Faculty of Sociology Seminar on ‘From personal troubles to institutionalised expressions of compassion: a study of charity volunteers in the UK’

On Thursday, January 26th, a seminar on ‘From personal troubles to institutionalised expressions of compassion: a study of charity volunteers in the UK’ will take place at the HSE Faculty of Sociology. Speaker: Ruben Flores (PhD, HSE-Moscow).

Abstract:

Seeking to analyse the way in which individual biographies develop commitments to organisations devoted to the alleviation of human suffering, this article examines the motivations behind charity shop volunteering through qualitative, semi-structured interviews. It is argued that, for some volunteers, volunteer work was a means of regaining ontological security after experiences of social dislocation derived from life transitions such as retirement and bereavement. This movement from loss to new (and humane) forms of attachments illustrates the way in which 'the social' moderates institutionalised expressions of compassion, which thus appear as relational and processual; and the bearing of these upon social solidarity, a bearing which unfolds at different levels. In so doing, the paper seeks to contribute to sociological research into 'humane' forms of thinking, feeling, and acting; the lack of engagement with 'the social' in the psychological literature on pro-social behaviour; and the theoretical underdevelopment of third sector studies as far as the study of moral sentiments is concerned. Throughout, the paper endorses a view of human subjectivity which takes seriously both human vulnerability and resilience - victimhood and agency - as well as the relevance of suffering and flourishing for human action. From this perspective, which is missing in a great deal of the literature strands at hand, volunteering appears as a form of affective practice underpinned by the notion of care.

Address:  3 Kochnovsky proezd, room 317  

Start time: 6.15pm

Everyone is welcome to attend!

If you need a pass to the HSE, please contact us via e-mail: eberdysheva@hse.ru.