‘I’ve never met them or spoken to them’:

governmentality in local youth volunteering policy

Jon DeanCentre for Philanthropy, University of Kent

Purpose of this paper• The second part of two papers aimed at

exploring youth volunteering policy.– Part 1,Voluntary Action History Society

Conference, July 2010 Governmentality and the history of youth

volunteering policy– Part 2, NCVO/VSSN Research Conference,

September 2010 How is this policy being enacted at a local level

Michel Foucault and Governmentality

• Theory of how power has come to be used in the modern age

• Power is not determined by borders, but by the strength of populations.

• ‘govern-mentality’• Guide populations into certain behaviours• ‘Responsibilization’ – encourage citizens to

take ownership of their lives.

Research Method

• Set of 15 qualitative interviews• 40 – 150 minutes in length• With staff working in the voluntary and

statutory sectors. • Various ethnic and social backgrounds.• Varying lengths of service in the borough, but

most for more than 10 years.• Summer 2010

Governmentality in Eastwood volunteering policy

• Some limited examples of the process of governmentality came from interviewees– Environmental programmes to ‘responsibilize’

young people towards their areas– Aspirations to build a long-term strategy of

youth involvement and altruism– Peer education: volunteering as a way to

remove the statutory sector from some services.

Why a governmentality approach may not work in certain localities.

• Lack of youth opportunities and points of contact

• Local politics• Long memories• Inadequacy of local vteam

Moving forward

• Further data analysis from Eastwood. • Another case study of the same format to be

carried out in the South East of England. • Focus groups to be carried out in both areas

with young volunteers to understand their relationships with different agencies.

Thank you