Abstract
Better understanding national and local contexts of volunteering has been a central theme of the Valuing Volunteering project, a 2-year participatory Systemic Action Research investigation that has sought to build a better understanding of where, when and how volunteering affects poverty (Systemic action research: A strategy for whole system change. Bristol: The Policy Press, 2007). This chapter explores how and why perceptions of national and local volunteers vary across different country contexts. Drawing on evidence from Mozambique, Kenya and Nepal, the chapter describes how perceptions have been shaped by the specific economic, historical, political and development contexts in which volunteering is situated in each country. Attention is drawn to recurring trends observed across the three countries, which reveal how the state and international development actors’ involvement with volunteerism has influenced perceptions, at times dramatically changing traditional notions of volunteering based on self-help and mutual support. The research highlights the impact that these perceptions have on volunteers as they undertake their voluntary work.
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Notes
- 1.
The terms ‘without pay’, ‘without financial gain’ and ‘unpaid’ are frequently referred to as being a core characteristic of voluntary action . However, confusion surrounds what unpaid means in practice. A particularly sensitive issue is that of stipends and/or allowances which can often be paid without being considered to contravene the principle of volunteering being ‘unpaid’. Sometimes, they are offered as a tokenistic appreciation of a volunteer’s time and frequently as reimbursement for travel or refreshment expenses, particularly when it is seen as easier to do than reimburse specific claims. International volunteers and volunteers with major international volunteer cooperation organisations (IVCOs) such as VSO, UNV and CUSO may also receive significant stipends, though these are often considered to be substantially below market salaries. For this reason, UNV states that volunteering action be carried out ‘not primarily for financial gain’ in recognition of the fact that there may be some financial remuneration involved (Leigh et al.;, 2011).
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Hacker, E., Picken, A., Lewis, S. (2017). Perceptions of Volunteering and Their Effect on Sustainable Development and Poverty Alleviation in Mozambique, Nepal and Kenya. In: Butcher, J., Einolf, C. (eds) Perspectives on Volunteering. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39899-0_3
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