Rediscovering Voluntary Action The Beat of a Different Drum

In recent years, volunteering and voluntary organizations have come to play an increasingly important role in British society. But this recognition has come at the cost of losing sight of the distinctive characteristics of voluntary action and its claims to independence of thought and action. Drawing on 45 years' experience of working in and researching the sector, Colin Rochester shows how conventional wisdom about how voluntary action is understood and undertaken ignores a variety of important activities which have contributed so much to our quality of life and living conditions. He revisits the history of voluntary action; identifies the forces that have created modern misunderstandings and misrepresentations; explores the role of voluntary action and the forms it takes; and argues that the reality of voluntary activity is very different from the picture painted by contemporary researchers and practitioners. In a final chapter Rochester spells out the implications of his vision for research and practice.

Colin Rochester is Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. He is the lead author of Volunteering and Society in the 21st Century.

1. Introduction: Why The Theory and Practice of Voluntary Action Need Rethinking
PART I: THE CONTEXT
2. Revisiting the Roots of Voluntary Action
3. The Invention of the Voluntary Sector and its Consequences
4. The Invention of Voluntary Work and its Consequences
PART II: PRESSURES AND INFLUENCES
5. A Perilous Partnership? Voluntary Action and the State
6. Selling Out? Voluntary Action and the Market
7. The Hegemony of the Bureaucratic Model
8. The Pressure from Within
PART III: ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES
9. Ownership and Control
10. What Are Voluntary Organisations For?
11. The Fallacies of Managerialism
12. Towards a 'Round Earth' Map of Volunteering
13. Dissenting Voices: The Case of the National Coalition for Independent Action
PART IV: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
14. The Paradox of Sectorisation
15. Towards An Alternative Paradigm
16. The Implications of Rethinking Voluntary Action