2^nd Call for Papers: Annual RGS-IBG International Conference, London, 30^th August to Friday 2^nd September 2016

Geographies of faith, volunteering and the lifecourse

Session organisers: Tim Fewtrell (Loughborough University) and Sarah Mills (Loughborough University)

Session Sponsorship: SCGRG & GCYFRG

Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest in the relationship between faith and voluntary action across the social sciences (e.g. Lukka and Locke 2000; NCVO 2007; Smith and Denton 2005). Indeed, diverse faith-based motivations have shaped both small scale, highly localised provision and contributed to major international relief and development work (Montagne-Villette 2011; Milligan, 2007). As these debates on the relationship between religious identities, volunteering and faith-based organisations expand, there remains a need to be attentive to the dynamics of age and the lifecourse. Indeed, this has been demonstrated in recent studies on the experiences of young religious volunteers (Baillie Smith et al., 2013; Hopkins et al., 2015) and more broadly in work on older volunteers, for example within deprived communities (Hardill and Baines, 2009).

This session seeks to further explore the diverse relationships and interactions between religion, spirituality and volunteering, with a particular emphasis on age and the lifecourse. Furthermore, the session seeks to ask critical questions surrounding other ‘moral economies’ of volunteering (Wolch 2006: xiv) in order to consider the diverse motivations and practices of volunteering projects and individual volunteers. Consequently, papers may focus on a variety of different contexts, scales and religious affiliations, or themes surrounding the ‘post-secular’ landscape of voluntarism (Cloke and Beaumont, 2013).

We would particularly like to welcome papers (of 20 minutes – 15 minutes presentation, followed by 5 minutes for questions) that examine the following themes:

• Youth transitions, faith and identity
• Intergenerational geographies of faith-based volunteering
• Faith-based social action in austere times
• The  ‘post-secular’ and moral landscapes of charity provision
• The wider ‘moral economies’ of volunteering
• International volunteering, faith and global citizenship
• Faith-based voluntary projects and/or community work
• The emotional geographies of volunteering

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted to both [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask] by Monday 8^th February 2016.  More details on AC2016 can be found here:

References

Baillie Smith, M., Laurie, N., Hopkins, P., & Olson, E. (2013) International volunteering, faith and subjectivity: Negotiating cosmopolitanism, citizenship and development. Geoforum 45, 126-135.

Cloke, P., and Beaumont, J. (2013) Geographies of postsecular rapprochement in the city. Progress in Human Geography 37, 27-51.

Hardill, I., and Baines, S. (2009) Active citizenship in later life: older volunteers in a deprived community in England. The Professional Geographer 61, 36-45.

Hopkins, P., Olson, E., Baillie Smith, M., & Laurie, N. (2015) Transitions to religious adulthood: relational geographies of youth, religion and international volunteering. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 40, 387–98.

Lukka, P. and Locke, M. (2000) Faith, voluntary action and social policy: A review of the research, Voluntary Action 3, 25-41

Milligan, C. (2007) Geographies of voluntarism: mapping the terrain. Geography Compass 1, 183-199.

Montagne-Villette, S., Hardill, I. and Lebeau, B. (2011) Faith-based voluntary action: a case-study of a French charity. Social Policy & Society 10, 405-415.

NCVO (2007) Faith and Voluntary Action: An overview of current evidence and debates London: NCVO

Smith, C. and Denton, M. (2005) Soul searching: the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wolch, J. (2006) Foreword: beyond the shadow state, in: C. Milligan and D. Conradson (eds) Landscapes of Voluntarism: New Spaces of Health, Welfare and Governance, pp. xii–xv, Bristol: Policy Press.

Best wishes,

Sarah

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Dr Sarah Mills

Senior Lecturer in Human Geography

NN136 Department of Geography, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU

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