Voluntary Organizations and Associations

The Basic Issue

As Bill Reimer points our (see below), there are four spheres of operation:

1. Private
2. State
3. Voluntary ("3rd" sector")
4. Kinship

If one sector deteriorates, they all deteriorate because they are mutually interdependent. If people are marginalized from one of these spheres, the chances are, they will also be marginalized from the others.

The volunteer sector has come under great strain in the rural community especially owing to the migration of great numbers of people to the cities. With fewer people to fill leadership and followership positions in organizations, many tend to fold or consolidate to larger centers as well.

It would also be of interest to find out if the people migrating to urban centers were of certain personality types, and if so, who remains. Does this mix of personality type match the circumstance, and is it the same as that of the urban centers. This information could affect the outlook for many types of organizations.

Rural Development Institute Research Studies

• Four Chapters in Changing Rural Institutions:
•       "Issues in Institutional Restructuring in the Rural Sector" - Dr. Bruno Jean (Chapter 1)
  This paper outlines a framework for approaching the social change in rural society today. It holds up the classic sociological view of institutions as the locus of community life, and therefore an excellent window into the changing life in Rural Canada. He notes that there are institutions unique to rural life but that most rural and urban institutions are converging, so separating them out is not all that productive. What is of interest, he claims is the changes taking place owing to the :
  • withdrawl of state service provision
  • decline in population from urban migration
  • rise in he threshold of "critical mass" necessary to permit institutions to function in society in general.

  He holds that creativity is seen more in rural areas, but what he seems to be referring to is the fact that it is a long tradition on the prairies to engage problems with resources available and find new solutions out of necessity.

  All institutions, and voluntary ones in particular are faced with three alternatives:

  • protect themselves
  • maintain themselves
  • transform themselves

•       "Rural Development Through Trade-Volunteer and Business Alliances" - Peter Apedaile and David Fullerton (Chap 2)
  This paper, coming from an economic perspective is critical to the understanding of the development of the current rural situation because it is here that the concept of "entitlement" is brought forward.

  The concept is not developed in this article, as the author is far more concerned here with alerting people to the concept of voluntary associations serving as bridge organizations between companies and their representatives in the matter of forging strategic alliances informally across boundaries and barriers. This central concern of his bears some consideration, especially in that the customary channels for informal alliance building are no longer relevant in the global trading arena with its world wide and regionally blocked out trading areas. However, it seems to me a little crass to intentionally use the relationships of life simply for business ends.

  His major contribution in this article is in his consideration of entitlements and their diverse nature in our everyday life. He refers to D.G.Hartle's book, A Theory of Expenditure Budgetary Process, as one of the sources for his understanding of this concept.

•       "Informal Social Networks and Voluntary Associations in Non-Metropolitan Canada" - Bill Reimer (Chapter 6)
  This paper notes that the key factor in identifying voluntary organizations is their non-legal character. He sees informal networks as a support to formal relationships, and their health determines the degree of health of the larger formal structures. He notes there is little information on rural social networks in the literature. he raises a number of interesting points:
  • Economic and social aspects of restructuring should be addressed together to make an integrated social fabric.
  • There is a need to develop social cohesion.
  • Increase support for dependant populations as mobility distances increase for other family members.
  • Transfer funds to volunteer organizations (partnerships) not just tasks (downloading).
  • More research is needed in rural volunteer organizations.
  • increase the number of places where people can meet in rural areas.

•       "Globalization and Regionalism: Social and Rural Impacts" - Yves Chaloult (Chapter 16)
  This a very hopeful article in that the author does not see the inevitability of the underlying philosophy of globalization as necessarily connected to the "inevitability " of globalization itself. He is very much pro-consumer and human rights as well as the preservation of cultural values. That puts him very much against the headlong plunge towards universal liberal economic philosophy.

  He notes the ravages that liberal economic philosophy has wrecked on rural society commenting that poverty there is rampant despite that fact that the ratio of rural to urban population has dropped from 2/3 to 1/3 overall. His focus is on the North and south American situation which is targeted to become the largest trading block in the world by 2005, having started by mutual agreement to go in that direction in 1994.

Other Resources