The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

Jean-Luc Arrègle, EMLYON Business School (editor) Laure Cabantous, Warwick Business School (editor) Stewart Clegg, University of Technology, Sydney (editor) Olivier Germain, Université du Québec à Montréal (editor, book reviews) Karim Mignonac, Université de Toulouse 1 (editor) Philippe Monin, EMLYON Business School (editor) Tyrone Pitsis, University of Newcastle (editor) José Pla-Barber, Universidad de València (editor) Michael Tushman, Harvard Business School (editor)

Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, And Politics of Cooperation

This article critically examines reciprocity in international volunteering. It first highlights tensions and unintended consequences that can emerge when pursuing reciprocal relationships between h...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1464993417713275

Revisiting reciprocity in international volunteering

The growing diversity of North – South international volunteerism challenges the widely accepted distinction between volunteering for development as a long-standing component of official development assistance and the more recent phenomenon of volunteer tourism as a private sector led commercial endeavour focused primarily on the personal growth of the volunteer. This paper reviews recent research that blurs this distinction by placing international volunteering within the geographical imaginaries of development and the neoliberal practices of governance of aidland. It focuses on four themes tackled in recent research: i) the ways in which neoliberal ideologies have shaped the motivations, goals, practices and governance of international volunteering; ii) the contexts in which international volunteering can foster more equitable relationships between Northern and Southern development actors; iii) what roles emotion and affect play in these relationships, and iv) the extent to which international volunteering can offer a critical perspective on the rules, logics and ideologies of aidland. The main argument is that while neoliberal conceptualisations of development have evidently shaped international volunteering, they do not fully capture the relational and experiential impacts of volunteering. The technologies of proximity afforded by volunteering can lead to critical and transformative insights into development and aidland, particularly when volunteers are embedded in local organisations over a longer time.

International volunteering in a changing aidland

Strategies Nonprofit Organizational Leaders use to Retain Volunteers by Quinita Morrow MS, Troy University, 2006 BS, Albany State University, 2005 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University March 2019 Abstract Nonprofit organizations’ functionality is impacted by a shortage of volunteers. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore the strategies that nonprofit organizational leaders implemented to retain volunteers. The conceptual framework for this study was Maslow’s functional motivation theory. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 3 leaders of nonprofit organizations in Georgia whoNonprofit organizations’ functionality is impacted by a shortage of volunteers. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore the strategies that nonprofit organizational leaders implemented to retain volunteers. The conceptual framework for this study was Maslow’s functional motivation theory. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 3 leaders of nonprofit organizations in Georgia who implemented effective strategies for retaining volunteers for at least 1 year. Data analysis of the interview responses and archival documents consisted of compiling the data, coding the data, disassembling the data into common themes, reassembling the data into themes, interpreting the meaning, and reporting the themes. The 5 major themes from the findings of this study were strategies for providing proper training to volunteers, strategies for keeping volunteers engaged and motivated, strategies for showing volunteers the effects of their volunteering, strategies for building relationships with volunteers, and strategies for providing volunteers with a positive and fun experience. Nonprofit organizational leaders could use the findings of this study to implement successful strategies for recruiting and retaining volunteers. The implications for positive social change include creating a balance between the nonprofit organizations and the volunteers who provide their service to contribute to the communities they serve. Strategies Nonprofit Organizational Leaders use to Retain Volunteers by Quinita Morrow MS, Troy University, 2006 BS, Albany State University, 2005 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University March 2019 Dedication I dedicate the blood, sweat, and tears throughout the pages of this dissertation to my Heavenly Father. Without Him, none of this would have been made possible. To my three amazing children, Isaiah, Grayson, and Taylor Rose, Mommy did this for you! I love you all so much, and I want you to know and understand that everything I do is because of the three of you. Continue to follow your dreams and know that anything is possible with God. Trust and believe in Him. To my mom Anita, words could never express what you mean to me and your grandkids. Thank you for changing your entire life for US! All the late nights, early mornings, being a Super Nana to my children and all the other million things you do for me, thank you! I did it Ma! We did it! To my forever always, my Daddy. I wish you were here to see this moment. I wish I could hear you say just one last time how proud you are of me. Just know that all I ever wanted to do was make you proud. I did it daddy! I finally earned my doctorate degree. Thank you for instilling in me the value of education. This is for you! I love you, daddy, and miss you dearly. Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my committee chair, Dr. Sarah Matthey. Thank you for your support, guidance, and commitment to seeing me through the end and getting my study completed. Thank you for your endless support and always being an e-mail/phone call away. I will forever be grateful because of you. To my second committee member, Dr. Janie Hall, and my URR member, Dr. Jorge Gaytan, thank you both for your continued support throughout this entire process. My deepest appreciation goes to each of you because without you, there would be no study. Finally, to all of my family and friends, thank you for dealing with all of my tears and allowing me to miss so many of your milestones so I could focus on getting this done.

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Strategies Nonprofit Organizational Leaders use to Retain Volunteers

This article looks at what happens when volunteering goes well. It provides a theoretical and empirical grounding for understanding how volunteers enable outcomes such as participation and cooperation in complex change environments. The findings point to three important qualities of volunteer relationships, which alter how people feel about themselves, others and their situation: informality, the act of doing together and networked reciprocity. When these relational styles foster three psychosocial experiences known to support human wellbeing – relatedness, competency and autonomy – they make it possible for marginalised and poor groups to participate, initiate and share ownership in the change process. When socially as well as personally rewarding, volunteer relationships can also strengthen solidarity, a knowledge of other's strengths and social commitment, strengthening the basis for social action to continue as a cooperative process with other people. Implications for how volunteering is utilised and strengthened as a strategy for community development are discussed.

/pdf/what-s-different-about-how-volunteers-work-relationship-1n04fc9n67.pdf

Jody Aked

Papers

What's Different about How Volunteers Work? Relationship Building for Wellbeing and Change