From Personal Troubles to Public Compassion

Charity Shop Volunteering as a Practice of Care

Bibliographic Data

ID3172330
AuthorsRuben Flores (0000-0001-5075-3906, National Research University Higher School of Economics, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume62
Issue2
Pages383-399
Publication date2014-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-954x.12118
OpenAlexW2141472240
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited38

This article analyses charity shop volunteering in the UK as an instance of individual commitment towards organizations devoted to combating suffering. Drawing on semi-structured interviews focused on motives, the paper argues that some respondents found in volunteer work a way of regaining meaning, structure and belonging after experiences of social dislocation such as retirement and bereavement. The transition from social dislocation to ontological security via volunteering illustrates the way in which 'the social' - as expressed in fellowship, laughter, work, organizations and institutions - moderates charitable practice. From this perspective, volunteering appears as a relational, processual and affective practice of care; and as a sympathy catalyst - an institution that facilitates interpersonal sympathy exchanges and support for compassionate goals. 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 social action. In so doing, the paper sheds light on the link between individual biographies and the institutionalized efforts to alleviate strangers' suffering that Natan Sznaider has termed 'public compassion

Agency (philosophy) · Compassion · Dehumanization · Epistemology · Flourishing · Meaning (existential) · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Subjectivity · Sympathy · Vulnerability (computing) · Law · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Psychology · Religion, Society, and Development · Social Psychology · Social Work Education and Practice

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