Font Size:
VOLUNTEERING NETWORKS FOR CHANGE
Last modified: 2011-03-11
Abstract
This paper analyzes the ways in which ‘participation’ has been adopted by the UN to promote volunteering, a participatory practice in itself. UNV Executive Coordinator Flavia Pansieri describes volunteerism as contributing “to promoting the inclusion of those who don’t participate. It contributes to social cohesion in situations where the link of trust between citizens and state has been broken by conflict. And, in broader terms, it contributes to building social capital.”
On the 4th of December 2010, to celebrate International Volunteer Day, an online film festival was hosted on the United Nations Volunteers Facebook page. The festival lasted for twenty-four hours, showing a film every hour and moving time zones every two hours to allow for audience’s commentary and discussion in between. The films were mostly made by volunteers and told stories of how their actions are contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals around the globe.
Using the festival as a springboard, this paper will look into who is setting this agenda for development and how successfully it is being implemented within the heavily institutionalized setting of the UN. The focus of the analysis will be to ascertain the extent to which Castells’ theory that “creating new content and new forms in the networks that connects minds and their communicative environment is tantamount to rewiring our minds […] The greater the autonomy of the communicating subjects vis-à-vis the controllers of societal communication nodes, the higher the chances for the introduction of messages challenging dominant values and interests in communication networks” (2009:413) proves to be true in this case, and what potential consequences can result from the creation of this type of network of participatory communication for the promotion of social and economic structural alternatives, not only in so-called ‘developing’ countries, but in the more ‘advanced’ societies too.
On the 4th of December 2010, to celebrate International Volunteer Day, an online film festival was hosted on the United Nations Volunteers Facebook page. The festival lasted for twenty-four hours, showing a film every hour and moving time zones every two hours to allow for audience’s commentary and discussion in between. The films were mostly made by volunteers and told stories of how their actions are contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals around the globe.
Using the festival as a springboard, this paper will look into who is setting this agenda for development and how successfully it is being implemented within the heavily institutionalized setting of the UN. The focus of the analysis will be to ascertain the extent to which Castells’ theory that “creating new content and new forms in the networks that connects minds and their communicative environment is tantamount to rewiring our minds […] The greater the autonomy of the communicating subjects vis-à-vis the controllers of societal communication nodes, the higher the chances for the introduction of messages challenging dominant values and interests in communication networks” (2009:413) proves to be true in this case, and what potential consequences can result from the creation of this type of network of participatory communication for the promotion of social and economic structural alternatives, not only in so-called ‘developing’ countries, but in the more ‘advanced’ societies too.