This dissertation examines the practices and social constructions of volunteering in Southern Africa. Grounded in structural and cultural theory, I focus on volunteering as the product, rather than the raw material, of political processes. My approach stresses the volunteers’ perspectives, yet centers on critiques of dominance. In doing so, I destabilize the view of volunteering as inherently pro-social behavior, or as intrinsically characteristic of deepening democratic systems. Combining evidence from Afrobarometer surveys and twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa and Zambia I show how meanings and practices, not just resources and capital, shape the socially constructed nature of volunteering given specific historic, economic and political conjunctures. The findings reveal that contemporary practices of volunteering in Southern Africa are a consequence of poverty, paternalistic exchange relationships, and state-civil society partnerships undergirded by foreign development aid. The dissertation is structured around four empirical points. The first concerns who volunteers. I identify characteristics of Africans who are most likely to actively belong to voluntary groups, and pinpoint the role of foreign development aid and poverty in shaping the volunteer landscape. The second highlights the positive connection between civic culture and active voluntary group membership in Africa, but I argue that this association does not inherently translate into greater democratic gains for a country. The third emphasizes “why” people volunteer. I document the exchange nature of volunteering, revealing its practical function for maintaining social cohesion and augmenting social capital, while simultaneously entrenching social hierarchies and paternalistic inequalities. The fourth point offers a theory linking three orientations to volunteering with activities in three different types of civil society. These view can be “allegiant,” “opportunistic,” or “challenging” and steer people toward volunteer activities that match their inclinations to enhance, confront, or preserve given social systems. Throughout this dissertation I illustrate how volunteerism aids residents of complex, diverse societies to define new social relations, craft compatible identities, and make meaning of social change. I present an effort in doing a sociology of volunteerism from Africa, rather simply in Africa, which increases the generalizability of existing theories of volunteerism to post-colonial, developing country contexts.

This thesis explores the lives of a group of fifteen exceptional women who were dedicated to the cause of advancing girls and women in sport and physical activity. Over several decades, they worked in a voluntary capacity to transform women in sport through practice and policy development. Moreover, they aligned such unpaid work with personal and local experiences of volunteering that eventually led to their participation in international sport circles and policies. The key settings for their voluntary service came from their roles in the emergence and maintenance of two international women‘s sport organisations – International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW) and WomenSport International (WSI). In addition, their voluntary roles were so substantial that they were inextricably interwoven within all aspects of their lives. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the participants‘ relationships with sport volunteering, in the particular settings of IAPESGW and WSI, whilst analysing the role of volunteering in their lives. The study utilised a holistic framework to gain an in-depth understanding about the women‘s commitment to the cause and how volunteering fits into their lifestyle. As there were no models from the sport volunteering field that were appropriate for this study, the research drew upon and developed Hustinx and Lammertyn‘s (2003) non-sport model called the Collective and Reflexive Styles of Volunteering (SOV). The SOV was valuable because it offered a multi-dimensional approach to explain how, why, and when the participants got involved with advancing women‘s sport and physical activity, and how their involvement related to and influenced their wider lifestyles. A critical realist and social constructionist philosophy was employed to have a greater understanding of the women‘s realities, and life history interviews were conducted to gain a greater understanding about how they constructed their knowledge about themselves, sport, and the world around them. The study illustrated the complexity of the women‘s volunteer participation. The findings suggested that their sport passion and identity guided many of their actions and activities throughout their life, such as choices for higher education and within professional work. In addition, the findings showed that it was their personal experiences and gained knowledge about gender disadvantages in sport that initially stimulated and then repeatedly reinforced their interests and commitment. Although these had strong impacts on the women‘s entrance into and commitment to the cause, the findings highlighted that the women had to identify the conditions of their relationships, family, and types of paid work to be compatible with levels of volunteering. The study concluded that sport researchers can benefit from examining volunteers from a holistic perspective to gain a better understanding of the conditions under which individuals make such an extreme, voluntary contribution to sport.

This thesis deals with volunteering at school and aims to inspire and motivate school (teachers) to involve students in volunteer activities. Volunteering is an activity which a person performs without remuneration and this activity fills and satisfies it. The first chapter is focused on high school students. It describes the development period of adolescence from the view of perspective of developmental psychology and evolutionary theories of Freud and Erikson. It also discusses students free time and studies at secondary school. The second part is about volunteering. It introduces the concept of volunteering and the motives for volunteering. It describes areas and forms of volunteer work, volunteering history, anchor of volunteering in the legislation of the Czech Republic. There are presented also organizations and projects in this part that use volunteers. Last and a central part of this thesis examines ways to engage high school students in volunteer activities. Why it makes sense to promote volunteer activities for students. It represents also the specific possibilities and ways to offer this activity and support. High school students are an important group of potential volunteers who are characterized by energy, ideas and enthusiasm. Voluntary work can be an important source of experience for them.

This thesis is a reflection from the cultural studies point of view of my personal volunteer experience in Ukraine. Its focus is to present practical use of anthropology or cultural studies knowledge in such field as volunteer or humanitarian work in a different culture. It suggests use of photography as a method of cognition of the environment. It presents an auto- photographic method as an alternative to a research using classical methods of visual anthropology. This thesis also presents two sets of photographs taken by children in a local orphanage which record their possible worlds. Key words: volunteering, auto-photography, visual anthropology, qualitative research, possible worlds

Partant de la multiplicité des conseils dispensés aux jeunes diplômés quant à la valorisation de leurs activités associatives, cette recherche interroge la place donnée à ce sujet dans le processus de recrutement et notamment les facteurs qui favorisent une prise en compte croissante des compétences qui y sont acquises. Elle s'appuie sur une enquête miroir quantitative (questionnaire en ligne) puis qualitative de 75 entretiens, auprès de jeunes diplômés de niveau Bac +5 et de recruteurs, managers, RH ou intermédiaires du recrutement. La recherche interroge l'image que les recruteurs ont de ces activités, notamment sur le potentiel de compensation des manques ressentis au travail qu'ils leur prêtent. Elle met l'accent sur les transformations à la fois des entreprises et du travail des cadres qui poussent certains recruteurs à considérer ces activités comme porteuses de compétence. Elle envisage également le candidat jeune diplômé comme un véritable acteur du recrutement, réflexif, stratège et capable de convaincre un recruteur de sa compétence. / Considering how much advice is given to young graduates regarding how they should leverage their associational activities, our research focuses on how these activities are mobilised during the recruitment procedure. It elaborates on the factors that foster the taking into account of the skills that are developed through these activities. It draws on a quantitative (CAWI) and qualitative survey (75 interviews) targeting both "Bac +5" graduates and recruiters (HR professionals, recruitment agencies and managers). The research investigate the recruiters' perception these activities, including the compensation mechanisms they see between them and the work situation. It emphasizes on the transformations of both companies and the executives' positions, that lead some recruiters to consider these activities as skill-providing. It views the young graduate as a genuine actor of the recruitment procedure: a reflexive strategist who is able to convince the recruiter of his or her skill set.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:20:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio Marcos Vargas de Oliveira.pdf: 948948 bytes, checksum: c069e0ce0b4c4f9f460eaf5f59b47365 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-02 / The United Nations - UN established the first year of this millennium as the year of volunteering. During that year, this form of unpaid work, the volunteer work, was carried out by millions of people in Brazil, as the result of the extraordinary growth in number of social organizations and volunteer workers in the second half of the twentieth century. Our study seeks to identify, trough the understanding of the relationship between structural changes and individual motivations related to social causes, the reasons for the growth in number of people developing volunteer activities. This work identifies the main social, political and economic changes during the said period in Brazil and the world which influenced that process and, based on the theory of Marx Weber about social action, the reasons which have led people to act voluntarily in social organizations and to create new such organizations / A Organização das Nações Unidas ONU definiu o primeiro ano deste milênio como o ano do voluntariado. Nesse ano, essa forma de trabalho sem remuneração, o trabalho voluntário, era desenvolvido por milhões de pessoas no Brasil, fruto do extraordinário crescimento do número de organizações sociais e de trabalhadores voluntários na segunda metade do século XX. O nosso estudo procura identificar os motivos do crescimento do número de pessoas desenvolvendo atividades voluntárias, por meio da compreensão das relações entre as alterações estruturais e das motivações individuais relacionadas às causas sociais. Assim, este trabalho identifica as principais mudanças sociais, políticas e econômicas ocorridas nesse período, no Brasil e no mundo, que influíram nesse processo e, com base no referencial teórico de Marx Weber sobre a ação social, as motivações que têm levado as pessoas a atuarem voluntariamente em organizações sociais e a criarem novas dessas organizações

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:53:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio Marcos Vargas de Oliveira.pdf: 948948 bytes, checksum: c069e0ce0b4c4f9f460eaf5f59b47365 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-02 / The United Nations - UN established the first year of this millennium as the year of volunteering. During that year, this form of unpaid work, the volunteer work, was carried out by millions of people in Brazil, as the result of the extraordinary growth in number of social organizations and volunteer workers in the second half of the twentieth century. Our study seeks to identify, trough the understanding of the relationship between structural changes and individual motivations related to social causes, the reasons for the growth in number of people developing volunteer activities. This work identifies the main social, political and economic changes during the said period in Brazil and the world which influenced that process and, based on the theory of Marx Weber about social action, the reasons which have led people to act voluntarily in social organizations and to create new such organizations / A Organização das Nações Unidas ONU definiu o primeiro ano deste milênio como o ano do voluntariado. Nesse ano, essa forma de trabalho sem remuneração, o trabalho voluntário, era desenvolvido por milhões de pessoas no Brasil, fruto do extraordinário crescimento do número de organizações sociais e de trabalhadores voluntários na segunda metade do século XX. O nosso estudo procura identificar os motivos do crescimento do número de pessoas desenvolvendo atividades voluntárias, por meio da compreensão das relações entre as alterações estruturais e das motivações individuais relacionadas às causas sociais. Assim, este trabalho identifica as principais mudanças sociais, políticas e econômicas ocorridas nesse período, no Brasil e no mundo, que influíram nesse processo e, com base no referencial teórico de Marx Weber sobre a ação social, as motivações que têm levado as pessoas a atuarem voluntariamente em organizações sociais e a criarem novas dessas organizações

This master's thesis deals with motivation of volunteers. The theoretical part focuses on the field of volunteering in general and also the field of motivation of volunteers. The empirical part presents results from the research that was conducted to find out what the motivation of volunteers in two non-profit organizations was. Findings were put into context and similarities and differences between the two were found. Research was based on questionnaires distributed to volunteers and in-depth interviews with the workers from both organizations. The interviews revealed the perspective of volunteer motivation from the organizations' side. Analysis of results was followed by recommendations for both organizations to improve their work with volunteers.

The thesis examines Youth Travel, the new trend and new segment of tourism. Its goal is to analyze this market and recommend the appropriate strategy to the destinations and enterprises in order to attract Youth Travelers. The theoretical part presents the definition of Youth Travel, indicates its benefits and analyses the factors of its development. The analytical part is concerned with the potential of the Czech Republic for the development of Youth Travel and the tendency of Youth Travelers to visit this destination. The contribution of this work can be seen in the new product concept which might be helpful in attracting Youth Travelers to one of the regions of the Czech Republic.

The disparity in test scores, known as the achievement gap, between African American and European American students has persisted despite research and reforms. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine what African American community members in a North Carolina school district perceived as the causes of the local achievement gap and what support they believed they could offer to close the gap. The theories of cultural-historical psychology, social cognition, learned helplessness, social disorganization, and the funds of knowledge concept, guided the data collection from the 3 focus groups from the local community. Each focus group contained 6 to 7 people who were below, at, or above median income. They included members of the local African American community such as business people, parents, educators, and clergy. Open and selective data coding procedures organized data into major themes. The major themes were past school experience, parental role, and community involvement. All focus groups identified the lack of support from the African American community as the primary cause of the achievement gap. They suggested that the local African American community would develop an academic community support system. These findings informed the design of The Village Builder's Project to establish a collaborative community mentoring system that offers a team of business people mentors, academic supervisors, and elderly advisors for each student. When assigned to low performing K-12 African American students, this network of mentors has the potential to reduce the achievement gap and produce positive social change in terms of improved academic achievement of African American students in a local community.