Exploring Personal Communities: A Review of Volunteering Processes

Throughout 20th century social theory, the rhetoric of 'community' has been used to index the warmth of immediacy, emotion and close relationships and has been contrasted to the cold rationality and instrumentality of modern work organizations, the state, and society. The rhetoric of community has been invoked by politicians and policy makers alike as the answer to all sorts of social, economic and political problems such as nationalism, social exclusion, unemployment, education, crime and poverty. Yet, however much time and money is spent on community initiatives, community remains elusive and its consequences unpredictable.

Critics argue that although community aims to bring unity and harmony, it simultaneously creates conflict and division over its membership, boundaries, norms and espoused values. Community has multiple and contested definitions and cannot be put to work according to some top down political agendas. Indeed, the myriad of ways in which community unfolds in practice calls for a 'bottom-up' approach that recognises the paradoxes built into community rhetoric, the frequent lack of consensus and is sensitive to individual and social needs in equal measure.

The ambiguous nature of community, along with the rise of individualism and consumerism in Western societies and beyond, has called into question existing conceptualisations of community and called for a more imaginative way to engage with community rhetoric at the level of practice. 'Personal communities' feature prominently in this strand of literature as a type of community that is self-chosen and individuated, thriving on inter-personal ties and providing support for its members. Although portrayed as an 'individual achievement', personal communities go beyond friendship ties and charity work, having a powerful sociality hidden in them, one that if released could have a major impact on society. We explore personal communities through the lens of volunteering in order to shed light on the ways in which individuals experience one another and adjust to one another within and across communities. By applying the concept of personal community to the public context of volunteering, we hope to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of how communities actually work to accommodate diversity, exclusion and cohesion simultaneously.

The review evaluates the contribution of the personal community to sustaining and enhancing the quality of life of individuals in their local communities where such volunteering processes take place. We aim to explore the idea that personal communities contribute to the common good of the society in terms of offering ways for negotiating individual and collective identity via individual engagement with democratic social processes. This will be achieved not merely by analysing existing written work but more importantly by engaging with volunteering communities from the Stoke-on-Trent area. We will work in close collaboration with the New Vic Borderlines, the nationally acclaimed community programme of the New Vic Theatre, to develop a series of activities aimed at documenting in an artistic way the experience of being a volunteer, creating a new community of volunteers via a theatre residential and putting on a volunteering performance by the volunteers themselves. These volunteers will be drawn from local schemes that aim at helping marginalised individuals and groups to acquire new skills and make a positive contribution to the society.

Stoke-on-Trent is an example of a community in post-industrial decline which relies heavily on volunteers to support many of its economic, social and cultural activities. We will offer the community of Stoke-on-Trent an opportunity to engage with our theory review and provide a two way knowledge transfer opportunity with the view to contribute in a meaningful way to debates about the economic, social and cultural possibilities for Stoke-on-Trent.

Our overall aim is to make a difference to the quality of life for the community of Stoke-on-Trent. We will review our Pathways to Impact throughout the review process, refining our ideas as the key themes emerge and become more nuanced. Some expected areas of impact are:

- Inform best practice guidelines for practitioners and organisations who rely on volunteers
- Contribute to local debates about regeneration by providing a forum for volunteers to discuss and reflect on personal communities
- Enhance the quality of life of communities by highlighting the well being benefits of volunteering
- Contribute to public policy debates on the 'third sector' at a local, regional and national level

Stoke-on-Trent is an example of a community in post-industrial decline. The figures for unemployment, economic inactivity and recipients of Job Seeker's Allowance (JSA) are all above the average for Great Britain, while qualifications and earnings by residence are below the national average (NOMIS, 2011). As a recent report suggests, Stoke-on-Trent is a deprived area and the combination of low wages, unemployment, education levels and poor health means that it is particularly vulnerable given the current programme of cuts to city council budgets (CAB, 2011). The region relies heavily on volunteers to support many of its economic, social and cultural activities, so it makes sense to make the area a specific focus of our impact activities.

We are particularly interested in community-based organisations (CBOs), which can be defined as very small, local groups who address specific areas in the community and who do not have a regional or national remit. Our interest in CBOs is explicitly linked to our overall aim of exploring the concept of personal communities as a connector across discourses of individualism and communitarianism. Drawing on our local CBO network, therefore, there are two groups of immediate stakeholders who will benefit from this research. These are the local volunteers and (paid) practitioners who routinely work with volunteers as part of their employment (for example, museum and theatre staff). Based on our existing contacts, this will include volunteers and practitioners from the New Vic Borderlines, The Volunteer Experience @ Keele, the Stoke-on-Trent Museums (including the Ripping Yarns Group), the Citizen Advice Bureau Stoke-on-Trent, ELITE, (Stoke-on-Trent) and the Etruria Boat Group volunteers. In collaboration with the New Vic Borderlines, we will develop a three-phase event involving eight groups of volunteers from across the area of Stoke-on-Trent. Phase 1 will comprise a series of interactive experiences to establish 'The volunteer story'. Phase 2 (The Theatre Residential) will create 'The Connected Communities Volunteer Company' comprising volunteers who took part in Phase 1. They will stage a documentary drama (Phase 3) to be performed in the Workshop for volunteers and practitioners at the New Vic Theatre in September 2012. This workshop will combine dissemination with more proactive aspects in order to generate ideas for translating the review's key theoretical themes into best practice for each volunteer group, develop creative responses to regeneration, as well as future empirical research and opportunities for further impact.

We will contribute to policy debates by identifying and engaging with potential users and beneficiaries throughout the review process. These groups include, but are not limited to, other local, regional and national volunteer groups (such as CSV, Timebank, Volunteering England), advocacy groups (such as The National Council for Voluntary Organisations and CSV), research groups (such as the Institute for Volunteering Research and the Institute for Voluntary Action Research), Government committees and task forces, and experienced community lobbyists who will help us develop policy guidelines.