Volunteering for dissent

Abstract

Volunteerism is the New Jerusalem, according to the Lib-Con coalition in the UK. Cameron and Clegg's 'big society' describes a world in which we all participate in public life by running post offices, libraries, transport services and initiating and administrating new schools. They suggest that these acts of volunteerism will give us more 'people power' and more control over our own lives.

NGO Art Education

“…The correlation of ‘having more say’ and ‘being involved’ suggests that if you volunteer you have more influence in your community, more local control of resources and more control over your own future . (Jordan , 3)…”

“…Hollowed out social services once provided by the state funded by taxes now are increasingly replaced by acts of charity and volunteers from civil society on the lookout for instances of effective altruism. This amounts to a form of privatisation that is far from democratic in that it is typically the wealthy that choose to fund particular aspects of society over others and those with leisure time that pick how they want to contribute to society (Jordan ). So now, this form of care in a community transfers the burden of the welfare state onto individuals, artists and students of art education that might provide ‘opportunities for marginalised communities to contribute and develop as citizens through participating in public and community art projects’ (Jordan , 4–5).…”

“…This amounts to a form of privatisation that is far from democratic in that it is typically the wealthy that choose to fund particular aspects of society over others and those with leisure time that pick how they want to contribute to society (Jordan ). So now, this form of care in a community transfers the burden of the welfare state onto individuals, artists and students of art education that might provide ‘opportunities for marginalised communities to contribute and develop as citizens through participating in public and community art projects’ (Jordan , 4–5). Therefore, an art education based on service aesthetics is being put to good use in largely short term, piecemeal, utopian, social interactions acting as art.…”