The origin of voluntary organizations has not been studied much in sociology. This study develops a three-phase model of a voluntary organization origin and three case studies are conducted to try out the model. The aim of the study is to describe and analyze the birth of a voluntary organization and its development. The empiric material has been gathered in three voluntary organizations from the mid-80'ies. The organizations are Noaks Ark (working with HIV), 5i12-rörelsen (working with refugees) and Farsor och Morsor på Stan (working with teenagers in Stockholm city). All three organizations still exist. The empiric material has been collected though interviews and other written materials. The theoretical model is divided into three phases, the preorigin phase, the phase of origin and the maturity phase. Each phase has its special character and there is no automatic transference to the next phase. In the first phase - the preorigin phase - the key notion is the entrepreneur or the agitator. The entrepreneur or the agitator sees a problem in society. Often this is coupled with a personal experience of the problem and a desire to do something about it. They gather more knowledge in the area, meet other people and develop an idea of how to solve the problem. In the phase of origin the key notion is the organizer. The leader has to have knowledge of organizing; how to organize people and how to mobilize resources. The organizers are often charismatic and use their charisma to gather people around their idea. In the maturity phase all the distinctive marks of a voluntary organizations can be seen. The key notion is the members' need for security and continuity. The members can also develop a personal need for the organization. The dependence on the founder or the leader decreases in significance, and bureaucracy is developed. Forces outside and inside the organization influence the voluntary organization and it is shaped by its history and surrounding. It is argued that the emergence of a voluntary organization is dependent on three things that has to coincide, discontent and an idea how to relieve it, resources and an organizer. The empiric findings support the three-phase model. In theory the phases are distinctive but in the case studies the phases could overlap.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-63758 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Olsson, Lars-Erik |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell International |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, monograph, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Stockholm studies in sociology, 0491-0885 ; N.S., 8 |
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