A Fraternity Of Danger
Volunteer Fire Companies and the Contradictions of Modernization
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2819759 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charles R Simpson (Defence Research and Development Canada, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1996 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 17-34 |
| Publication date | 1996-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Economics and Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9246 • E-ISSN: 1536-7150 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1996.tb02705.x |
| OpenAlex | W1924541943 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 20 |
Interviews and participation with members of rural volunteer fire departments (VFDs) in New York State, indicate that local communities in rural regions are structured around VFDs. Such "communities" involves both the fraternity of the fire house, resting on the teamwork essential to firefighting, and a wider locality, which the VFDs spatially define and symbolically integrate through a ritual of parades, fund raising efforts, and their example of community service. The working class, attached to the locality by stable residence and recruited intergenerationally into the fire service, supplies the majority of volunteers.Neoliberal modernization threatens this recruitment pattern. Problems have developed because the "new middle class" rejects VFD participation, except as ambulance volunteers. As localities compete for outside investment through the reduced cost of their services, they have exploited volunteers to provide fire protection at less cost than that of paid departments. This commodification of the VFDs risks destroying their character as a system of moral obligation unifying a locality and is an inequitable, and unsustainable, "tax" on working class volunteers. But innovative systems of emergency and other services can be used to attract the new male and female middle class into volunteer local activities
Business · Commodification · Economics · Economy · Political science · Public relations · Service (business) · Sociology · Education, Philosophy, and Society · Marketing · Nursing Education, Practice, and Leadership · Public Administration · Social Work Education and Practice
‘Public service motivation’ as an argument for government provision
Trust and Motivation in High-Risk Volunteering
W omen Constructing Masculinity in Voluntary Firefighting
Are fire services ‘extremely gendered’ organizations? Examining the Country Fire Authority (CFA) in Australia
Identity, uncertainty and responsibility
Community-based fire management and beyond
The commodification of land and housing
Sometimes fear gets in all your bones’
A Fraternity Of Danger
The Volunteering Days is Gone
Processes of the world-system
Mortgaging The Earth
Economic theory and under-developed regions
Global Dreams
The Shared Space
Small town in mass society
Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America
The New Middle Classes
Note on Commitment and Community among Volunteer Firefighters
Open Veins of Latin America
The Maquiladora Revolution in Guatemala
Social Theory and Social Structure
A Fraternity Of Danger
Work without Wages; the Motivation for Valunteer Firefighters
Volunteer Fire Departments
Volunteer Fire Departments and Community Mobilization
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 1996 - 2025 (30) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |