‘Sometimes, it's not just about the food': The social identity dynamics of foodbank helping transactions

Bowe, Mhairi; Wakefield, Juliet R. H.; Këllezi, Blerina; McNamara, Niamh; Harkin, Lydia; Jobling, Rosie

doi:10.1002/ejsp.2558

Cited by 20 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…This undermines trust and cooperation and leads to a vicious circle of misunderstandings, disengagement, and conflict. Such conflict can be overcome, however, as Bowe et al () has shown in the context of UK foodbanks. By reinforcing inter‐group commonalities such as shared humanity, volunteers were able to foster positive foodbank helping transaction experiences for clients (a highly stigmatised identity), thereby paving the way for Social Cure processes.…”

Section: The Complex Interplay Between Cure and Curse Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When groups help and when groups harm: Origins, developments, and future directions of the “Social Cure” perspective of group dynamics

Wakefield

Bowe

Këllezi

et al. 2019

Social & Personality Psych

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A substantial literature supports the important role that social group memberships play in enhancing health. While the processes through which group memberships constitute a "Social Cure" are becoming increasingly well defined, the mechanisms through which these groups contribute to vulnerability and act as a "Social Curse" are less understood.We present an overview of the Social Cure literature and then go beyond this to show how the processes underpinning the health benefits of group membership can also negatively affect individuals through their absence. First, we provide an overview of early Social Cure research. We then describe later research concerning the potential health benefits of identifying with multiple groups, before moving on to consider the "darker side" of the Social Cure by exploring how intra-group dynamics can foster Curse processes. Finally, we synthesise evidence from both the Cure and Curse literatures to highlight the complex interplay between these phenomena and how they are influenced by both intra-and inter-group processes. We conclude by considering areas we deem vital for future investigation within the discipline.

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Section: The Complex Interplay Between Cure and Curse Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When groups help and when groups harm: Origins, developments, and future directions of the “Social Cure” perspective of group dynamics

Wakefield

Bowe

Këllezi

et al. 2019

Social & Personality Psych

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“…Volunteering processes are rather different to bystander processes and one-off acts of helping, and however, they tend to involve longer-term and more complex acts of helping in order to address chronic and multi-faceted societal problems, such as food insecurity (Bowe et al, 2019), HIV/AIDS (Omoto & Snyder, 2002;Simon, St€ urmer, & Steffens, 2000), or environmental disasters with long-term consequences (Ntontis et al, 2020). Moreover, due to the additional time commitments usually required when volunteering, volunteers may have the opportunity to develop relationships with fellow volunteers in a way that bystanders do not tend to have.…”

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confidence: 99%

Thy will be done: Exploring the longitudinal rewards of religious group membership enactment during volunteering

Wakefield

Bowe

Këllezi

2021

British J Social Psychol

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The volunteering literature is replete with studies revealing the health benefits of volunteering. This has led psychologists to question whether social processes may help deliver these benefits while also supporting sustained volunteering engagement. The Social Identity Approach (SIA) recognizes that volunteering takes place in groups and sheds light on these processes by providing insights into group dynamics. Specifically, recent work within the Social Cure tradition has revealed the dynamic relationship between volunteering and group identification, and how this can influence health and wellbeing. This study extends previous work by exploring whether the relationship is mediated by the extent to which volunteers feel able to enact their membership of a valued group (specifically their religious group) through their volunteering. People who volunteer with religiously motivated voluntary groups (N = 194) completed the same online survey twice, three months apart (T1/T2). For participants high in religiosity, T1 identification with their voluntary group positively predicted their sense of being able to enact the membership of their religious group through their voluntary work at T2, which in turn was a positive predictor of T2 mental health and volunteer engagement. The implications of these findings for both the theoretical literature and for voluntary organizations are discussed.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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“…Thematic analysis (TA) is a rigorous and flexible analytical approach that can support a theoretical realist analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). This theoretical and realist approach allowed us to explore the impact that the pandemic had on older adults' social identities, informed by social identity theory (examples of TA used to support social identity insights are Bowe et al, 2019;Ng et al, 2018).…”

Section: Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Siege on Positive Ageing: Experiences of identity threat and coping among Older Adults during COVID-19 pandemic

Sanderson¹,

Harkin²,

Stuart³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Older adults face significant challenges in regards to the various stereotypes associated with ageing, which have consequences for their mental health and wellbeing. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened these age-based stereotypes due to older adults’ proportionally higher vulnerability to the virus. The present research explored how the pandemic has exacerbated the challenges of ageing by impacting on the social identities of older adults and how these challenges have been met. Eleven focus groups were conducted with 32 UK older adults from a range of household compositions. Guided by the social identity approach, a thematic analysis found that participants faced a number of recognisable stereotype threats: loss of opportunities to enact meaningful identities, loss of autonomy and loss of usefulness. Despite these threats, we also found participants used identity management strategies and mobilised existing or new social identities to give and receive of support and to retain a meaningful and purposeful life. The implications of this research are that governments and those supporting older adults can attend to the negative psychology impact of protective policies and know that fostering group connections can be a source of pandemic resilience.

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‘Sometimes, it's not just about the food': The social identity dynamics of foodbank helping transactions

Cited by 20 publications

References 46 publications

When groups help and when groups harm: Origins, developments, and future directions of the “Social Cure” perspective of group dynamics

When groups help and when groups harm: Origins, developments, and future directions of the “Social Cure” perspective of group dynamics

Thy will be done: Exploring the longitudinal rewards of religious group membership enactment during volunteering

A Siege on Positive Ageing: Experiences of identity threat and coping among Older Adults during COVID-19 pandemic

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