Volunteering for Development: current thinking in addressing inequalities in practice and research

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Panel Abstract

These three contributions represent the nature of current debates and discussions in the area of volunteering for development, recognising in different spaces the framing of research and practice which has been promoted based on conceptualisation and modalities drawn on perspectives from the global North. While each paper recognises the catalytic effect of COVID-19, the underpinning nature of dominant thinking and practice of the global North has arguably become more transparent, especially in transnational volunteering.
Allum & Perold draw out the existential challenges generated by the pandemic, but see in this process a development of new approaches to volunteering and a potential rebalancing of the terms of engagement in favour of the global South. This includes an enhanced recognition of the role of community and local volunteers as active participants in the sustainability of their own development aspirations.
Bailee Smith et al draw upon their research in Tanzania, Uganda and Nepal and conclude the recognition of this apparently new geography of volunteering that assigns new agency to local volunteers is connected to longstanding critiques of international volunteering and the link to the pandemic is perhaps a largely symbolic geography. They also observe that in the field of volunteering for development, research has tended to privilege the views of volunteers from the global North who volunteer in the global South.
This connection of inequalities in practice with inequalities in research is addressed directly by Mati et al who argue such bias derived from the dominance of the global North generates both a skewed and incomplete understanding of the role and impact of volunteering in development. Their paper explores how such inequalities have been historically developed and maintained and identifies concrete proposals for the way forward in redressing them.
These three contributions reflect the interest of the authors who seek to engage with the practitioner and researcher interface and is intended to be of interest to both researchers and practitioners.

References

Baillie Smith, M., Laurie, N. and Griffiths M. (2017). South–South Volunteering and Development. Geographic Journal 184(2): 158–68.
Baillie Smith, M., Jenkins, K., Adong, C., Anguan, G., Baniya, J., Baskota, P., Boudewijn, I., Fadel,B., Gibby, P., Kamanyi, E., Mademba, S., Okech, M., and Sharma, R. (2022). Volunteering Together: Blending Knowledge and Skills for Development. Northumbria University/VSO.
Baillie Smith, M. and Laurie, N. (2011). International Volunteering and Development: Global Citizenship and Neoliberal Professionalisation Today. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 36 (4): 545–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2011.00436.x
Blum, A. and Schäfer, D. (2018) Volunteer Work as a Neocolonial Practice-Racism in Transnational Education. Transnational Social Review 9 (2): 155–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/21931674.2017.1401427
Chadwick El-Ali, A. (2021). Hierarchies of Place & Knowledge in Volunteering for Development (IVCO 2021 Think Piece). https://forum-ids.org/hierarchies-of-place-knowledge-in-volunteering-for-development/
Collyer, F., Connell, R., Maia, J., and Morrell, R. (2019). Knowledge and Global Power: Making new sciences in the South. Wits University Press, Johannesburg; Menon, D.M. (ed) (2022). Changing Theory: Concepts from the Global South. Routledge (Oxford & New York) and Wits University Press, Johannesburg.
Perold, H, Mati, JM, Allum, C, & Lough, BJ (2021). COVID-19 and the Future of Volunteering for Development. Part 1: Research Report. Findings from a study conducted for the International Forum for Volunteering in Development. International Forum for Volunteering in Development. Available at
https://forum-ids.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Forum-Research-Report-COVID-19-and-the-Future-of-Volunteering-for-Development.pdf

Sub Unit

• Other Third Sector related topics

Moderator

• Cliff Allum, TSRC University of Birmingham

Individual Presentations

• Volunteering Modalities in a post-pandemic world - Cliff Allum, TSRC University of Birmingham; Helene Perold, Independent social researcher

• The rush to the local volunteer: A symbolic geography of volunteering? - Matt Baillie Smith, Centre for Global Development, Northumbria University; Katy Jenkins; Bianca Fadel, Northumbria University; Inge Boudewijn, Northumbria University

• Inequalities in Volunteering Research: A decolonial perspective - Jacob Mwathi Mati, Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment, University of the Witwatersrand; Helene Perold, Independent social researcher; Jacqueline Butcher, CIESC/Tecnologico de Monterrey; Christopher Millora