Volunteering as hope labour: the potential value of unpaid work experience for the un- and under-employed

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how voluntary labour is being reconfigured in precarious labour markets. I argue that like an internship, volunteering is increasingly construed as a form of ‘hope labour’, premised on the logic of investment. Hope labour promises that exposure and experience will possibly lead to employment in the future. In workshops for job seekers, experts reproduce a neoliberal logic through which the self is imagined as a portfolio or a bundle of skills that indexes one’s employability. These workshops present simple correlations between investments in one’s portfolio and enhanced employability, which tend to unravel in practice. The un- and under-employed, particularly immigrants, face difficulties accessing volunteer opportunities that develop appropriate skills and networks. They also struggle to present volunteer work as valuable ‘work experience’ in resumes and LinkedIn profiles. These difficulties reveal the ways in which hope labour is structured by and reproduces social inequalities. Although volunteer positions do not necessarily lead to paid work, unpaid work is simultaneously about filling one’s resume and chasing opportunity – prominent forms of neoliberal risk management in contingent and competitive labour markets. This labour creates potential affective and economic value, not only for individuals, but also for non-profit organisations and the state.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, Lindsay Bell and the special issue’s editors, Chaise LaDousa and Ilana Gerson, for their helpful comments. Many thanks to Bonnie Urciuoli for writing such inspiring work. Any mistakes are my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Kori Allan is a European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow and Senior Researcher in the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her work examines language, migration and labour in Toronto, Canada and Arctic Finland.

ORCID

Kori Allan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5506-1754

Notes

1 All names are pseudonyms.

2 I use the term under-employment to describe employment that is not commensurate with one’s training or skills.

3 I define government in the widest Foucauldian sense; that is, not restricted to the state.

4 Although the category NEET existed before the recession, it became an international figure of particular concern following the crisis of 2007, as youth unemployment rates rose in many countries. International bodies like the OECD track NEET, which prompted Canada to do the same. The phenomenon is relatively less prominent in Canada than it is elsewhere.

5 There are no statistics that can confirm her estimations, although my research indicates this quote is reflective of success rates. Some programme assessments suggest much more generous success rates. For instance, the City of Toronto reports that roughly half of JIP participants have found employment within 6 months. It is not clear, however, what type of employment they acquired and how. The JIP success stories I interviewed worked in part-time or temporary positions.

6 Her use of engage is ambiguous. Voluntary sector research reports also use this term, however, to indicate being able to utilise immigrant volunteers. With the influx of immigrant volunteers, several volunteer organisations have developed supports to encourage organisations to make their volunteer recruitment and placement more equitable.

7 Imagine Canada and Volunteer Canada are both umbrella organisations that support non-profits and volunteering in Canada.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.