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RECOGNIZING SKILL DEVELOPMENT
THROUGH VOLUNTEERING AS A ROUTE TO
EMPLOYMENT: REFLECTIONS FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF VOLUNTEERING
Prof. dr. Lesley Hustinx – EUROVIP conference – Brussels, April 26, 2018
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
CENTRE FOR SOCIAL THEORY
REPOSITIONING VOLUNTEERING
Policies and practices that promote and facilitate
volunteering as a lever for social and professional inclusion
of youth, such as a tool for building a portfolio for
volunteering experiences, could be considered a form of
‘third party volunteering’ (Haski-Leventhal, Meijs & Hustinx, 2010)
= increasing involvement of governments, businesses and
educational institutes to enhance and utilize volunteering
DEFINITION: 4 DIMENSIONS
(Anheier, 2005, p.222 based on Cnaan, Handy & Wadsworth, 1996)
3
PUBLIC PERCEPTION: NET COST
The most foundational unit of the construction of the
volunteer concept is a cost-benefit analysis:
“The individual incurring higher net cost is likely to be
perceived as ‘more’ of a volunteer than someone
with a lower net cost” (Handy et al. 2000, pp. 47–48)
4
INDIVIDUAL BENEFITS AS A ‘BY-PRODUCT’
‘Positive externalities’ of participation (Dekker, 2002)
Civic skills ( democracy)
Social capital ( social cohesion)
Self-development young people (Hustinx,2001)
Economic ‘spillover effects’ (Benenson, 2017)
Wat if this becomes a primary function?
5
YOUNG PEOPLE AND VOLUNTEERING
Specific interests as part of life-course perspective
Volunteering as experimental space for DIY-biography
(Hustinx, 2001)
“Serious leisure” (Stebbins) versus episodic volunteering
(Macduff)
“Flexivol”-scheme for young people (Gaskin)
(flexibility, legitimacy, ease of access, ‘xperience, incentives, variety,
organization, laughs)
6
DIVERSITY IN CITIZENSHIP PRACTICES
5 repertoires of participation among Belgian and Dutch
university students
Passive citizens (.19)
Classical volunteers (.13)
Humanitarian citizens (.12)
Monitorial citizens (.39)
Civic omnivores (.17)
7
THE RISE OF INSTRUMENTAL MOTIVATIONS?
8
(Dean, 2014, p.235)
(Handy, Cnaan, Hustinx et al., 2010)
Resume building MTV has a statistically significant negative
impact on volunteer participation
Students who are more strongly motivated by resume building
MTV reported volun- teering less frequently and investing
fewer hours in volunteering
However, in countries, such as in North America where resume
building is a normative expectation, large number of students
respond with high rates of volunteering and with a higher
intensity. The findings would suggest—contrary to our
theoretical assumptions—that regular volunteering is a more
credible signal of volunteering than is episodic volunteering,
which is a less costly engagement.
‘TRANSACTIONAL VOLUNTEERING’ (DEAN)
Dean (2014) points to structural factors (policies,
programs) that stimulate instrumental MTV
Emergence of a ‘short-terminism’ in volunteering:
short-term instrumentality prevails over long-term and
more ‘holistic’ involvement, both among volunteers and
professionals running the programs
Eliasoph (2009, 2011): volunteering as bookkeeping,
counting hours to earn study credits
11
“Young people came forward to plant trees and clear
canals, not because they wanted to plant trees and clear
canals, but because they wanted to say they had planted
trees and cleared canals. The work had been supplanted
by the experience.” (Dean, 2014, p.243)
12
THE EROSION OF FREE CHOICE?
13
VOLUNTEERING AS A REQUIREMENT
When the potential of volunteering for employment is
increasingly promoted and recognized, to have/show
volunteering experience can become a “non-negotiable
necessity in young people’s lives” (Dean, 2014, p.233)
So rather than a free choice, it can become a requirement;
rather than ‘extra-curricular’, it becomes ‘co-curricular’ (Holdsworth & Brewis, 2013)
Youth that were enforced to volunteer, were less likely to
volunteer again (Warburton & Smith, 2003)
14
53
Figure 2: Discursive field of workfare volunteering
Rig
hts
Care
Labor market participation
Du
ties
Conditionality framework
Capability framework
Deficit model
Contractual labor
Ý Economic integration
Social integration
ß Labor resembling activities
Activ
atio
n la
dd
er
Volu
nteerin
g a
s route
to em
plo
ymen
t
Volu
nte
erin
g a
s altern
ati
ve to e
mplo
ymen
t
Demonstrating work-willingness:
Paid work aspiration
Demonstrating work-willingness: Volunteering as client-adjusted engagement
and responsibilities
- Inability to conduct paid labor
- Volunteering inferior to paid labor
- Volunteering to effectuate right to
labor/social integration
- Volunteering to empower
15 (De Waele & Hustinx, 2018)
COMPETENCE BUILDING AT TWO DIFFERENT SPEEDS?
16
ATTENTION FOR INEQUALITY IN VOLUNTEERING
Young people from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds
experience civic service very differently (Simonet, 2009)
Not all volunteers are equal: job segregation in volunteering (Musick &
Wilson, 2008)
Not all young people will have equal opportunities for skill
development
Volunteering reproduces inequalities present in the labor market “Re-
exclusion” through volunteering (Hustinx et al., 2015)
Too much focus on individual skills development (supply side), neglect
of the demand side of employability (Ellis-Paine et al., 20013)
17
UNEQUAL ACCESS TO VOLUNTEERING
3,8%
6,0%
9,7%
13,0%
20,3%
26,0%
0,0%
5,0%
10,0%
15,0%
20,0%
25,0%
30,0%
Geen diploma
Lager onderwijs
Lager secundair onderwijs
Hoger secundair onderwijs en postsecundaironderwijs
Hoger niet-universitair onderwijs (bachelor)
Universitair onderwijs (master)
Aandeel van de Vlaamse bevolking dat vrijwilligerswerk verricht naar opleiding (in %)
18
Percentage of volunteering in Flanders according to level of education (Hustinx et al., 2015)
% OF VOLUNTEERS ACCORDING TO THE TYPE OF OCCUPATION
19 (Hustinx et al., 2015)
EDUCATION
20
0,00%
5,00%
10,00%
15,00%
20,00%
25,00%
30,00%
35,00%
40,00%
Management functions Intellectual, Scientific or ArtisticProfessions
Intermediate Professions Services and Sales Workers Skilled and half skilled Workers Elementary occupations
Lower secondary
Higher secondary
Professional bachelor
Univeristy
(Hustinx et al., 2015)
21 (Benenson, 2017)
ORI GI NA L PA PER
Civic Engagement and Economic Opportunity AmongLow-Income Individuals: An Asset-Based Approach
Jodi Benenson1
Published online: 10 March 2017
Ó International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University 2017
Abstract This study uses an asset-based approach to examine the ways social and
human capital accessed through civic engagement may serve as a pathway toward
economic opportunity for low-income individuals. Using a qualitative approach,
this study draws on interviews with 31 low-income individuals who are civically
engaged in a range of activities, including community organizing, giving money,
informal engagement, religious participation, and volunteering. Findings contribute
to the literature suggesting that study participants were often able to mobilize and
deploy the social and human capital assets accumulated through different types of
civic engagement into employment and education opportunities. However,
embedded within social and human capital assets are also examples of the ways
structural factors influenced whether study participants could transfer social and
human capital assets acquired through civic engagement into economic
opportunities.
Resume La presente etude a recours a une approche basee sur les capitaux pour
examiner les facons dont les capitaux sociaux et humains utilises dans le cadre
d’engagement civil pourraient servir de passerelle menant a des opportunites
d’ordre economique pour les individus a faible revenu. Grace a une approche
qualitative, l’ etude s’ inspire d’entrevues realisees aupres de 31 individus a faible
revenu qui participent a une gamme d’activites civiles, dont l’organisation com-
munautaire, l’offre de dons en argent, le benevolat et la participation a des
evenements informels et religieux. Les decouvertes contribuent a la documentation
existante en suggerant que les repondants pouvaient souvent mobiliser les capitaux
sociaux et humains accumules dans le cadre de divers engagements civils et les
& Jodi Benenson
1 School of Public Administration, College of Public Affairs and Community Service, University
of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA
123
Voluntas (2017) 28:988–1014
DOI 10.1007/s11266-017-9852-2
Lesley Hustinx Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
T +32 9 264 84 71
www.ugent.be
Ghent University
@ugent
Ghent University
