title: Double Trouble. Distinctive Nature and Future Prospects of Religious Voluntary Associations
title: Vincentian Voluntary Groups in Italy: An Organizational Case Study in the Historical Neo-Institutional Perspective
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Fonović, Ksenija
Publisher: name: University of Muenster, Institutional Repository MIAMI
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: 300 Social sciences, Anthropology
subject: 360 Social problems and services; associations
subject: 260 Christian social and ecclesiastical theology

description: Vincentian volunteers are lay Catholics who engage with the most disadvantaged as an act of free will without compensation. The study reveals the double nature of Vincentian volunteering. It is a religious movement where volunteers act in the charism of fraternal love and a non-profit non-governmental third sector entity subsidiary to public policy with the mission of general interest. It is a most typical case of modern value-driven membership-based organized volunteering, taken in a moment of acute crisis. The book explains how voluntary action and associational life form a dynamic value system that harnesses individual contributions in producing public good. It argues that prospects of organized religious volunteering depend on the adaptive capacity of the associational infrastructure to provide venues receptive to the individual quest for existential meaning. In this lies its specific nature as an actor of the transformational change in society.
description: Vinzentinische Ehrenamtliche sind katholische Laien, die sich aus freien Stücken und ohne Entgelt für die am meisten Benachteiligten engagieren. Diese Studie zeigt den doppelten Charakter der vinzentinischen Freiwilligenarbeit auf. Es handelt sich um eine religiöse Bewegung, an denen Freiwilligen im Charisma der brüderlichen Liebe und einer gemeinnützigen nichtstaatlichen Einrichtung des dritten Sektors, die der öffentlichen Politik untergeordnet ist und einen Auftrag von allgemeinem Interesse hat. Es handelt sich um ein typisches Beispiel für eine moderne, werteorientierte, mitgliedschaftlich organisierte Freiwilligenarbeit, die in einer akuten Krise liegt. Dieses Buch erklärt, wie freiwilliges Handeln und Vereinsleben, ein dynamisches Wertesystem, das individuelle Beiträge zur Gemeinwohlproduktion nutzt, bilden. Es bekräftigt, dass die Aussichten der organisierten religiösen Freiwilligenarbeit von der Anpassungsfähigkeit der Vereinsinfrastruktur abhängen, die für die individuelle Suche nach existenzieller Bedeutung empfänglich ist. Darin liegt ihr spezifischer Charakter als Akteur des gesellschaftlichen Wandels.
description: Index of Figures ..... vii Index of Tables ..... ix Acknowledgements ..... 1 Chapter 1 Introduction. Why Should We Bother about Religious Volunteering? ..... 3 1.1 Natality and Relevance of the Research ..... 3 1.2 Research Questions ..... 9 1.3 Overview of Contents ..... 15 Chapter 2 State of the Art. Conceptual Map and Gaps in Knowledge ..... 21 2.1 Conceptualization of Voluntary Action ..... 22 2.2 Conceptualization of Organized Volunteering ..... 26 2.3 Landmarks of the Global Policy Framework ..... 30 2.4 Universal Values of Voluntary Action ..... 32 2.5 The Political Dimension of Voluntary Activity ..... 33 2.6 Religion as Driver for Volunteering ..... 34 2.7 The Volunteering Habitus ..... 36 2.8 The Gender Dimension of the Volunteering Habitus ..... 37 2.9 Embeddedness: Horizontal Context Dependency ..... 39 2.10 Time Dimension: Vertical Context Dependency ..... 40 Chapter 3 Method and Methodologies. Research Strategy ..... 43 3.1 Research Strategy ..... 43 3.2 Theoretical Framework. Historical Neo-Institutionalism ..... 46 3.3 Object of the Study: Religious Voluntary Associations ..... 49 3.4 Method: Case Study ..... 54 3.4.1 Choosing the Method ..... 54 3.4.2 Choosing the Case ..... 55 3.5 The Case: Vincentian Voluntary Groups (VVG) ..... 59 3.6 Methods and Methodologies: An Array of Complementary Tools ..... 62 3.6.1 Desk Research ..... 62 3.6.2 Field Work: Participant Observation ..... 63 3.6.3 Individual Interviews ..... 64 3.6.4 Analyses ..... 66 3.6.5 Voluntary Functions Inventory (VFI) Questionnaire Adaptation and Test ..... 66 Chapter 4 Results – Macro Level. Dual Nature of the Institutional Identity ..... 69 4.1 Essential Traits of the Vincentian Institutional Identity ..... 69 4.2 Institutional Ideology: Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church ..... 74 4.3 Dual Nature: VVG at the Intersection of Strategic Reference Fields ..... 81 4.4 Modern Renaissance Period: A Social Third Sector Voluntary Organization ..... 90 Chapter 5 Results – Micro Level. Volunteers: Institutional Identity in Practice ..... 101 5.1 Personal Capitals. Social Core Re-actualized ..... 101 5.2 Subjective Meanings ..... 106 5.3 Individual Religiosity ..... 114 5.3.1 Individual Religiosity: Conservative ..... 115 5.3.2 Individual Religiosity: Progressive-spiritual ..... 118 5.3.3 Individual Religiosity: Conventional ..... 122 5.3.4 Individual Religiosity: Radical ..... 123 5.3.5 Individual Religiosity: Critical ..... 124 5.3.6 Individual Religiosity and Voluntary Functions ..... 124 Chapter 6 Results – Meso Level. Institutional Perspective on the Organizational Change ..... 127 6.1 Modern Renaissance: Organizational Development and Institutional Identity ..... 127 6.2 Post-modern Crisis: Conflict Lines Between Tradition and Modernity ..... 135 Chapter 7 Processes of Institutional Change ..... 147 7.1 Displacement ..... 147 7.2 Endogenous Factors and Dynamics ..... 151 7.3 Exogenous Factors and Dynamics ..... 153 7.3.1 Religious Field ..... 156 7.3.2 Third Sector Field ..... 161 7.4 Diverging Trajectories of Institutional Change ..... 166 Chapter 8 Discussion – Micro to Meso Level. Agentification as a Distinctive Function of Religious Voluntary Associations ..... 169 8.1 Distinctive Nature of the Religious Voluntary Organization ..... 169 8.2 Religious Voluntary Organization: Functions of the Small Group ..... 171 8.3 Individual and Organizational Capital ..... 177 8.4 Volunteering as Work ..... 183 8.4.1 An Enlarged Conceptualization of Voluntary Work ..... 183 8.4.2 The Values of Volunteering: Work and Understanding Functions ..... 187 8.5 Drivers of Agentification: Entrepreneurship ..... 191 8.6 Drivers of Agentification: Leadership ..... 194 Chapter 9 Agentification in the Capabilities Approach ..... 203 9.1 Religious Voluntary Association as a Site of Capabilities Building ..... 203 9.2 Agentification as Distinctive Function of Organized Volunteering ..... 205 9.3 Affiliation Capability ..... 206 9.4 The System of Capabilities ..... 210 9.5 Relationship with Beneficiaries: Friendship in the Capabilities Approach ..... 213 9.6 Encounter with Diversity ..... 216 Chapter 10 Discussion – Micro to Macro Level. Religious Voluntary Association as a Value System ..... 229 10.1 Institutional Identity Dynamics: Vincentian Value Proposition of Love ..... 229 10.2 Micro level – Bonding. Individual Religiosity: Life in the Love of Christ ..... 233 10.3 Micro Level – Bridging. Fraternal Love: Friendship Approach ..... 240 10.4 Meso Level. The Pivot Role of Religious Voluntary Associations ..... 246 10.5 Meso to Macro Level Dynamics. Institutional Identity ..... 248 10.6 Macro to Micro Level. Love as Value in the Public Sphere: Social Doctrine ..... 252 10.7 Macro Level. Societal Impact: Rise in Normativity and Orders of Worth ..... 255 10.8 The Political Nature of Faith-driven Organization-based Volunteering ..... 269 Chapter 11 Conclusions. Future Perspectives of Organization-based Volunteering of Religious Inspiration ..... 275 11.1 Distinctive Nature and Functioning of Religious Voluntary Associations ..... 275 11.2 Volunteering as a Political Stance ..... 287 11.3 The Historical Predicament of Intermediary Corps ..... 295 11.4 Avenues for Future Research ..... 302 References ..... 305 Appendix I: Historical Overview – The Making of VVG. Institutional Evolution of the Vincentian Volunteering ..... 321 I Institutional Identity of the Vincentian Voluntary Groups (VVG) ..... 321 I.i Saint Vincent de Paul: Identity and Values ..... 322 I.ii Saint Louise de Marillac: Role of Women ..... 326 I.iii The Vincentian Family Today ..... 330 II St. Vincent’s Conferences of Lay Volunteers: Profiling of the Institutional Specificity ..... 339 II.i The Origins of the Traditional Vincentian Lay Volunteering ..... 339 II.ii The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Italy: Second Half of the 19th Century ..... 343 II.iii Ladies of Charity: Organizations of Lay Women Vincentian Volunteers ..... 347 II.iv Internal Dynamics and Public Positioning: 1st Half of the 20th Century ..... 352 II.v Institutional Specificity in the Religious Field ..... 364 III Vincentian Voluntary Groups (VVG): Organizational Context in the Modern Renaissance Period ..... 368 III.i From Ladies of Charity to Vincentian Voluntary Groups (VVG) ..... 369 III.ii Institutional Identity and Organizational Structure ..... 372 III.iii Dual Nature in Subsidiary Welfare ..... 384 III.iv Organizational Dimensions: Activities and Beneficiaries ..... 391 Appendix I: References ..... 396 Appendix II: VFI Questionnaire Adaptation – Clary et al. 1998 “Career” Voluntary Function Inventory Items Adapted to “Work” Function ..... 399 Appendix III: VFI Questionnaire – Adapted in “Career” Function (in Italian) ..... 400 Appendix IV: Interviews ..... 401 IV.i List of Volunteers quoted from in-depth Interviews: Code Name (Group, Gender, Age) ..... 401 IV.ii ..... 401 IV.iii ..... 402 IV.iv ..... 402 IV.v ..... 402