do so played out in contexts that sometimes disrupted institutional or corporate power, constituting a demand for change on behalf of Katrina victims. vi LONG-TERM POST-KATRINA VOLUNTEERISM: THE ETHICS OF AN IMPORTED SOLIDARITY Chapter One: Defiance of Katrina Fatigue.....................................................................1 Introduction.............................................................................................................1 Organization of the Dissertation ..............................................................................3 Social Movement Deferred......................................................................................6 False Prognostication in Social Movement Literature: The Myopia of Frames.......12 Volunteer Service as Action towards a Normative Ethic........................................18 Toward an Evolved Theory of Volunteer Work: The Need for New Direction and Synthesis .........................................................................................................23 Introduction to Methodology .................................................................................27 Stage 1: Paradigmatic Case Study: Participation Observation and Action Oriented Strategies.........................................................................................................28 Stage 2: Critical Ethnographic Research among Volunteers: The Semi-Structured Interview as Further Data Collection................................................................31 Reflexive Science: Intervention, Distortion, Narration...........................................33 Attributes and Limitations of the Study .................................................................37 Chapter Two: Integrated Socio Ethical Theory of Altruism .........................................39 Introduction...........................................................................................................39 Socio-Ethical Framework of Altruism ...................................................................42 vii Habitus and the Role of Phronesis .........................................................................44 The Role of Emotion in Theory .............................................................................53 Theoretical Sampling: Cognitive Liberation ..........................................................55 Research Questions ...............................................................................................60 Summary of Key Points of Integrated Theory........................................................60 Chapter Three: The Volunteers and Telos through Common Ground Relief ................62 Introduction...........................................................................................................62 The Resurrection of Common Ground Relief.........................................................63 Suncere: As Long as It Takes ................................................................................65 Soleil: The Battle for Public Housing ....................................................................75 Laura: A Bunch of Misfits Communicating ...........................................................82 Edgar: The Black Collective Value Schema as Virtue............................................92 Bay: Plugging into “the Know” .............................................................................99 Adrian: Here I Am Lord ......................................................................................110 Amelia: It Was Captivating .................................................................................121 Evan: Freelance Volunteer...................................................................................124 Chapter Summary with Synthesis of Cognitive Liberation...................................127 Chapter Four: Telos by Other the Means ...................................................................136 Introduction.........................................................................................................136 Part I: Renata: Recognizing the Conditions..........................................................137 Jacob: Muted Ambition .......................................................................................150 Part II: Norm and Operation Southern Comfort: We Are Family .........................159 Chapter Summary with Synthesis of Cognitive Liberation...................................168 viii Chapter Five: Conclusion: Seeing Second Lines and Further Research Trajectories...171 Recognizing the Presence of History through Volunteer Service..........................172 Second Line and Its Appropriation: Voluntourism...............................................174 Second Line as Cognitive Liberation ...................................................................177 A Further Research Trajectory.............................................................................178 Appendixes ...............................................................................................................183
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