Community government: voluntary agencies, social justice, and the responsibilization of citizens1

Abstract This paper analyzes the ways in which the Canadian voluntary sector has been created as a 'community of service providers'. Drawing upon a governmentality perspective, we illustrate how governmental interventions have been largely successful in carrying out the voluntary agencies' responsibilization efforts within the sector. We trace this responsibilization project through fiscal policies and programmatic schemes, characteristic of advanced liberalism. Once invested with the task of governing, we argue that voluntary agencies take it upon themselves to train their volunteers to become responsible citizens. As a form of, what we call, community government, these voluntary agencies have therefore become doubly responsible: they provide social services to disadvantaged individuals and simultaneously train community members to assume their moral duties. Overall, this paper contributes to the growing literature on governmentality and citizenship studies by producing new insights into the links between the voluntary sector and 'responsible citizenship' under advanced liberalism. Notes Tanya Basok, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada; e‐mail: basok@uwindsor.ca Suzan Ilcan, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada; e‐mail: silcan@uwindsor.ca Suzan Ilcan, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada; e‐mail: silcan@uwindsor.ca We would like to thank our research assistants, Dale Ballucci, Carolyn Lewandowski, and Branka Malesevic, for their participation in the interview component of our study. The research herein has been supported by research funds from the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Lead authorship alternates with every study produced through our collaboration. Any notion of community, however, requires the recognition that its spaces are visualized as distinct (Rose, Citation1999), and certain features (such as common or mutual understanding) are attributed to it (Urry, Citation2000a, p. 134; Bauman, Citation2001, pp. 10–11). As Bauman reminds us, 'all unity needs to be made' (2001, p. 14). Other changes in the thinking about citizens include a shift from the national to the so‐called 'post‐national' citizenship (Soysal, Citation1994; Jacobson, Citation1996, Yuval‐Davis, Citation1999), although the limitations of this transformation have been identified by several researchers (see Schuck, Citation1998; Bhabha, Citation1999; Castles and Davidson, Citation2000; Glenn, Citation2000; Schuster and Solomos, Citation2002; Basok, Citation2004). The Panel on Accountability and Governance for the Voluntary Sector issued a report in 1999 entitled, 'Building on strength: improving governance and accountability in the voluntary sector'. Among the recommendations was the need to enhance the role of the sector in promoting democracy and setting more flexible requirements for advocacy (Brock and Banting, Citation2001, p. 7). Kobayashi (Citation2000) illustrates this trend with respect to the policy of multiculturalism. Evidence of similar tendencies (for example, cuts in public funding, commercialization of the sector, and the creation of the 'contract culture') in the US is presented by Ferris and Graddy (Citation1989) and Salamon (Citation1995) and, in Great Britain, by Reading (Citation1994). Of the 81 volunteers interviewed in our study, 56% were women and 44% were men, and just over half were 40 years of age or older. The overwhelming majority (79%) of volunteers had post‐secondary educational training. Volunteers from the Big Brothers were slightly over‐represented in the study because of their extensive cooperation with our research project and enthusiasm to participate in the study. In addition, study participants in 8% of the volunteer positions assisted in office‐related tasks, such as: typing, filing, making catalogues, photocopying, fundraising, translation, and organizing receptions and workshops. Additional informationNotes on contributorsSuzan Ilcan Footnote* Tanya Basok, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada; e‐mail: basok@uwindsor.ca Suzan Ilcan, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada; e‐mail: silcan@uwindsor.ca