The Changing Tides of Volunteering View metadata, citationin andDevelopment: similar papers at core.ac.uk Discourse, brought to you by CORE provided by IDS OpenDocs Knowledge and Practice Erika Lopez Franco and Thea Shahrokh Abstract This article explores the changing narratives of volunteering in development and the interplay of volunteering with global and local theories of how change happens. Firstly, we analyse the links between the evolution of mainstream development trends and changes in volunteering approaches and programmes. Secondly, we look at how changing conceptions of volunteering have repositioned international volunteering in relation to national and local contexts. Thirdly, we present the implications of shifts in understandings of knowledge creation, which happens from the ground up, on volunteering research and programming. This discussion is situated within pressure for ‘results’ within contemporary development discourse and practice. The article concludes that the volunteering sector is at a crossroads; organisations working in meaningful partnerships with volunteers from local to global levels must remain at the forefront – questioning mainstream trends and advocating people-centred development. This article draws on a literature review undertaken to inform the Valuing Volunteering project. 1 Introduction an integral part of human interactions and social As part of the Valuing Volunteering research, a dynamics before it became framed and used as an literature review was commissioned (Lopez Franco approach for achieving development outcomes. and Shahrokh 2012) with a twofold objective. Firstly, to provide contextual, academic and conceptual Within the volunteering for development strand background information around volunteering and recent research has mostly focused on tracing the development. Secondly, as a resource that could impact of international volunteering (Popazzi become useful for future research into the impact of 2004; Moore McBride and Daftary 2005; international volunteering. This literature review was Perold et al. 2011; Lough et al. 2012) with a very initiated by International Forum for Volunteering in limited amount of research looking at the role Development (Forum) members and other actors in of other forms of volunteering such as self-help the wider volunteering for development sector. and mutual aid, community participation (i.e. informal community-led volunteering) and national While conducting this review, the aim was to volunteering schemes.1 In addition, research has search for the literature focused on the volunteering emphasised the impacts of engaging in volunteering for development sector; this uncovered two strands action for the individual volunteer (Sherraden et al. of research foci. Although there is a substantial 2006) and/or the volunteer-sending organisation, amount of research on the evolution, impact, value with a lack of research that focuses on Southern and importance for society of the voluntary sector voices and how individuals in the South experience from various social sciences (Sheard 1995; Cnaan, these different forms of volunteering. For example, Handy and Wadsworth 1996; Fyfe and Milligan how are volunteers perceived by the communities 2003; Meijs and Brudney 2007; Hvenmark and von in which they are volunteering? How do volunteers, Essen 2010; Hustinx 2010); another area of focus who are themselves from the poorest and most is on volunteering within the development sector. marginalised communities, experience volunteering? The latter, excluding a few exceptions (Pinkau 1981; Devereux 2010; Patel et al. 2007; Lough et al. 2012), Taking as its basis the findings from the literature largely overlooks the fact that volunteering has been review, this article will explore the changing narratives IDS Bulletin Volume 46 Number 5 September 2015 © 2015 The Authors. IDS Bulletin © 2015 Institute of Development Studies Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA 17 1 IDSB46.5 Burns_Howard.indd 17 17/08/2015 10:17 1 IDSB46.5 Burns_Howard.indd 18 18 Table 1 Mapping the Evolution of Development and Volunteering EVOLUTION OF DEVELOPMENT VOLUNTEERING SECTOR EVENTS Alternative discourses Mainstream objectives Mainstream discourses Decade Paradigms influencing volunteering Key milestones for volunteering • Modernisation Formal volunteer-sending • 1951: Establishment of • Technology transfer agencies established with explicit Melbourne University’s • Welfare state 1950s development objectives Volunteer Graduate Scheme • Militarisation of aid • 1958: Voluntary Service • Nationalist/communist • People = recipients of aid Volunteering focused on service Overseas (VSO) was founded in movements and revolutions GNP growth – Industrialisation delivery and technical assistance the UK • Import substitution • 1961: Start of United States *Agent of change* • Export-led growth government volunteer-sending Centralised state • Green Revolution programme, Peace Corps – Institutions Creation of Bretton Woods • Nationalist/socialist movements agreements: United Nations system, and revolutions World Bank, IMF, US Food Aid 1960s • Social movements and guerrillas • Consolidation of welfare state Call from developing countries • 1970: United Nations • Adult literacy and popular GNP growth + • Export-led growth: for local people to participate in Volunteers (UNV) set up under education, conscientisation, basic needs commodities and oil boom development interventions General Assembly resolution A/ reflection and action • Dependency theory RES/2659 • Development as transformation Redistribution with • Human capital formation: 1970s International volunteers were to • South–South and national • Collectivisation growth nutrition, health, education be learners as well as teachers, volunteering schemes start • Women in development (WID) • Population control working with grass-roots • 1979: Foundation of Mercy – feminist approaches to social *Agent of change* • Rural–urban migration as development workers Corps change Capitalist and development pathway socialist states – Institutions Unconditional lending from IFIs • Endogenous growth Shift in volunteer-sending • VSO and UNV move from a • Neoliberalism agencies’ approaches to paradigm of technical assistance GNP growth + • Structural adjustment development from advocating to one that emphasises mutual ‘trickle-down’ effect 1980s • Trade and growth participation to generating learning • NGOs as service providers methodologies to incorporate the • Development agencies and State as obstacle • From ‘beneficiaries’ to ‘clients’ voices of the underprivileged IVCOs recognise ‘bottom-up’ Lopez Franco and Shahrokh The Changingfor development Tides of Volunteering in Development: Discourse, Knowledge and Practice and users approaches to development • Expansion of organised civil • Formation of user committees and the key role of participants 17/08/2015 10:17 *Agent of change* society – Institutions in the implementation of The market • Critiques to WB and IMF Structural adjustment/conditional development projects development control lending from IFIs Table 1 Mapping the Evolution of Development and Volunteering EVOLUTION OF DEVELOPMENT VOLUNTEERING SECTOR EVENTS Alternative discourses Mainstream objectives Mainstream discourses Decade Paradigms influencing volunteering Key milestones for volunteering • Modernisation Formal volunteer-sending • 1951: Establishment of • Technology transfer agencies established with explicit Melbourne University’s • Welfare state 1950s development objectives Volunteer Graduate Scheme • Militarisation of aid • 1958: Voluntary Service • Nationalist/communist • People = recipients of aid Volunteering focused on service Overseas (VSO) was founded in movements and revolutions GNP growth – Industrialisation delivery and technical assistance the UK • Import substitution • 1961: Start of United States *Agent of change* • Export-led growth government volunteer-sending Centralised state • Green Revolution programme, Peace Corps – Institutions Creation of Bretton Woods • Nationalist/socialist movements agreements: United Nations system, and revolutions World Bank, IMF, US Food Aid 1960s • Social movements and guerrillas • Consolidation of welfare state Call from developing countries • 1970: United Nations • Adult literacy and popular GNP growth + • Export-led growth: for local people to participate in Volunteers (UNV) set up under education, conscientisation, basic needs commodities and oil boom development interventions General Assembly resolution A/ reflection and action • Dependency theory RES/2659 • Development as transformation Redistribution with • Human capital formation: 1970s International volunteers were to • South–South and national • Collectivisation growth nutrition, health, education be learners as well as teachers, volunteering schemes start • Women in development (WID) • Population control working with grass-roots • 1979: Foundation of Mercy – feminist approaches to social *Agent of change* • Rural–urban migration as development workers Corps change Capitalist and development pathway socialist states – Institutions Unconditional lending from IFIs • Endogenous growth Shift in volunteer-sending • VSO and UNV move from a • Neoliberalism agencies’ approaches to paradigm of technical assistance GNP growth + • Structural adjustment development from advocating to one that emphasises mutual ‘trickle-down’ effect 1980s • Trade and growth participation to generating