Tensions in various fields of volunteering. A comparison between the church, sports, environmental associations and welfare organisations.
Final Report Abstract
Using narrative interviews and group discussions with (former) volunteers, we analysed engaging and disengaging experiences in various areas of volunteer work. We compared volunteering narratives by volunteers from charities, sports clubs, environmental initiatives and churches. The narrative interviews were conducted with volunteers who had terminated their involvement, as they were able to recount the process of volunteering from beginning to end. The group discussions were held with volunteers who had not yet completed their involvement, in order to check that the experiences analysed applied not only to a specific group of especially critical individuals who had quit volunteering. A systematic comparison of the narratives reveals tensions specific to particular areas of volunteering: Volunteering narratives from charities were marked by experiences of close contact with service users, which had an engaging effect on the volunteers. Disengaging factors are observations on practices and methods resulting from the economization of care. Volunteering narratives from churches are marked by contradictions between different understandings of churches, which volunteers must negotiate among themselves. In narratives about volunteering in sports clubs, meanwhile, we find a specific tension between, on the one hand, the joy of doing sport together and, on the other, the burden of creating and maintaining the structures of the club. Finally, volunteering narratives about environmental initiatives show that the objectives of volunteering (preserving the environment and nature) are described as fundamental, while the resources required (knowledge and time) are limited. In this context, volunteers begin competing with each other. Besides these four kinds of tension specific to areas of volunteering, we also analysed three general kinds of tension: Volunteering is marked by collaboration, yet different ideas of collaboration, which are not negotiated explicitly, make it more difficult to work together. Furthermore, volunteering must be given a specific meaning connected to the volunteer’s own biography. And finally, the narratives are marked by a specific vulnerability resulting from a special relationship volunteers develop with collectives, places, and tasks – whose loss is experienced as painful.
Link to the final report
https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/108446
Publications
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Kooperationsbeziehungen im Engagement. Teilhabe und Ausschlüsse im Engagement, 67-84. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
Kewes, Andreas; Müller, Moritz & Munsch, Chantal
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VIII.10 Abbrüche und Beendigungen. Zivilgesellschaftliches Engagement und Freiwilligendienste, 885-894. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
Kewes, Andreas; Müller, Moritz & Munsch, Chantal
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Why Cooperation in Volunteer Work Can Fail Despite the Best Intentions: Conflicting Ideas in Narrations From Volunteers. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 54(5), 1178-1200.
Kewes, Andreas; Müller, Moritz & Munsch, Chantal
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Engagement im Zwiespalt. Beltz Juventa.
Kewes, Andreas; Müller, Moritz & Munsch, Chantal
