University of Helsinki
CEACG and Finnish Society for Alcohol and Drug Research (AHTS) will organize a seminar Making Volunteers in Finland: Public policy and social and health care services in the age of active citizenship on Thursday 22 October. Speakers include Thomas Babor, Pekka Sulkunen, Elina Virokannas, Matilda Hellman, Anna Leppo, and Riikka Perälä. Full programme available here.
Citizen activity in the various forms of volunteering, peer work and empowerment programs has become the buzzword of public policy in the 21st century. Citizen activity “improves inner character, builds community, cures poverty, and prevents crime”, as American anthropologist Nina Eliasoph describes the noble starting points of US civic programs with a hint of irony (Eliasoph 2011). Michael Edwards (2004) talks about “chicken soup” that is seen to function like a magical remedy for almost all of today’s complex societal problems. Citizens have also become the key actors of Finnish social policy with various government sponsored projects training volunteers, peers and experts by experience to work in social and health care services and to make them more citizen-friendly. But, what do these activities actually entail and achieve and what are their relevance for public policy and for the organization of the society in general?
“Making Volunteers” seminar discusses these questions in the light of recent research on citizen activity, public policy and the organization of health and social care services in Finland. The seminar is arranged together with University of Helsinki Centre for Research on Addiction, Control and Governance and Society for Alcohol and Drug Research and it concentrates on looking at the questions in the field of substance abuse policy and treatment. Both potentialities and jeopardies of the policies are addressed with the help of empirical research on volunteering and peer activities in the context of drug treatment services and outreach work. Theoretically oriented papers look at the themes from the point of view of classical sociological questions of how to keep societies together and the different functions of civil society and citizen activity in this puzzle. Also the economical dimensions at the background of the activities are discussed, such as the link between the policies and prevailing funding mechanisms. The seminar is open to everyone and it welcomes both academics and experts and practitioners working in the field to discuss these themes.
Welcome!
The seminar will take place on 22 October 2015 at 12-16 at lecture hall S135, Fabianinkatu 24 (entrance via inner yard). No registration needed.