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The scale, forms and distribution of volunteering amongst refugee youth populations in Uganda

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posted on 2024-10-07, 12:51 authored by Bianca Fadel, Matt Baillie Smith, Sarah MillsSarah Mills, Daniel Rogerson, Aarti Sahasranaman, Moses Okech, Robert Turyamureeba, Cuthbert Tukundane, Frank Ahimbisibwe, Owen Boyle, Peter Kanyandago

Geographies of volunteering have examined the relationships between people, places and forms of voluntary action, but there has been limited geographical scholarship on the scales, forms and distribution of volunteering amongst specific populations in different settings, particularly in the global South. While in the global North there are some established quantitative datasets, often produced by humanitarian and development organisations, these are largely absent in the South. Where they do exist, they often reflect Western-centric ideas and concepts, meaning that volunteering behaviours that do not fit Western norms – such as amongst young refugees in the global South – can be excluded, or captured in ways that are partial or unrepresentative. This paper provides an important challenge to existing geographies of volunteering, expanding them through an account of volunteering amongst young refugees in Uganda, and how it articulates with social inequalities within and between the spaces and places where young refugees live. We analyse quantitative data from 3,053 young refugees surveyed on their volunteering experiences in rural and urban settings in Uganda. The data provides new evidence of who these volunteers are, beyond their refugee status, why, where and how they conduct their activities, and reveals how these are connected to livelihoods and community development. Through this survey analysis, the paper argues for the need to establish grounded conceptualisations of volunteering that consider the scales, distribution, and various forms of volunteering within specific groups. In doing so, the paper offers a new framework for better understanding the relationships between volunteering and refugee lives through four interlocking factors: place, (im)mobility, income and gender. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for wider geographies of volunteering and research on refugee youth and displaced populations.

Funding

Skills acquisition and employability through volunteering by displaced youth in Uganda

Economic and Social Research Council

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History

School

  • Social Sciences and Humanities

Department

  • Geography and Environment

Published in

Population, Space and Place

Publisher

Wiley

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This is an Open Access article published by Wiley under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Acceptance date

2024-07-17

Publication date

2024-09-05

Copyright date

2024

ISSN

1544-8444

eISSN

1544-8452

Language

  • en

Depositor

Prof Sarah Mills. Deposit date: 8 August 2024

Article number

e2817

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