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Seeking Incorporation? Voluntary Labor and the Ambiguities of Work, Identity, and Social Value in Contemporary Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2015

Ruth J. Prince
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Abstract:

This article seeks to understand why Kenyans have responded so enthusiastically to the recent push, by the government and NGOs, for voluntary labor within health and development projects and interventions. It argues that voluntary labor gains meaning and value in relation to broader economies of work and unemployment, to anxieties about identity, recognition, and belonging, and to aspirations for personal as well as national development. In the context of precarious economies and the contraction of formal employment opportunities, voluntary labor constitutes valued, if unpaid, work; it offers opportunities for those excluded from formal employment to gain a valued identity and a sense of social worth; and it makes volunteers visible to powerful institutions (state and nonstate) that hold the keys to personal growth, social recognition, and developmental futures. Voluntary labor is a site of struggles about identity, social value, and recognition, which the decline of twentieth-century trajectories of progress has made acute.

Résumé:

Cet article cherche à comprendre pourquoi les Kenyans ont répondu avec tant d'enthousiasme à la poussée récente, par le gouvernement et les organisations non gouvernementales, pour le travail bénévole au sein de projets et d’interventions de santé et de développement. Elle fait valoir que le travail volontaire gagne sens et valeur notamment par rapport aux économies du travail plus larges et du chômage, aux anxiétés liées à l'identité, la reconnaissance et l’appartenance, et aux aspirations de développement tant au niveau personnel que national. Dans le contexte des économie précaires et de la réduction de vraies possibilités d'emplois, le travail volontaire constitue un vrai travail, même s’il n’est pas rémunéré; pour les personnes exclues du marché de l'emploi il offre des occasions d'acquérir une identité valorisée et un sens de valeur sociale; et il permet aux volontaires de devenir visibles face aux institutions importantes (étatique ou non étatique) qui détiennent les clés de la croissance personnelle, la reconnaissance sociale et le développement à terme. Le travail volontaire est un lieu de luttes pour l'identité, la valeur sociale et la reconnaissance, exacerbé par le déclin des trajectoires de progrès du XXe siècle.

Keywords

Workidentityyouthdevelopmentcitizenshipvoluntary laborEast Africa
Type
ASR FOCUS ON VOLUNTEER LABOR IN EAST AFRICA
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , September 2015 , pp. 85 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2015 

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