Volunteering Vs.

Activism
A new book by USC Dornsifes Nina Eliasoph debates the
sociological, political and philosophical issues surrounding
volunteering and its often uneasy relationship with activism.
By Susan Bell - January 24, 2014

Volunteers might become more effective by spending the same amount of

time as activists pressuring politicians to change policies, says Professor
of Sociology Nina Eliasoph in her new book, The Politics of Volunteering.
Photo by Erica Christianson.

Volunteering is considered almost sacred in modern society. But in her

book The Politics of Volunteering (Polity Press, 2013) Nina Eliasoph,
professor of sociology at USC Dornsife, says that along with the good,
volunteers and NGOs can sometimes do harm.

Nina Eliasoph: In my research, I was surprised to find that

volunteers can do real damage. Speed is one common problem. For
example, in an afterschool program for underprivileged kids,
volunteers wanted an emotionally rewarding experience (and maybe a
line on their CVs), but had only a couple hours a week for a few
months to spare. Wanting instant intimacy, and lacking time to get to

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know the kids enough to help them, the volunteers ended up
distracting the kids from their homework.

Similarly, when NGO employees and volunteers abroad quickly fly in

and out of a country without seriously studying the place, they often
end up giving aid to educated people who can write snazzy
applications for it. Many studies show NGOs inadvertently creating a
jet-set elite of literate urbanites whose new power undermines older,
or less literate, or more rural folks power, cultures and traditions.
Trying to do too much too fast is dangerous.

Volunteering can also be wonderful. By walking a mile in another

persons shoes, volunteers can start to question their own
preconceptions. They might form life-changing relationships, both
with fellow volunteers and with the people they serve. And of course,
needy people often get aid filling out citizenship forms, or receiving
cans of tuna.

Beyond these personal benefits, volunteering potentially promotes

democracy. Curious volunteers who gather those cans of tuna might
start questioning the bigger picture, asking themselves, Why is there
hunger in the worlds wealthiest nation in the first place? In those
moments, instead of treating symptoms, volunteers start to wonder
about causes. Then thoughtful, inquisitive, active citizens are born.

Susan Bell: Can you explain the relationship between volunteering

and activism and how they affect one another, for better and for
worse?

N.E.: Social theory often views them as complementary. Many early

20th century social reformers, for example, began as volunteers, but
painfully discovered that to help young children whose parents took
them out of school to earn money, just helping each child one at a time
was not enough. If the kid stopped working, the family might go
homeless. The volunteers had to become political activists when they
realized that if they pushed for legislation to raise the minimum wage
and outlaw child labor, parents would make enough money, their kids
wouldnt have to leave school at age 10 and could enjoy Americas

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promise as the land of opportunity.
Today, too, volunteers might help more people more effectively if they
spend the same number of hours as activists, pressuring politicians to
change policies, as those early volunteers-turned-activists did. It may
not feel as nice, but might work better.

S.B.: In a world of social inequality, how are ordinary peoples efforts

to participate as volunteers and activists affected by the civic actions of
the powerful, wealthy elite? What are the end results?

N.E.: Social theorists call voluntary associations and activist groups

schools for democracy. In them, people can develop political
imaginations. Yet, poor people are less likely to vote than wealthy
ones. Why?

Imagine a town in which 10 people privately controlled more wealth

than everyone else combined. There could be no democracy. The 10
would make private decisions about investment, education, the
environment, transportation, roads anything that required money.
They might voluntarily donate education to some villagers, but they
might not. The 10 could make grand plans that only benefitted
themselves. Meanwhile, the others would not get practice in making
grand plans, but, as Alexis de Tocqueville put it, would spend long
days laboring as brutes in the elites grand plans.

To create democracy, villagers would need to spread the wealth, so no

one was too unhealthy, uneducated, brutalized or desperate to think.
Villagers would also need to place some of this wealth in public hands,
through taxes, so the majority could democratically deliberate and
vote on how to distribute some of the villages resources.

S.B.: How can civic associations overcome the difficulties you outline
in your book to ensure they avoid doing harm and succeed in their
mission to make the world a better place?

N.E.: First, they can make sure that volunteers who work with people
get serious training and supervision, giving help that they can
realistically manage on their schedules. Second, volunteers can

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become activists when they confront a problem that requires more
than changing the world one person, light bulb or diaper at a time.

S.B.: You point out in the book that among so-called capitalist
democracies, huge discrepancies exist between, for example, the
Nordic countries, where universal rights are met in an egalitarian
manner via a strong welfare state, and nations like the United States
which tend to distrust central government and depend heavily on
private charity to fill the gaps in an increasingly inegalitarian society.
What are the dangers for countries that rely on civic associations to fill
their populations needs?

N.E.: Right now, several European nations are copying the American
model. Theyre asking people to rely on volunteers instead of welfare.
Elderly Dutch people who once relied on welfare are now supposed to
rely on neighbors for help taking showers and getting dressed every
morning, for example. Some Dutch scholars are imploring their
government to recognize that those seniors are in grave danger.
We Americans assume that less government leads to more
volunteering, but its not true. European countries with generous
welfare have some of the highest rates of volunteering in the world,
and the lowest poverty rates for children and old people. More
government spending goes with more volunteering, not less.

S.B.: What inspired you to write this book and why do you believe it is
needed?

N.E.: Since the 1970s, the U.S. has drastically rearranged the division
of responsibilities between government, market and civic volunteers.
In the mid-20th century, wealthy people paid very high taxes to
support public goods like schools, playgrounds, pools, parks and clean
water. In a 30-year experiment, we slashed the wealthiest peoples
taxes, and expected that volunteers would take up the slack when the
public goods dried up. As the alarmed Dutch scholars point out,
volunteers often dont, and cant. We have to recognize what
volunteers can do, and what we need other institutions to do.

S.B.: If your readers take away one point from your work, what do you

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want it to be?

N.E.: To think, read and talk about what volunteers can do, and to
press for public policies to do the rest.

S.B.: Have you volunteered? Where and why?

N.E.: Yes, Ive been volunteering and doing political activism since
1974, when I was a very young and clueless counselor in a camp for
underprivileged kids. I dont know if I helped them, but I sure learned
a lot!

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