Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on charismatic leaders in the Slovenian birdwatching association and on their role in the creation and transformation of a volunteer organization. The author uses the metaphor of “crystals” as he explains the mobilization and motivation skills of such central persons.

Paper long abstract:

The author's starting-point is a metaphor of novelist Elias Canetti's who compared charismatic leaders to "crowd crystals". This paper focuses on the role of such leaders in the process of the mobilization ("crystallization") of volunteers. It discusses various definitions of charisma (e.g. Weber's and Bourdieu's) and tries to place the cryptic property in anthropological settings.

The paper's central focus is based on ethnographic research carried out with the largest Slovenian birdwatching association (DOPPS). It was established by a group of enthusiasts in the late 1970s and gradually grew into a large and influential research and nature conservation NGO. Its growth was strongly demarcated by some key figures that have been described many times as the "driving gears" of organization.

The paper analyzes characteristics of such charismatic leaders and their role in the creation and transformation of volunteer organizations in different stages of its growth and in changing socio-political milieu. It tries to find out why members of associations are fascinated by some individuals (who are not necessarily formal leaders), why they follow their ideas and what are the underlying reasons for their appeal. The case of the founding "father" of DOPPS is presented in-depth through an exploration of his role in establishing and reframing the association.

The paper concludes with questions about charismatic leaders in relation to volunteering, altruism and self-interest. In answering the author rejects the simplistic dichotomy of altruism and self-interest and tries to provide a more balanced view on the topic.

Paper short abstract:

In order to meet the demands European Governments/NGOs for biodiversity data, they increasingly rely on input from large numbers of amateur (non-professional) naturalists. We use a specific case study from the United Kingdom of how birdwatchers are recruited to monitor and document biodiversity in their local area or ‘patch’.

Paper long abstract:

In order to meet the demands European Governments/NGOs for biodiversity data, they increasingly rely on input from large numbers of amateur (non-professional) naturalists. However, in order to maintain a sustainable level of such volunteers for continued monitoring, it is necessary to understand what motivates people to offer their time, skills and knowledge.

This paper is based on ethnographic research into nature-based monitoring organisations or networks (http://eumon.ckff.si). We examine a specific case study from the United Kingdom as an example of how 'nature enthusiasts' are recruited to monitor and document biodiversity, in this case birds, in their local area or 'patch'. The Northumberland and Tyneside Birdclub (NTBC) is a county association in Northeast England where members record local bird activity as a natural extension of the 'lists' or 'ticks' of birds made daily as part of being a birdwatcher. In developing the necessary expertise and reputation as skilled birdwatchers, many hold intimate knowledge of their locality, representing a valuable resource for large-scale monitoring programmes run by UK NGOs like the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

As a form of 'serious leisure', an overwhelming enthusiasm for birds is a powerful force for birdwatchers to keep personal records and participate in wider surveys to guarantee a sustainable future for birdlife. However, the authors will also explore the social worlds of dedicated 'birders' including their attachment to place, membership of social networks, the accumulation of reputation and status, and how these key attributes provide the potential foundation for a network of committed volunteers.

Paper short abstract:

This paper shows that, beyond the dichotomy of altruism and self-interest within volunteering, there often exists a strong focus on process and technical procedure, on means rather than ends, which can exclude the needs of charity recipients.

Paper long abstract:

This paper takes as its scene the weekly food bank at the American Church in Florence, Italy, where regular volunteers distribute food to 'the needy.' Based on long-term fieldwork, it explores how middle-class American immigrants interacted with economically and politically marginal immigrants from developing states, with a particular focus on how the volunteers experienced being involved in this charity work. In attempting to move beyond the dichotomy of self-interest and altruism as motivating forces for volunteering, this paper considers how following correct process, the smooth execution of technical procedure, becomes the moral imperative to act. Looking at how notions of routine, efficiency and systematic organisation enter into the running of the foodbank, this paper shows how the desire to carry out charity correctly comes to supplant desires to meet the diverse and unbounded needs of charity recipients. Within such an environment, charity recipients attempt to insert themselves, as unique cases of neediness, into the centre of such interactions, to refashion the process into one more flexible and beneficial to their own needs. From a humanist perspective, I argue that this aims to create intersubjective moments of common ground and obligation between the volunteers and recipients that recognises human agency and individual life histories.

Paper short abstract:

I discuss volunteering motivations as a discourse which reflects the individual volunteers’ understanding as well as prevailing social perceptions of volunteering. By looking at volunteers engaged with community-care in London, I explore the morality of giving and the institutional context as important elements affecting volunteering motivations.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at volunteering for community care in London. In this case study, volunteers show both self-interests and their interest in others' benefit when they are engaged in volunteering, which indicates the multifunctionality of volunteering and pluralism of motives.

Nevertheless, the way volunteers present their motivational factors is significantly focused on themselves, which seems to suggest that giving is an act of self-fulfillment. Altruism is negatively perceived, as it makes the volunteers look partronising to the service users. I argue that there is a logic behind these contradictory phenomena.

By looking at volunteering motivations as a contextually constructed discourse, I explore the role of three distinct facets of volunteering: 1) an increasing awareness of volunteering as a stepping stone towards or a substitute for paid work, 2) the logic of exchange used by voluntary organisations as a strategy to promote volunteering, one that emphasises the instrumental function of volunteering as a means to pursuing self-interests, 3) the rhetoric of the political correctness of power equality between volunteers and service users, which ultimately negates altruism.

The analysis reveals that the discourse of volunteering motivations in this socio-cultural context is appropriated in ways that reflect these particular values and understandings.

Paper short abstract:

We have studied Norwegians who moved to Spain after being pensioned because of chronic diseases. If they want a social life they have to make new friends and social networks in Spain. How do they do that, who gets together with whom, and why?

Paper long abstract:

The region around Alicante was, and is, a popular place to go for holidays. Many Norwegians spend their vacations here, and in the last twenty years a growing number of them have invested in a flat or a house in the region, and moved here for good. Some of these people are old, some have a chronic illness, and some are disabled in some way. Most of them have their livelyhood from pensions. The work-free income from Norwegian funds make it possible to start a new life in Spain.

The migaration process do not seem to be organized. It rather seem to be based on individual choices: They just decide to move, sometimes alone and sometimes with a spouse. This means that relatives and friends are left at home.

Norwegians can easily be isolated in their new home-land. But they know that, and try actively to fight such a destiny. In Spain they have plenty of free time, and a job to do getting a meaningful social life. It helps that some many of the Norwegians here are in the same situation.

We want to show that the construction of identity is a parallel process to that of connecting and making new friends. Both processes require that you "do good" for other Norwegians here. You use whatever you master ore can impress with - as long as other wants to participate.

We think this is connected to interests, to their perception of themselves/identities, and that strategies in making the new small-scale "society" is also connected to self-interests. Doing good means you are doing something good for yourself too!

We also want to have a closer look to the fact that Norwegians here seldom include persons of other nationalities, and this might tell us about strategies other immigrants uses, for example immigrants that have moved to Norway.