Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures, maps and plates
- Notes on contributors
- Foreword: Beyond the shadow state?
- one Contemporary landscapes of welfare: the ‘voluntary turn’?
- two A ‘new institutional fix’? The ‘community turn’ and the changing role of the voluntary sector
- three Renewal or relocation? Social welfare, voluntarism and the city
- four Voluntarism and new forms of governance in rural communities
- five New times, new relationships: mental health, primary care and public health in New Zealand
- six Informal and voluntary care in Canada: caught in the Act?
- seven Competition, adaptation and resistance: (re)forming health organisations in New Zealand’s third sector
- eight The difference of voluntarism: the place of voluntary sector care homes for older Jewish people in the United Kingdom
- nine Values, practices and strategic divestment: Christian social service organisations in New Zealand
- ten Faith-based organisations and welfare provision in Northern Ireland and North America: whose agenda?
- eleven Government restructuring and settlement agencies in Vancouver: bringing advocacy back in
- twelve Developing voluntary community spaces and Ethnicity in Sydney, Australia
- thirteen The voluntary spaces of charity shops: workplaces or domestic spaces?
- fourteen The changing landscape of voluntary sector counselling in Scotland
- fifteen Volunteering, geography and welfare: a multilevel investigation of geographical variations in voluntary action
- sixteen Reflections on landscapes of voluntarism
- Index
sixteen - Reflections on landscapes of voluntarism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures, maps and plates
- Notes on contributors
- Foreword: Beyond the shadow state?
- one Contemporary landscapes of welfare: the ‘voluntary turn’?
- two A ‘new institutional fix’? The ‘community turn’ and the changing role of the voluntary sector
- three Renewal or relocation? Social welfare, voluntarism and the city
- four Voluntarism and new forms of governance in rural communities
- five New times, new relationships: mental health, primary care and public health in New Zealand
- six Informal and voluntary care in Canada: caught in the Act?
- seven Competition, adaptation and resistance: (re)forming health organisations in New Zealand’s third sector
- eight The difference of voluntarism: the place of voluntary sector care homes for older Jewish people in the United Kingdom
- nine Values, practices and strategic divestment: Christian social service organisations in New Zealand
- ten Faith-based organisations and welfare provision in Northern Ireland and North America: whose agenda?
- eleven Government restructuring and settlement agencies in Vancouver: bringing advocacy back in
- twelve Developing voluntary community spaces and Ethnicity in Sydney, Australia
- thirteen The voluntary spaces of charity shops: workplaces or domestic spaces?
- fourteen The changing landscape of voluntary sector counselling in Scotland
- fifteen Volunteering, geography and welfare: a multilevel investigation of geographical variations in voluntary action
- sixteen Reflections on landscapes of voluntarism
- Index
Summary
As the social and political significance of voluntarism has grown in Western states since the 1980s, social scientists have increasingly recognised the voluntary sector as an important focus for research. As a consequence, we now have a better understanding – at a variety of spatial scales – of the nature and dynamics of the community and voluntary sector. Research has documented the sector's diversity in particular national settings (for example, Kendall and Knapp, 1996; Anheier and Seibel, 2001; Lyons, 2001), while also looking at the changing nature of charitable giving (for example, Andreoni et al, 2003; Bowman, 2004; Charities Aid Foundation, 2004; Sargeant and Lee, 2004). Studies have tracked the experiences of voluntary organisations engaged in contracts for service provision, noting the tensions and difficulties associated with many of these arrangements (Deakin, 1996; Lewis, 1996; Morison, 2000; Majumdar, 2004; NCVO, 2004; Phillips and Levasseur, 2004). Recent efforts to achieve more egalitarian, even-handed forms of partnership between the state and voluntary sector have also been noted (Home Office, 1998; Welsh Office, 1998; Ministry of Social Policy, 2001).
In this volume, our aim has been to draw out one particular strand of this scholarship – research shaped by geographical perspectives – and to demonstrate what this approach might bring to the work conducted within disciplines such as sociology, social policy and political science. Most contributors to this book actively work within the discipline of geography, while others have had their work shaped by its conceptual and methodological debates. In this conclusion, we reflect on their work as a means of responding to two main questions. Firstly, what do the chapters indicate about a geographical approach to voluntarism? We address this question in terms of analytical perspectives. Secondly, what does this geographically inflected research tell us about contemporary landscapes of voluntarism? This is about material trends and developments within particular cities, regions and nations. We finish with some suggestions for future research.
Analytical perspectives
In relation to other social scientific scholarship, a geographical perspective on voluntarism has a number of dimensions. At a general level, we can reiterate that human geography is a discipline characterised by an attentiveness to the complex ways in which social, political and economic processes are played out within – and indeed modified by – the terrains of particular localities and regions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Landscapes of VoluntarismNew Spaces of Health, Welfare and Governance, pp. 285 - 294Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2006