Associational Life�How to understand social life in an individualised and informalised society
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Structure
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A changed society
Society is forever changing
Loss of community?
Change neither good nor bad – it is neutral!
Some people do lose their community –�Epoch of communities is not over!
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Individualisation and informalisation
From collective to individual identity�(Bauman 2000)
Relationships are experienced, rather than structural�(Nancy 1991)
Friends over family?�(Spencer and Pahl 2006, Maffesoli 2016)
From organised socialisation to informal ”hanging out”�(van Ingen and Dekker 2011)
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Effects of individualisation
More individualised sports, like running�(Llopis-Goig 2014)
Young people’s political participation changed�(Pickard and Bessant 2018)
Less formal organisations/associations�(Putnam, 2000)
Systemic problems becomes the individual’s failure�(McGuigan 2014)
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Effects on volunteering
“A style of volunteering framed through the individual world of experience, in which the nature of involvement depends on individual preferences and needs. Reflexive volunteers conduct more specialized roles and activities, demand a high level of flexibility, and they have relatively weak feelings of identification with the organization or belonging to a volunteer group.”�(Hustinx et al., 2016, p. 350)
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Problem:�Understand how people engage with others in contemporary society
Holistic perspective needed!
Formal and informal
Often and continuous – seldom and episodic
How is everything connected?
“Community”, “Leisure”, “Social capital”, all too vague
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Solution: Associational life
Previous iterations solely about formal organisations, civil society, or democratisation on the African continent
My iteration capture the organisational and the social:
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Associational life refers to an individuals’ participation in activities together with others that are organised through a club, organisation, or association, as well as activities that are informal in nature, that have some level of continuity and are discretionary in nature.
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Applying associational life
RQ: What can be learnt about volunteering by comparing and contrasting it to other types of associational life?
Mixed methods approach with 24 interviews, 1 survey
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How is associational life different from volunteering?
Commitment level
“I think, if you commit [to volunteering], you're implying that you're prepared to join a team and you're prepared to put time and energy into one specific organization. If you turn up and sing in a choir, for instance, you just turn up and if you don't turn up, you don't turn up. If you go to join a Pilates group, it's your problem if you don't turn up, it's not the person running the group, so that is the difference.”
Organisations offering both volunteering and associational - some need the stability that volunteering offers!
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Who engaging with, and who introduced them to activity?
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Who respndt engage with
Who introduced respndt. to act.
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Associational life leading to volunteering
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Applications of Associational Life
More?
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X THE PLACE OF USEFUL LEARNING
David Bomark
Research Fellow
University of Birmingham
d.bomark@bham.ac.uk
References
Bauman, Z. (2000) Liquid modernity. Cambridge, UK : Malden, MA: Polity Press ; Blackwell.
Bourke, J. (1994) Working class cultures in Britain, 1890-1960: gender, class, and ethnicity. London ; New York: Routledge.
Hustinx, L. et al. (2016) ‘Changing Nature of Formal Service Program Volunteering’, in D.H. Smith, R.A. Stebbins, and J. Grotz (eds) The Palgrave handbook of volunteering, civic participation, and nonprofit associations. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 349–365.
Llopis-Goig, R. (2014) ‘Sports participation and cultural trends. Running as a reflection of individualisation and post-materialism processes in Spanish society’, European Journal for Sport and Society, 11(2), pp. 151–169.
Maffesoli, M. (2016) ‘From society to tribal communities’, The Sociological Review, 64(4), pp. 739–747.
McGuigan, J. (2014) ‘The Neoliberal Self’, Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 6(1), pp. 223–240.
Nancy, J.-L. (1991) The inoperative community. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press (Theory and history of literature, v. 76).
Pickard, S. and Bessant, J. (2018) Young people regenerating politics in times of crisis. New York, NY: Springer International Pub (Palgrave Studies in Young People and Politics).
Putnam, R.D. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Simmel, G. (1950) ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’, in K. Wolff (tran.) The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York: Free Press, pp. 409–424.
Spencer, L. and Pahl, R.E. (2006) Rethinking friendship: hidden solidarities today. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
Thomson, I.T. (2005) ‘The Theory That Won’t Die: From Mass Society to the Decline of Social Capital’, Sociological Forum, 20(3), pp. 421–448.
Tönnies, F. (1974) Community and association: Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft. Reprinted and 1. publ. as a paperback. Translated by C.P. Loomis. London: Routledge (International library of sociology).
van Ingen, E. and Dekker, P. (2011) ‘Dissolution of Associational Life? Testing the Individualization and Informalization Hypotheses on Leisure Activities in The Netherlands Between 1975 and 2005’, Social Indicators Research, 100(2), pp. 209–224.
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