Making Volunteers EElliiaassoopphh..iinnddbb ii 11//55//22001111 1100::4477::2255 AAMM Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology Series Editors: Paul J. DiMaggio, Michèle Lamont, Robert J. Wuthnow, Viviana A. Zelizer A list of titles in this series appears at the back of the book EElliiaassoopphh..iinnddbb iiii 11//55//22001111 1100::4477::2277 AAMM Making Volunteers civic life after welfare’s end Nina Eliasoph princeton university press (cid:127) princeton and oxford EElliiaassoopphh..iinnddbb iiiiii 11//55//22001111 1100::4477::2277 AAMM Copyright © 2011 by Princeton University Press Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Eliasoph, Nina. Making volunteers : civic life after welfare’s end / Nina Eliasoph. p. cm. — (Princeton studies in cultural sociology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-14709-3 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Voluntarism—United States—Case studies. 2. Young volunteers in community development—United States—Case studies. 3. Volunteer workers in community development—United States—Case studies. 4. Community development—United States—Case studies. I. Title. HN90.V64E425 2011 361.0068(cid:1)3—dc22 2010048925 Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 EElliiaassoopphh..iinnddbb iivv 11//55//22001111 1100::4477::2277 AAMM Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Empower Yourself ix chapter 1: How to Learn Something in an Empowerment Project 1 part one: Cultivating Open Civic Equality chapter 2: Participating under Unequal Auspices 17 chapter 3: “The Spirit that Moves Inside You”: Puzzles of Using Volunteering to Cure the Volunteer’s Problems 48 chapter 4: Temporal Leapfrog: Puzzles of Timing 55 chapter 5: Democracy Minus Disagreement, Civic Skills Minus Politics, Blank “Reflections” 87 part two: Cultivating Intimate Comfort and Safety chapter 6: Harmless and Destructive Plug-in Volunteers 117 chapter 7: Paid Organizers Creating Temporally Finite, Intimate, Family-like Attachments 146 chapter 8: Publicly Questioning Need: Food, Safety, and Comfort 152 chapter 9: Drawing on Shared Experience in a Divided Society: Getting People Out of Their “Clumps” 165 EElliiaassoopphh..iinnddbb vv 11//55//22001111 1100::4477::2277 AAMM vi (cid:127) Contents part three: Celebrating Our Diverse, Multicultural Community chapter 10: “Getting Out of Your Box” versus “Preserving a Culture”: Two Opposed Ways of “Appreciating Cultural Diversity” 183 chapter 11: Tell Us about Your Culture: What Participants Count as “Culture” 190 chapter 12: Celebrating . . . Empowerment Projects! 206 conclusion: Finding Patterns in the “Open and Undefined” Organization 231 appendix 1: On Justification 259 appendix 2: Methods of Taking Field Notes and Making Them Tell a Story 261 Notes 265 References 281 Index 303 EElliiaassoopphh..iinnddbb vvii 11//55//22001111 1100::4477::2277 AAMM Acknowledgments Like any scholarly book, this one is the fruit of many minds. Ilana Gershon, Jack Katz, and Laurent Thévenot each combed through many chapters, line-by-line; I am grateful to each of them for convincing me to make big changes, however ornery I may have been at the time. Many generous and thoughtful people read and gave helpful comments and critiques on fi eld notes, multiple drafts, or papers that I wrote while puz- zling my way through the book, including Daniel Cefaï, Paul Dekker, Mike Edwards, Andreas Glaeser, Lynne Haney, Ron Jacobs, Michèle Lamont, Caroline Lee, Patricia Paperman, Isaac Reed, Michael Schudson, Tommaso Vitale, Ed Walker, and Robert Wuthnow. Faculty and staff at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Southern California have provided friendly and intellectually stimulating homes. A year at Princeton shifted my agenda when I discovered the lit- erature on the nonprofi t sector, thanks in part to Stanley Katz. The Uni- versity of Wisconsin conducted a brave experiment in adjusting the “work-family balance,” by giving me a half-time, tenure-track position. To my mind, the experiment was a great success, and a blessing that I hope other academic parents get a chance to taste. I have been lucky to have so many smart undergraduate and graduate students who make sure that my mind stays on its toes. One of the won- derful things about students is that they can become colleagues. I hope that Julian Charles, Jade Lo, Eeva Luhtakallio, and I continue to walk (or bike) the same path together for a long time. Speaking of walking, I have traded stories about nonprofi ts, volunteer- ing, and Empowerment Projects, while strolling at night to listen to crick- ets, sipping tea, savoring long meals, or exploring strange neighborhoods, with many beloved friends and colleagues: Hanan Afi , Jeffrey Alexander, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Bob Bellah, Marc Breviglieri, Marion Carrel, Ann Crigler, Marcy Darnovsky, Sophie Duchesne, Mitch Duneier, Merija Eisen, Myra Marx Ferree, Shelly Freiberger, Lew Friedland, Tom Good- night, Neil Gross, Camille Hamidi, Arlie Hochschild, Leslie Hustinx, Dway May Ju, Ann Mische, Mary Nicholas, Jane Pilivian, Marion Smiley, Ann Swidler, Iddo Tavory, Carole Viaud-Gayet, Erik Wright, and Philip Ziegler. While doing the research and writing, I gave several talks, many based on my raw fi eldnotes before I had discovered what they meant. At North- western, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Yale, Radcliffe, the University of EElliiaassoopphh..iinnddbb vviiii 11//55//22001111 1100::4477::2277 AAMM viii (cid:127) Acknowledgments Chicago, Vanderbilt, the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, the Institut d’études politiques, the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, the Université de Lyon, the Université de Lille, and Helsinki University, fellow scholars helped me fi gure out what all my funny and sad stories meant. Eric Schwartz, at Princeton University Press, has been a wonderful edi- tor of the sort that is reputed no longer to exist: wise, subtle, kind, and often able to discern and organize my thoughts more clearly than I have— a true master of his craft. My children Olivia and Leo have provided endless entertainment, and have nobly argued with me in my most cynical moments, to show me, based on their own experience, how volunteers can change people’s lives. Nobody slept a lot, which is as it should be, because Nobody is our cat. My loyal husband, colleague, and lifetime collaborator, Paul Lichterman, and I have been together for twenty-fi ve years now. Together, we have created articles, courses, reading groups, gardens, children, and a cozy home for enjoying each other’s love, insight, and care. I am more thankful for him than words can express here. I greatly appreciate the many people who allowed me to observe, and participate in, their gatherings. This book is dedicated to the “Emily’s” of the world—the sensitive and energetic youth workers portrayed in this book who work so valiantly in such diffi cult circumstances to make peo- ple’s lives better, and often succeed. I hope this book helps make it easier for them to fulfi ll their missions. EElliiaassoopphh..iinnddbb vviiiiii 11//55//22001111 1100::4477::2288 AAMM Introduction: Empower Yourself! Clarion calls to “serve your community” come at us from every direc- tion lately. From the heights of national government to the lowly offi ces of nonprofi ts,1 from universities to elementary schools, from breakfast cereal companies to toilet paper companies,2 we hear summons to volun- teer, to participate, to build grassroots, multicultural community, and to become empowered. In everyday practice, these alluring ideas materialize in surprising ways, sometimes with consequences that are nearly the op- posite of anyone’s intentions. Youth programs are ideal places to witness those transformations. A program like Community House,3 for example, is a free after-school and summer program for low-income, mostly minority youth in Snowy Prai- rie, a mid-sized city in the American Midwest. One day, Community House won an award from the local Rotary Club—money to help buy a minivan. The group was told that it won the award for having done “ser- vice to the community,” and this made sense, since members had helped organize litter cleanups, food drives, and other events. Everyone was de- lighted with how well the award fi t with the mission of empowering un- derprivileged youth. But when they got to the awards luncheon, the proud Community House youth volunteers read, on the list of award re- cipients: “Community House: Van to transport needy youth.” Emily, Community House’s adult organizer, told me, “If I’d have known [the list was gonna say that], I wouldn’t have brought my kids at all. I wish they had not seen that. I don’t pity them! If I did, I’d spit on them. You can’t pity people.” Organizers and youth would often grow furious when such messages about statistics and crime were said within earshot of youth volunteers. Nonetheless, this kind of mistake was frequent and predict- able in these organizations. It made sense that these mistakes were common. Calling the youth “volunteers” made sense because it was a way of highlighting their civic spirit and independence. Calling the youth “needy” made sense too, even though it seemed insulting to point out their dependence at the luncheon.4 It made sense because Community House’s funding came from govern- ment, nonprofi ts, and private donors, who needed evidence that the funds were being spent wisely. After all, Community House could not use chari- table contributions, or taxpayers’ money, to buy “a van to transport re- ally rich youth,” or “youth who are perfectly fi ne.” To deserve the van, these youth had to be needy. Crisscrossed moral inspirations—these and EElliiaassoopphh..iinnddbb iixx 11//55//22001111 1100::4477::2288 AAMM