|  | Feature: “ICSEMIS Researchers Award” | No.56 May 2009 |
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The Framing of the Idea of Volunteering in Olympic and Chinese Discourses Vassil Girginov & Cynthia Zhuang |
Introduction This study examines the framing of the concept of volunteering in the official Olympic and Chinese popular and academic discourses. It is part of a larger programme of research investigating the contribution of the 2008 Beijing Olympics volunteering towards the creation of social capital in the host country. Ultimately, the study is trying to understand how the power of the idea of Olympic volunteering relates to wider visions of citizenship, shapes thought and action on the ground, and affects individual lives and organisational practices. Increasingly, the concept of volunteering has been gaining momentum in Olympic movement, and since 2002 has been seen as an essential part of sustainable legacies produced by the Olympic Games and the practices of Organising Committees. In particular the question why the idea of volunteering was seen as an attractive means to address the issue of public engagement and community spirit is explored? Building on Bøås and McNeill (2004) and McNeil (2006), framing is interpreted as including first, how attention was drawn to the issue of volunteering, and second, determining how this idea was viewed in China, as a host country of the 2008 Olympic Games. Methods After conceptualising the term ‘voluntary’ and its related interpretations both in Western and Chinese terms, the study used bibliographic data comprising all Olympic Games official reports from 1896 to 2004 and the most comprehensive public (news papers) and academic (articles and dissertations) data base in Chinese language CNKI from 1990 to 2007. A bibliometric analysis was employed to quantify the evolution (rate and extend) of the idea of Olympic volunteering. To avoid unrelated returns the search in the CNKI used a combination of ‘Olympic’ and ‘volunteering’, voluntary’ and ‘volunteers’. Results Figure 1: Usage of the terms Olympic volunteer/s, voluntary and volunteering in the Olympic Games official reports Figure 2: Using of the term 'Olympic volunteer' in chinese academic and public discourse Figures 1 and 2 present the findings from the Olympic Games official reports and the CNKI data base respectively. Although the term ‘volunteer’ appeared for the first time in the 1900 Paris Games report, it was not until the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games when the link between volunteering, as a community service, and the contribution an Olympic Games could make was clearly established. The CKNI data show a gradual but steady peak in the usage of the terms in the official public discourse and a rather limited interest in the topic by academic publications and masters and PhD theses in particular. However, these results may change in the post-Games period as it is anticipated that studies on volunteering could be published. Discussion Four principle interrelated forces were responsible for the diffusion of the idea of volunteering within the Olympic movement. These include (i) concerns for waning community spirit in the West; (ii) the moral crisis of the IOC in 1999 and the resultant need to reestablish its moral authority, (iii) the need to keep down the growing complexity and cost of the Games, and (iv) the development of the concept of ‘sustainable development’ by the United Nations in 1989, in which volunteering plays a central role. The IOC failed to grasp the significance of this idea and was prompted by the events to identify volunteering as a key element of community spirit generated by the Games. This is now reflected in the IOC ‘Olympic Games Impact’ project, which specifically monitor the uptake of volunteering. The 2008 Beijing organizers recognized the appeal of the idea, as it both fits well with the traditional Confucian values of harmony, benevolence and love, and has practical relevance to more than 70,000 Chinese national voluntary organizations with some 16,000,000 volunteers. Recently, the traditional voluntary spirit has been encouraged by the Chinese state in order to address the social and economic challenges posed by country’s rapid modernization. However, it would appear that the framing of this idea has been promoted mainly by the state. The academic community is yet to determine how the idea of Olympic volunteering influences policies and practices. References Bøås, M. & McNeill, D. (Eds.), (2004). Global Institutions and Development: Framing the World? Routledge: New York. McNeill, D. (2006). The Diffusion of Ideas in Development Theory and Policy. Global Studies, 6 (3), 334-354. Contact Vassil Girginov Brunel University Middlesex, United Kingdom Email: Vassil.Girginov@brunel.ac.uk icsspe.org/index.php?m=15 The Framing of the Idea of Volunteering in Olympic and Chinese Discourses Vassil Girginov & Cynthia Zhuang