Paper short abstract:

Shifting images and imaginaries of volunteering illustrate how themes of power, inequality and self-interest, emerging from my doctoral research into volunteering within UK Higher Education, resonate with the concepts of 'philanthropic particularism' and the 'humanitarian imagination'.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on my doctoral research which combined reciprocal gift theory with grounded theory to explore policies, experiences and discourses of volunteering within UK Higher Education. It focused on one university in the North East of England and its relationships with communities and voluntary organisations in the region.

Results indicated that it is increasingly accepted that volunteering benefits both giver and receiver, and that self-interest is compatible with compassion and 'doing the right thing'. However, there were also concerns that groups and causes may receive less support if they do not fit the dominant discourses, priorities and needs of volunteers or the University. Emergent themes of unequal power relationships, complex agendas for participating in or supporting volunteering (or not), and different ways of representing those involved in volunteer activities, all resonate with the idea of 'philanthropic particularism' (Salamon 1987; Komter 2005) as well as Watenpaugh' s (2015) concept of the 'humanitarian imagination'.

Despite narratives of partnership and mutuality, the University is described as distant, privileged and separate from the community in which its staff and students live and work. University-community relationships are not necessarily those of mutual or equal partners; nor are those between (primarily) student volunteers and the University, which is often regarded as hostile and 'other'. At a more individual level, diverse and fluid images of volunteers emerge - 'moral', 'clever', 'real', 'contingent' - which are informed by shifting social imaginaries that challenge the traditional dualisms of altruism/self-interest or autonomy/dependence that are associated with both giving and volunteering.