Doctoral Dissertation Research: Volunteer Domestic Care, Sociality, and Austerity

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Cuts to social benefit programs have become increasingly common since the 1980s and have intensified since the 2006 global financial crisis. Some social scientists, policy experts, and journalists, have described how such cuts adversely affect marginalized populations and can push individuals further into poverty and deepen social isolation. But as new and diverse forms of volunteerism and charitable social care have appeared in response to these cuts, there remains some question as to whether austerity politics might have the counterintuitive effect of encouraging some entrenched and personalized forms of sociality and connectedness. This project studies one aspect of social and personal life after austerity by investigating the structures, impacts, and experiences of volunteer social care programs. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the project would enhance scientific understanding by broadly disseminating its findings to organizations invested in developing more effective methods for communicating science and the scientific method to the public. Findings from this research will enhance understanding the impacts of austerity and benefit dissolution through an exploration of the experiences of community members, volunteers, charity staff, and local authorities. The research will be conducted in a regional context where funding for local governments has been cut by over 50 percent since 2010 when austerity measures were put in place. Along with strong negative impacts of austerity this region has also seen a bolstering of volunteerism and growth of the charity sector. Volunteers are recruited to staff day centers, drive the elderly to doctor’s appointments, and provide in-home companionship to home-bound adults and people with disabilities. This research will investigate a form of volunteer domestic care program commissioned by local authorities called homesharing in which an able-bodied young person lives with and provides 10 hours of volunteer care and companionship for an older home owner in exchange for reduced rent. This project combines participant-observation of volunteer sites, domestic homeshare spaces, charitable and bureaucratic organizations, semi-structured and in-depth interviews with organizational and bureaucratic actors, and volunteer participants to answer three interlocking research questions: 1) When strong social assistance systems are eroded, do new forms of social relatedness take their place? 2) What motivates individuals to become volunteer domestic caregivers, and what factors contribute to the trajectory of these relationships? 3) What are contemporary British notions of self-help and obligation towards strangers and what factors have contributed to the formation of these beliefs and practices? This research aims to illuminate and map the full range of social, material, and financial outcomes within volunteer domestic care. It will also provide insight into the factors that perpetuate social isolation as well as the potential arrangements that may ameliorate vulnerable social conditions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.