07 Keele Management School News l Spring2015
Spring2015 l Keele Management School News 08
Mihaela Kelemen , KMS Professor in Management Studies , introduces ‘ Voluntolding ’, giving voice to ‘ Untold Stories of Volunteering ’
The experience of UK volunteers has been explored in a way never seen before , thanks to a pioneering new research technique entitled cultural animation . Led by Keele Management School Professor Mihaela Kelemen as Principal Investigator and Dr Anita Mangan , Co-Investigator , the ‘ Untold Stories of Volunteering ’ is part of the AHRC Connected Communities programme , a highly interdisciplinary , participatory , community-based programme of research which brings together arts , humanities and social sciences in an attempt to break down the barriers between research , policy making and the volunteering practices of community members .
The project aims to give voice to ‘ untold stories of volunteering ’ by ensuring that such stories are co-designed and co-produced with , and by , volunteers and other relevant stakeholders from around the UK ( including Stoke-on-Trent , Manchester , London , Salisbury , Leicester and Hackney ). Working closely with the award winning New Vic Theatre ( Newcastle-under-Lyme ) and NCVO ( National Council for Voluntary Organisations ), the project documents and enacts volunteering experiences from multiple perspectives , using a unique methodology pioneered in the UK by Susan Moffat , Director of the New Vic Borderlines , the outreach department of New Vic Theatre .
Unique methodology : Cultural Animation
Unique findings
Mihaela ’ s research has unearthed a number of volunteering practices and puts forward a useful typology of volunteering consisting of four interrelated types : altruistic , instrumental , militant and forced volunteering ( or ‘ voluntolding ’). The typology highlights new forms of volunteering practices that have emerged in recent years such as ‘ voluntolding ’ which refers to people forced to volunteer either because they are on welfare benefits or because they have been given community payback sentences ; features grassroots practices of volunteering that may contradict the UK government ’ s ideas of volunteering ; and demonstrates that volunteering practices are complex , dynamic and transcend existing dichotomies that are prevalent in the existing literature . The findings were enacted on stage through a documentary drama co-created with all participants and directed by Susan Moffat . The performance toured around the UK ( in Newcastleunder-Lyme , London and Leicester ) as part of the Volunteers ’ Week in June 2014 .
Professor Kelemen commented : “ This research is truly co-designed with the volunteers themselves . Their stories emerged in creative / experiential workshops where , with the help of cultural animation techniques , we created safe places where academic expertise , practical skills and commonsensical intelligence were valued in equal measure . Through this research we hope to open individuals up to the idea that volunteering is complex and difficult to manage top down , as well as influence policy makers by encouraging them to listen more carefully to communal stories of volunteering .”
Following on from the success of Mihaela ’ s research , in partnership with Susan Moffat , Keele is establishing a new research centre , Community Animation and Social Innovation Centre . Find out more in the next issue of our magazine .
Underlying Borderlines ’ ambitious powerful interventionist theatre agenda is a cultural animation approach that puts day-to-day experiences of the individuals at the heart of research and builds on the idea that when people get up and make things together , they can think in fresh ways about problematic situations and find creative ways to resolve them . Culturally animating a community involves acknowledging existing power and knowledge hierarchies and taking steps to minimise them via techniques that build up trusting relationships between participants . These techniques require participants to articulate ideas and experiences in actions and images rather than the written word , consequently dissolving power differentials that may exist within groups . In the process , participants create experiences and artefacts such as poems , songs , puppets , human tableaux , mini performances , interactive installations , and documentary dramas that are memorable and energise people around core themes and problems that require solutions . Central to this methodology is the shifting of the existing ’ status quo ’ and the creation of environments where traditional hierarchies and barriers are dissolved , so new dialogues are possible and different useful relationships are formed .