This thesis investigates volunteering as performance. In exploring this topic I discuss a dynamic between self-interest and selflessness in the observable performance of service through the social mechanisms of volunteerism. I argue that self-interest is a prominent motivation for volunteering, but its overt performance is kept in check by norms that emphasize selflessness. My argument centers on addressing this lack of acknowledgement toward self-interest within vernacular culture. My research draws examples from an individual, organizational, and global volunteer perspective. Ethnographic research was conducted for this study with a student group that organizes one of the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life fundraisers. Within this organization, I conceptualize volunteering as a performance that requires a social actor to not just “do” service, but also “show do” and/or “explain show do” their behavior in front of an audience. This presentation culminates in a cultural performance where participants at Relay For Life perform a narrative of selflessness. Expanding my discussion of volunteering to a global perspective, my last chapter addresses volunteer tourism. I argue that the self-interest of both volunteers and volunteer travel companies reduces the recipients of volunteer tourism to essentialized and exociticized cultural "Others." I advocate for the overt acknowledgement of self-interest not only because self-interest is present, but also because it is a central dynamic that constructs volunteerism as performance.

This research explores feelings of obligation to volunteer, which lie at the interface of volunteering as simultaneously individual and collective and challenge traditional understandings of volunteering as leisure. The study examined volunteering within the context of communitarianism, particularly how collective outcomes of volunteering are related to feelings of obligation to volunteer. Phase one of this research focused on scale creation of a measure assessing feelings of obligation in the context of volunteerism. Using exploratory factor analyses of data from a student sample, this first phase yielded two measures: an 18-item Obligation to Volunteer as Commitment measure (OVC), encompassing dimensions of reward, affective attachment, flexibility, and side bets; and a 14-item Obligation to Volunteer as Duty measure (OVD), encompassing the dimensions of expectation, burden, and constraint. In phase two, survey research was conducted with 300 volunteers at ten community organizations. These new measures were used to examine relationships between obligation to volunteer and the value orientations of individualism and collectivism, the experience of volunteering as serious leisure, and the community characteristics of sense of community and social cohesion. Both individualism and collectivism were associated with the commitment but not the duty dimension of feelings of obligation, and both value orientations, but particularly individualism, was linked to serious leisure. Serious leisure very closely aligned with the commitment aspect of obligation as well as sense of community and social cohesion, thus emerging as a possible pathway for nurturing sense of community in a culture of individualism. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses link the commitment aspect of obligation to sense of community and social cohesion. Feelings of duty to volunteer, in contrast, were inversely related to sense of community. Thus, the nature of feelings of obligation related to volunteering as commitment or duty have significant implications for the collective outcomes of volunteering, particularly sense of community. Also notable are the strong theoretical and empirical relationships between the OVC scale and serious leisure, which suggest that the newly-developed commitment scale could be considered a measure of the agreeable obligation that accompanies serious leisure pursuits.

Volunteer tourism, a sub-sector of the tourism industry, is growing at an accelerated pace subsequently creating socio-cultural, political, cultural, and environmental impacts. Current tourism literature suggests volunteer tourism provides opportunities for participants to facilitate building relationships with like-minded volunteers and encourages consciousness-raising experiences (McGehee & Santos, 2005). Furthermore, volunteer tourism has been shown to foster cross-cultural understanding between participants and hosts (Raymond & Hall, 2008; McIntosh & Zahra, 2008). However, researchers question the laudable aims of volunteer tourism; indicating the presence of this type of tourism creates social and power struggles within local destination communities (Guttentag, 2009, Sin, 2010). Higgins-Desbiolles (2006) claims the transformative capacities of tourism are overshadowed by industry attributes of tourism. To use tourism as a positive engine for social, cultural, environmental, and political change, it would be necessary to promote touristic experiences that encompass a transformative ethos. My exploration of organic volunteering within this thesis illuminates the transformative capacities of these touristic experiences and contributes to the expanding horizons of volunteer tourism literature. This hermeneutic phenomenological study explores experiences of organic volunteering and what these experiences mean to the volunteers. Gadamer’s (2004) hermeneutic phenomenology provided me the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of the meaning of organic volunteering experiences studied in Argentina. Using interviews and participation observation, I explored meanings of organic volunteering, while I also considered volunteers’ historicity, or pre-understandings, of these experiences. Data analysis revealed the emergent essential structure of “Opening to living in interconnectedness.” Interconnectedness within organic volunteering is embodied in six essences of reconnecting, exchanging knowledge, being in nature, bonding with others, consciousness-raising, and transforming. My research reinforces what many organizations’ claim; volunteer experiences improve global citizenship and participants desire to become more involved in future activism upon their return home.

Der Weg in die nächste Bibliothek ist weit, in das nächste Museum oder auch nur in die nächste Schule mit langen Busfahrten und, besonders für Kinder, erheblichem Stress verbunden. Ein Ausflug in die Bücherei ist eher ein Highlight als alltägliches Geschehen.

Mit den erschütternden Kompetenzbefunden von Pisa 2000 wurde der Wert des Lesens quasi neu erfunden. Kaum eine Konzeption oder ein Grundsatzpapier, fast egal zu welchem Thema, das nicht prosaisch auf die Grundwerte des Lesens verwies. Prosa freilich, die von kommunalen Entscheidungsträgern gern überblättert wird, und Prosa auch, die ungewollt das mediale Gute und Böse einmal mehr polarisiert. Das Lesen ist nach wie vor untrennbar mit dem guten alten Buch verbunden, als Konnotation die heile Welt einer vorlesenden Großmutter, wenn auch ohne Brille und Dutt, aber mit viel Wärme in der Stimme. Das Lesen am Bildschirm, das Lesen der BILD-Zeitung oder die Lektüre von PC-Spiel-Magazinen sind eher nicht gemeint.

Die HALLE 14 ist ein gemeinnütziges Kunstzentrum auf der Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei. Die öffentliche Kunstbibliothek der HALLE 14 mit einem Gesamtbestand von 36.000 Büchern und Medien zur zeitgenössischen Kunst ist seit Januar 2009 im Herzen des ehemaligen Industriegebäudes, dem Besucherzentrum öffentlich zugänglich. Nach und nach wird hier der jährlich um circa 3000 Medien wachsende Bestand der Bibliothek erschlossen. Kathrin Winkler, Fachangestellte für Medien- und Informationsdienste, bringt sich seit November 2010 ehrenamtlich in der Bibliothek der HALLE 14 ein. In einem Gespräch haben Monique Erlitz, die Projektleiterin der Kunstbibliothek der HALLE 14, und Kathrin Winkler Gründe sowie Probleme und Chancen des Ehrenamts erörtert.

There have been a lot of studies dedicated to investigating nation branding as a set of political discourses and practices deploying analysis of objects of symbolic nature: logotypes, brand books, slogans and commercials. The present thesis aims to study nation branding as a form of communicative labour through investigating volunteering as a form of media work that is used as a tool of the nation branding campaign in Ukraine during the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017. By using the theoretical concepts of nation branding, values and motivations of free labour in media industries, the thesis analyses the role of volunteers in the nation branding campaign during ESC 2017, volunteering as a specific form of media work and the motivation tools employed by the organisers and volunteers themselves to make sense of their involvement in the event. The analysis suggests that the roles assigned to volunteers as bearers of the nation brand are of great importance but the volunteers’ understanding of this process is rather confused and blurred. Another point highlighted in the thesis is how is volunteering was organised in terms of training and motivation on the side of organisers and what kind of motivations were of the crucial significance to volunteers themselves.

A presente pesquisa teve como questão norteadora a problematização da emergência dos jovens como objeto de investimento de políticas públicas. O trabalho de dissertação se inscreveu no campo de pesquisa em Psicologia Social. Tomou-se como referência teórico-metodológica conceitos e propostas de análise de Michel Foucault. Adicionalmente, foram consultadas obras de autores tais como Dreyfus, Rabinow, Castel e Bauman, e artigos de autores como Sposito, Castro, Rojas e Abramovay. Analisaram-se documentos de dois projetos de políticas públicas de juventude — um no Brasil, o Consórcio Social da Juventude, e outro na Inglaterra, o Northamptonshire Millennium Volunteers — que propõem ações nos campos da educação e/ou da formação profissional. Para a análise, considerou-se o contexto das políticas públicas de juventude nos dois países. Foi possível, ainda, dialogar com alguns gestores e executores dos dois projetos. Deste modo, buscouse visibilizar os enunciados e discursos sobre juventude que operam nos projetos de políticas públicas, além de destacar os modos de ser jovem que se constituem como emergências possíveis nos projetos analisados. A partir dos elementos elencados dos enunciados, definiram-se três eixos principais de análise: juventude voluntária, juventude vulnerável e juventude trabalhadora. A problematização desenvolvida permitiu falar de relações e de processos mais coletivos que destacam os modos como, na contemporaneidade, se constroem determinadas universalidades de juventudes. / The present dissertation had as research question the problematization of the emergence of young people as object of investment of government policies. This work is inserted in the field of research in Social Psychology. We adopted as theoretical and methodological reference concepts and analysis proposed by Michel Foucault. Additionally, concepts developed by Dreyfus, Rabinow, Castel, Bauman, Sposito, Castro, Rojas, Abramovay, among others, were proficuous for the analysis. We analysed documents of two projects of government policies designed for young people — one in Brazil, the Consórcio Social da Juventude, and another in England, the Northamptonshire Millennium Volunteers — that planned actions in the fields of education and/or professional training. For the analysis, we considered the context of government policies for young people in both countries. It was possible to establish contacts with some professionals who worked in the projects, which contributed for the research work and analysis. We examined the statements and discourses on young people that operate in the government policies. We sought to highlight the ways of being that emerged as possibilities for the young people who took part in the projects. Based on the elements culled from the statements, we defined three main axes for the process of analysis: volunteering youth, vulnerable youth and working youth. The developed problematization made it possible to speak of more collective processes and relations that highlight the ways how some youth generalities are constructed in the contemporaneity.

The goal of diploma work is to describe current state of volunteering within social rehabilitation in the facilities providing social services in the town of Benešov and the surrounding area. Partial aim of diploma work is to find out the positive effects of the project Patron which was included in the work as an example of application of volunteering within social. With regards of the above mentioned goals, two research questions were set. 1. How is volunteering within social rehabilitation being used in organisations providing social services? 2. What are the positive effects of project Patron? Quantitative strategy, questioning method, the technique of managed and semi managed interview were used for research. Set research questions were answered by means of three research sets, where the technique of semi managed interview was used and one research subject, where the technique of managed interview was used. To ascertain the first research question a research set comprising of 10 social workers employed in facilities providing social services in the town of Benešov or the surrounding area was determined. Given criteria for taking part in the research was the length of employment of social workers being more than on year in their profession. The range of questions for the first research set was prepared for the case when the facility was using the help of volunteers and not. After gaining the necessary data, interviews were rewritten and evaluated with the help of open coding process when all the data was clearly organized into each category. Results arising from data gained in the first research set show that all facilities, where the informants work, providing social services apply social rehabilitation. The research further shows that 7 out of 10 facilities for social services use volunteers who participate on social rehabilitation of their clients and they are in the direct contact with clients. Volunteers, according to gained results, work with clients individually and in groups. 5 of the facilities using the help of volunteers are considering the expansion of volunteering and thinking about other areas where they could include the work of volunteers. One of the facilities which does not use volunteers is preparing for including volunteers in their work. Second research question of diploma work was researched by the means of third research sets and one research subject. The second set comprised of 5 boys who live in children's home near the town of Benešov and who are the clients of project Patron. The third research sets comprised of 5 men who volunteer for the project Patron. To complete information about project Patron and interview with a research subject representing the manager of project Patron was made. To gain necessary data the interviews were rewritten and then evaluated. Data gained from the second and third research sets were evaluated with the help of open coding process when all the data was clearly organized into each category Information gained from research subject was based on the research technique interpreted with the help of interview transcription. Data obtained from research sets show that clients and volunteers of project Patron get to know each other during common weekends. Volunteers meet the clients approximately once or twice a month to take part in their favourite activities and to talk. The research further shows volunteers and clients have good relationships based on trust. Based on answers from all informants we can without doubt claim that project Patron has very big positive effect. Clients of the project state they are glad they gained a new adult friend because in the children's home they lack male role models. Volunteers see the positive effect of project Patron in the possibility to help boys from children's home to get to know the world with the help of adult male.

A presente pesquisa teve como questão norteadora a problematização da emergência dos jovens como objeto de investimento de políticas públicas. O trabalho de dissertação se inscreveu no campo de pesquisa em Psicologia Social. Tomou-se como referência teórico-metodológica conceitos e propostas de análise de Michel Foucault. Adicionalmente, foram consultadas obras de autores tais como Dreyfus, Rabinow, Castel e Bauman, e artigos de autores como Sposito, Castro, Rojas e Abramovay. Analisaram-se documentos de dois projetos de políticas públicas de juventude — um no Brasil, o Consórcio Social da Juventude, e outro na Inglaterra, o Northamptonshire Millennium Volunteers — que propõem ações nos campos da educação e/ou da formação profissional. Para a análise, considerou-se o contexto das políticas públicas de juventude nos dois países. Foi possível, ainda, dialogar com alguns gestores e executores dos dois projetos. Deste modo, buscouse visibilizar os enunciados e discursos sobre juventude que operam nos projetos de políticas públicas, além de destacar os modos de ser jovem que se constituem como emergências possíveis nos projetos analisados. A partir dos elementos elencados dos enunciados, definiram-se três eixos principais de análise: juventude voluntária, juventude vulnerável e juventude trabalhadora. A problematização desenvolvida permitiu falar de relações e de processos mais coletivos que destacam os modos como, na contemporaneidade, se constroem determinadas universalidades de juventudes. / The present dissertation had as research question the problematization of the emergence of young people as object of investment of government policies. This work is inserted in the field of research in Social Psychology. We adopted as theoretical and methodological reference concepts and analysis proposed by Michel Foucault. Additionally, concepts developed by Dreyfus, Rabinow, Castel, Bauman, Sposito, Castro, Rojas, Abramovay, among others, were proficuous for the analysis. We analysed documents of two projects of government policies designed for young people — one in Brazil, the Consórcio Social da Juventude, and another in England, the Northamptonshire Millennium Volunteers — that planned actions in the fields of education and/or professional training. For the analysis, we considered the context of government policies for young people in both countries. It was possible to establish contacts with some professionals who worked in the projects, which contributed for the research work and analysis. We examined the statements and discourses on young people that operate in the government policies. We sought to highlight the ways of being that emerged as possibilities for the young people who took part in the projects. Based on the elements culled from the statements, we defined three main axes for the process of analysis: volunteering youth, vulnerable youth and working youth. The developed problematization made it possible to speak of more collective processes and relations that highlight the ways how some youth generalities are constructed in the contemporaneity.