Vanja Čelebičić :

Volonterski rad: blizak ali i dalje otuđen

“...Pogledajte koliko napora svako ulaže u razvoj volonterskog rada među mladim ljudima! Danas mi usvajamo Zakon o volonterskom radu, dok su nekad ljudi gradili željezničke pruge na volonterskoj osnovi...”

28.04.2015.

Vanja Čelebičić :

Voluntarism: familiar yet estranged

'...Look how much effort everybody is putting in developing voluntary work among young people! [today] We are adopting a Law on Voluntarism, while some time ago people used to build railways totally voluntarily...'.

28.04.2015.

Jedan od mnogih uvida koji mi dolaze na um dok vršim istraživanje u Bosni i Hercegovini (BiH) jeste kako koncepti, aktivnosti, vrijednosti i ideje koji su nekad – ne tako davno – bili sasvim bliski, postali otuđeni. Za uvodnik u blog posebno razmišljam o volonterskom radu.

Više puta u toku razgovora sa raznim predstavnicima vladinih i nevladinih, lokalnih i međunarodnih organizacija dobila sam utisak da se volonterski rad – poželjan koliko može biti – smatra na neki način udaljenim od pravaca u kojima se stvari rade u današnjoj BiH (ili možda kako bi mogle da se rade). Ovo je bilo očito u brojnim žalbama koje sam čula od predstavnika raznih organizacija da mladi ljudi nisu zainteresovani za volonterski rad – što znači raditi bez naknade - ili u nastojanjima njihovih organizacija da ohrabre mlade ljude da volontiraju. Međutim, kako uvodna izjava pokazuje, tokom tih istih razgovora često su mi govorili da volonterski rad nekad nije bio samo uobičajen, nego da je bio i bitan dio ‘naše tradicije’. Jasno, u riječima tih pojedinaca, podrazumijeva se da je volonterski rad dosta poznata praksa s dugom tradicijom i u BiH i širem regionu koji se zvao Jugoslavija.

Pitam se kako razni procesi otuđenja i familijarizacije djeluju kao sredstvo posebne proizvodnje znanja i način da se traže ili izbjegnu posebne prakse i iskustva. Kako je ova poznata praksa postala otuđena: šta se promijenilo? Da li se promijenila ideja i praksa volonterskog rada sama po sebi ili se otuđila kroz složene lokalne i globalne procese i odnose? Ili ima više veze sa statusom BiH koja u ovom svijetu postoji kao ‘poslije’ mjesto (poslije rata 1992-5, poslije hladnog rata, poslije socijalizma)?

Jedan muškarac u srednjim tridesetim koji vodi jednu lokalnu NVO, koja se isključivo fokusira na mlade ljude u sjevernom dijelu BiH, rekao mi je da je glavni problem s volonterskim radom kako je postavljen ili kako se razumije: kao jaz. Preciznije, kao jaz koji postoji između mlade nezaposlene osobe i potencijalnog budućeg zaposlenja. Ali stvari nekad nisu bile takve, naglasio je, jer: ‘pogrešno smo shvatili ... ovo nije značenje volonterskog rada. Ali u proteklih deset godina volonterski rad se ovako shvatio.’ U osnovi, ideja da neko treba da volontira kako bi stekao izvjesno iskustvo i onda, s vremenom i vještinom, nađe posao izgledala je potpuno neumjesna po mišljenju mog sagovornika. Uz ovakav stav mladi ljudi ne mogu biti motivisani: ako volontiraju oni to rade jer je to postao način da se dobije pristup tržištu rada i oni osjećaju da to moraju da rade, a ne što žele to da rade. Po njegovom mišljenju, volonterski rad treba da bude nešto što čovjek voli da radi u području koje dobro radi, što je ključno, jer može priuštiti sebi da to radi bez ikakve naknade. To je, po njemu, kombinacija slobodnog vremena i finansijske sigurnosti koja služi kao plodno tlo za volonterski rad. Drugim riječima, volonter treba da bude osoba koja već ima zaposlenje a ne osoba koja se nada da će se zaposliti kroz volonterske aktivnosti.

Ovu ideju da volonterski rad ne može, ili ne treba, da bude prinudan čula sam i u razgovoru sa ženom koja vodi jednu od međunarodnih organizacija u Sarajevu: ‘volonterska akcija nije nešto prema čemu nekog usmjeravate. Treba da proistekne iz zajednice.’ Zanimljivo je da je malo kasnije dodala kako je ‘glavni cilj njene organizacije da promoviše volonterski rad’. Međutim, ako postoji potreba da se promoviše volonterski rad (a samo nekoliko organizacija koje djeluju u BiH misle da postoji), to ne znači da je manjkav ili da u sadašnjem obliku nešto nije s njim u redu; to takođe znači da je pitanje šta je ustvari volonterski rad i šta tačno razne lokalne i međunarodne organizacije očekuju da postignu kroz to, manje iskreno nego što izgleda. Jasno, ako mnoge organizacije imaju za cilj da potaknu mlade ljude da volontiraju, a u isto vrijeme vjeruju da se volonterski rad ne može potaknuti (jer treba da potekne od pojedinca ili zajednice), o čemu se onda ovdje radi?

Da bi se istražilo značenje volonterskog rada u današnjoj BiH, mislim da je važno razumjeti procese otuđenja i familijarizacije koji su u to uključeni, kao i razne procedure, prakse i proizvodnju znanja, od kojih su neke više lokalne a neke više globalne, neke ukorijenjene u prošlosti a neke investirane u budućnost.

One among many insights that come to my mind while doing research in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is how concepts, activities, values and ideas which once – not that long ago – were quite familiar, have now become estranged. For the purpose of this blog entry I am thinking in particular about voluntarism.

On several occasions during conversations I had with various representatives of governmental and non-governmental, local and international organizations I got a sense that voluntarism – desired as it might be – was understood to be somehow estranged from the ways in which things are done in contemporary BiH (or perhaps from how they could be done). This became apparent in numerous complaints I have heard from various organization representatives which suggested that young people were not interested in volunteering -as it meant working for free - or in their organizations’ efforts to encourage young people to volunteer. However, as the opening statement above suggests, in these same conversations I have often been told not only that voluntary work was once quite common, but also that it was an essential part of ‘our tradition’. Clearly, in these individuals’ words, voluntarism is understood to be a rather familiar practice with a long tradition in both BiH and the wider region of what used to be known as Yugoslavia.

This made me wonder how various processes of estrangement and familiarization operate as tools of particular knowledge production, and means to pursue or eschew particular practices and experiences. How has this familiar practice become estranged: what changed? Has the idea and practice of voluntarism itself changed, or has it been made estranged through complex local and global processes and relations? Or is it more to do with the status BiH has come to inhabit in this world as a ‘post’ place (post-1992-5 wars, post-cold war, post-socialist)?

A man in his mid thirties who runs a local NGO that focuses exclusively on young people in the northern part of BiH told me that the main problem with voluntarism is how it is being positioned, or understood: as a gap. More precisely as a gap existing between a young unemployed person and a potential future job. But this is not how things used to be, he suggested: ‘we got it all wrong…this is not the meaning of voluntarism. But in the past ten years this is how voluntarism has been understood’. Basically the idea that one should volunteer in order to get some experience and then, with time and skill, find a job seemed totally out of place in my interlocutor’s eyes. In this attitude young people could not be motivated: if they volunteer they do it because it has become a way to access the job market, and they feel they have to do it, and not that they want to do it. In his view voluntarism ought to be something one loves to do in a field one does well and, crucially, because one can afford to do absolutely free of charge. So, according to him, it is the combination of free time and financial security that serve as fruitful ground for voluntarism. In other words, a volunteer should be a person who already has a job, and not a person who hopes to get one through voluntary activity.

This idea that voluntarism cannot, or rather should not, be forced was communicated to me also during a conversation with a woman who runs one of the international organizations in Sarajevo: ‘voluntary action is not something that you direct someone towards. It has to emerge from the community’. Interestingly though, somewhat later she added that her organization’s ‘main goal was to promote voluntarism’. However, if there is a need to promote voluntarism (and quite a few organizations operating in BiH think there is), it does not only mean that it is lacking or that in its current form something is wrong with it; it also means that the question of what voluntarism actually is, and what exactly various local and international organizations hope to achieve through it, is less straight forward than it may seem. Clearly, if many organizations aim to encourage young people to volunteer, and at the same time they believe that voluntarism cannot be encouraged (precisely because it has to derive from within an individual or a community) then what is at stake here?

I suggest that in order to explore the meaning voluntarism has in the contemporary BiH it is important to understand processes of estrangement and familiarization involved in it, as well as various procedures, practices and knowledge production, some which are more local and some which are more global, some which are embedded in the past and some which are invested in the future.

Vanja Čelebičić - Mlada direktorica jedne od NVO sa sjedištem u Sarajevu, BiH

Vanja Čelebičić - A young female director of one of the Sarajevo based NGOs

Tekst je prvobitno objavljen na You Citizen portal (12.03.2015).

Prevod: Dijalog BiH2.0

This article was originally published on You Citizen website (12.03.2015).

Odgovornost za informacije i gledišta iznesena u ovom članku, isključivo leži na autorima i nužno ne odražavaju mišljenje urednika Dialogue - BiH2.0 – Dijalog, njegovog savjetodavnog odbora, Tufts univerziteta, partnera, pobornika i donatora.

Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Dialogue - BiH2.0 - Dijalog Editors, its Advisory Board, Tufts University, Partners, Supporters and Donors.}

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