ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we seek to expand the understanding of what it means to volunteer, specifically within the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) sector, with an overall goal of promoting a broader definition of what volunteering in SDP could look like. In building this argument, we begin by outlining literature related to volunteering within international development studies and SDP. Here, we consider critical perspectives on volunteering and use this literature to set the stage for questioning our own volunteer experiences. Each of our three experiences was situated in different contexts: one local ‘in-the-field’ setting; another in the setting of an international development organization; and the third at an SDP organization in the setting of a university. Within these discussions of our experiences, we each raise questions that challenge the dominant ‘non-profit paradigm’ of volunteering while considering what could be done differently in terms of SDP and volunteering. In doing so, we aim to generate a discussion that broadens understandings of volunteering within SDP, while reflecting on how the sector’s reliance on volunteers impacts its conceptualization and goals.
