Voluntariness Behind the Scences

Following on from our analysis of voluntariness as a resource in the digital economy, as set out in the first funding phase, we now turn to voluntariness as a relational phenomenon within the matrix of social inequality (or inequalities), using the example of Germany and the United States. We assume that voluntary action—for instance, through various forms of social engagement or political activity—requires a) (autonomous) control over time and spheres of freedom and thus, above all, respite from the reproductive work that the vast majority of us have to do. In this sense, voluntariness b) is systematically unequally distributed in intersectional terms and c) frequently requires the delegation of necessary work to (often migrantized) third parties, which d) is much easier under the conditions of digitization and the platform economy. We thus unpack voluntariness as a resource that tends to be both privileged and relational. From a German-US comparative perspective, we ask where, for whom, and how, zones of action emerge that are (or may be) filled with voluntary activities. Our research thus spotlights the matrix of preconditions for voluntariness as a privilege and probes the significance of what amounts to ‘involuntariness’ within this relational nexus, while also scrutinizing the constitutive role of digital infrastructures.

In methodological terms, our project takes a qualitative approach to chains of externalization. The starting point here is households whose members engage in a substantial amount of voluntary work. Against this backdrop, second, we shed light on the members of a given household, service providers, and employees in service companies who—often by digital means—take on crucial reproductive work and thus open up the potential for voluntary activities. Our dual focus on border zones and the implicit (social and economic) prerequisites for voluntariness enables us to refine and flesh out voluntariness both sociologically as well as in conceptual and analytical terms.