Global Service Institute international
researchers conference
Toward a global research agenda on civic service:
An International Conference Buenos Aires, Argentina September 3, 2002
Michael Sherraden, Director, Center for Social Development
Amanda Moore McBride, Research Coordinator, Global Service Institute
Global Service Institute
Center for Social Development
Washington University in St. Louis
The Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis and
Innovations in Civic Participation in Washington, DC, created the Global
Service Institute (GSI) in March 2001. The primary objectives of GSI are
to build a global knowledge base and understanding of civic service and to
assist with the design and implementation of policies and programs worldwide.
GSI supports the development of a global research agenda, a Web-based information
network, and innovations in policy and program development. The Ford Foundation
provided the initial grant to begin GSI.
The development of a global research agenda on civic service was informed
through an international research conference hosted by GSI on September 3,
2002 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This research conference immediately preceded
the International Association for National Youth Service (IANYS) biennial conference.
The theme of the research conference was 'Toward a Global Research Agenda on
Civic Service.' The purpose of GSI's first international research conference
was to document the cultural, social, political, and economic issues that affect
the development, implementation, and assessment of civic service around the
world.
The daylong conference included structured presentations and discussion.
Scholars from each of eight major regions of the world presented regional assessments
on service. These scholars are regional experts on service, volunteering, and
civil society. (Please reference the list of regions and scholars at the end
of the summary.) Each paper explored the status of service programs in a given
region, and detailed the issues faced in developing, implementing, and studying
those programs. A focus was placed on the context in which service programs
operate, with attention to the role of government and civil society.
Civic service can be defined as an organized period of substantial engagement
and contribution to the local, national, or world community, recognized and
valued by society, with minimal monetary compensation to the participant.
Service is recognized as a program strategy that may have a dual purpose
of benefiting the servers as well as the served. Service programs may be
transnational, international, national, or local in scope, and servers can
be young, older, or of faith, e.g., national youth service programs.
In the definition used by GSI, service is distinguished from informal volunteering.
Servers are expected to fill a particular role and service activities are clearly
defined. Participants provide service on an intensive basis and over an extended
period. Program examples include the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps in the United
States, national service programs in Ghana or Nigeria, and the new transnational
service program, European Voluntary Service, which spans 24 May, 2007 service are only weakly under24 May, 2007gentina will help establish an 24 May, 200724 May, 200724 May, 200724 May, 200724 May, 200724 May, 200724 May, 200724 May, 200724 May, 200724 May, 2007Service: Inquiry, Institutions,
and Impacts. This interdisciplinary conference will examine the effects
of service, and focus on theories and methods for future research.
IANYS members' responses to the research conference in Argentina were incredible
positive. In fact, the number of persons wanting to attend the conference exceeded
the supply. There was not enough room for all who wanted to attend. IANYS members
who did attend noted that the authors addressed meaningful topics, and helped
practitioners put youth service within a larger context. Members mentioned
the need for more information about service effects and information and assistance
on how to effectively study service. GSI will help to integrate a research
portion into the 2004 IANYS conference in Ghana.
GLOBAL SERVICE INSTITUTE
Major regions addressed at the first international GSI research conference
and the authors are:
East Asia and the Pacific
Edna A. Co, Ph.D., Associate Professor, National College of Public Administration
and Governance Education, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon,
Philippines
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Eva Kuti, Ph.D., Director, Hungarian Central Statistical Office, Section on
Voluntary Sector Statistics, and Director of the Research Project on Non-Profit
Organizations, Budapest, Hungary
Middle East and North Africa
Amani Kandil, Ph.D., Director, Arab Network for NGOs, Cairo, Egypt
North America
James Perry, Ph.D., Associate Dean and Chancellor's Professor, Indiana University-Purdue
University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indianapolis, Indiana
USA
Rapporteur
Virginia Hodgkinson, Ph.D., Research Professor of Public Policy at the Center
for Voluntary Organizations and Service, The Georgetown University Public
Policy Institute, Washington D.C., USA
South America
María Nieves Tapia, Ph.D., Director, Latin American Center for Service-Learning,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
South Asia
Gautam Yadama, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of International Programs,
George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis,
with Don Messerschimdt, Ph.D., consultant, Nepal
Sub-Saharan Africa
Leila Patel, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Social Work, Randse Afrikaanse
University, Auckland Park, South Africa
Western Europe
Justin Davis-Smith, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Volunteering Research, London,
UK
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