Exotic Place,White Space: Racialized Volunteer Spaces in Honduras

In every year between 2004 and 2012, more than 800,000 Americans reported volunteering internationally (Lough 2013 ). These volunteers are overwhelmingly white (McBride and Lough 2008 ) and entering a largely nonwhite and developing world. This study starts by questioning how racial status informs volunteer/volunteer tourist interactions, both with locals and with other volunteers, in a global context. In‐depth interviews with 23 missionaries, teachers, and volunteers from the United States and Canada reveal that (1) international volunteering is largely motivated by romantic and exotic understandings of the Global South and (2) in spite of a stated interest in cultural immersion, participants’ notions of their whiteness guided their perceptions of Hondurans and their actions as they sought out and retreated to white spaces protected from Honduran influence. These findings further the work of those who have argued first world travelers have homogenized spaces on reserve, by demonstrating that whiteness can be the basis for the construction and maintenance of protected spaces in predominantly nonwhite countries.     

作为权利保障的北京市志愿服务立法

法律上的志愿服务不等同于政治上和道德上的“义务劳动”、“做好人好事”。北京市进行志愿服务立法是必要的,立法要保护志愿者权利,规定志愿者义务,要积极关注学校的和社会的激励机制,要加强对志愿者组织的管理,立法要规定经费保障和强制保险。同时,立法要注意法律视角与政策视角的不同。     

Who is a volunteer? A cultural and temporal exploration of volunteerism

This study’s purpose was to develop a temporal and cultural definition of volunteering in China. Using a comparative mixed-methods approach, N₁ = 218 Chinese students in Hong Kong were surveyed about their perceptions of volunteering. These quantitative data were compared cross-culturally with a sample of adults in the United States who used the same instrument called Who is a Volunteer? Subsequently, N₂ = 40 of these same students voluntarily participated in a series of focus groups, to further explore more in-depth their opinions about volunteering. The main quantitative results revealed that at the extreme ends of the volunteer scale, both the U.S. and Chinese samples could readily distinguish what volunteering was or was not. The more nuanced empirical differences on the scale (24% of the 21 items) were explained either by unique cultural differences, or the longer and more prominent history that volunteering has had in North America versus China. Main qualitative findings revealed additional between-group cultural differences exemplified by (1) a more family-centric and collectivist Chinese culture versus a more individualistic American culture, (2) a role blurring about volunteer activities versus paid work activities, and (3) that both organizational and cultural context must be seriously considered when defining volunteerism. This study adds to the growing definitional literature on this transformational concept and represents the largest comparative empirical investigation on this subject from East Asia.     

大学生志愿精神与校园文化建设探讨

近年来，随着奥运会、世博会等一系列重大活动的成功举办，志愿者活动获得了社会公众的广泛认可，受到了越来越多的重视和支持。在志愿者队伍中，大学生是一支非常重要的力量，他们秉承奉献、友爱、互助、进步的志愿精神在志愿活动的各个领域发挥了积极作用。大学生志愿者活动已经成为高校校园文化建设的重要内容，弘扬大学生志愿精神也逐渐成为了推进大学校园文化建设的重要途径之一。针对弘扬大学生志愿精神，促进校园文化建设进行探讨，以期为高校校园文化建设提供新思路。     

Emerging volunteerism for Indonesian millennial generation: Volunteer participation and responsibility

ABSTRACT

Voluntary activities have been a part of Indonesian society since the pre-independence era until now. Volunteerism began implemented effectively in many countries after the Second World War, including in Indonesia. Currently, voluntary activities have grown in the community social life, especially volunteer involvement in the festival event. This article explores the involvement of young volunteers in the Krakatau Festival. The data were collected from the volunteers who were involved in the festivals. An ethnographic approach implemented to reveal the engagement of the individual during the event conducted. This article identifies the festival as a medium for young volunteers to strengthen self-civic virtue in the life of the millennial generation participation in the community. The result shows that young millennial generation’s activities cannot be separated from engagement with information technology, which can be used to strengthen social integration, active participation, and responsibility.     

The Institute for Senior Action

Abstract

Since 1977, the Joint Public Affairs Committee for Older Adults (JPAC) has been educating and mobilizing older adults to take an active role in the public policy decisions affecting their lives. Recognizing the need to better train its members in the techniques of social action and in an effort to familiarize recent retirees with the world of senior advocacy, JPAC founded a comprehensive leadership training program called the Institute for Senior Action in 1994. JPAC's 10-week training Institute integrates critical aging policy issues with practical grassroots applications for action. In addition to honing the skills of longtime community activists, the Institute serves as a vehicle for recent retirees and others to become more involved in social action.     

论志愿精神与道德的内在关联

志愿精神作为人类精神发展进程的重要标志或特殊形式,被前提性地预设为是道德的。通常认为,志愿精神与道德一样,属于人类生命世界的一种高级精神存在,融合着德性、实践性、价值性的基本内容,又体现出德性、实践性、价值性的显著特征。但要真正挖掘志愿精神背后包孕的道德基因,又往往缺乏前提性基础。因此,笔者试图以道德与实践为明线,以生命实践的价值理念为副线,尝试着分析道德何以先在地作为志愿精神的前提与可能,并进一步探讨志愿精神的道德合法性的三大来源,初步判断得出合道德的合法性是可能的,人们应当在实现"道德的实践"上做出自身努力,特别是要为道德的合法性与实践有效性之间的矛盾的解决寻求基本路径。     

Altruism and Volunteerism: The perceptions of altruism in four disciplines and their impact on the study of volunteerism

Although volunteering is the most organized and formal manner of altruism, the two subjects are rarely connected in literature. In this article reviewed is the egocentric approach that is found in four social disciplines: psychology, sociology, economics and socio-biology (evolutionism), and the way that studies on altruism are based on Utilitarian philosophy and on the homo economicus perception of man. All of the above have influenced the study of volunteerism: the research questions, the study areas, and the conclusions on the essence of volunteering. We then review a different approach based on Deontological philosophy: the alter-centric approach, already influencing the study of altruism. New directions of approaching and studying volunteerism are suggested.     

志愿精神的德性分析

在当前我国构建社会主义和谐社会的宏观背景下,从德性层面对志愿精神进行深入剖析有着重要的意义。将志愿精神从德性的静态与动态两方面分析考察,可得出以下结论：“奉献”是德性的最高境界,“友爱、互助”是德性的核心要素,“进步”是德性的实现结果。     

Volunteers' Power and Resistance in the Struggle for Shelter Animal Survival

This article presents an analysis of how volunteers use different forms of capital to resist the practices and discourses of the organization for which they volunteer. Volunteers at a large public animal shelter do not share the shelter's institutionally held belief that shelter death is an inevitable result of homelessness among companion animals; to reduce shelter death, they craft challenges to the shelter practice of putting dogs down and work to construct shelter death as an avoidable and problematic outcome. Their repertoire of resistance includes educational, health‐based, relational, moral, reputational, and legal strategies. The findings illuminate that volunteers’ social location outside of the shelter provides them with capital to engage in resistance within the shelter.