Social Sciences, University of Southampton

Anjelica Finnegan is a PhD candidate in the Division of Politics and International Relations. She graduated from the University of Southampton in 2009 with a BA in Philosophy and Politics. Between graduating and starting her postgraduate studies she interned at the National Council of Voluntary Organisations where she researched and drafted a paper on the impact of the recession on charitable giving in the UK. Having been awarded the ESRC 1+3 Open Competition studentship, Anjelica returned to Southampton in 2009 to start her postgraduate studies.

Academic qualifications
BA (Hons) Philosophy and Politics
MSc Citizenship and Democracy

Anjelica's MSc dissertation, entitled 'Promised and delivered? New Labour's rhetoric and volunteer-funding streams', is an exploratory study of the Labour government's (1997-2010) rhetoric and its relationship to the means used to support volunteering. The two were studied through the comparison of funding streams to the objectives given in selected party and government publications.

Anjelica is particularly interested in carrying out research in the following areas: the politics of volunteering, the history of volunteering/voluntary action; voluntary welfare provision; volunteering as activism; conceptions of work.

PhD research

Through the analysis of government policy documents Anjelica’s thesis will seek to understand government support of volunteering (i.e. what value it placed on such activity) through analysing rhetoric presented in policy documents and mapping money directly invested into volunteering programmes and institutions. Second, but of equal importance, the thesis will ascertain whether New Labour signified a change in the level of support for volunteering. It will do so through examining two case studies: encouragement of youth volunteering (from 1950s-2010) and support for the unemployed to volunteer during periods of recession (1980-81; 1990-91 & 2008-2010).

The thesis will therefore provide an analysis of how the New Labour government has conceived the appropriate role of volunteers in terms of the balance that should be struck between the state and volunteering and whether this is a break away from previous governments.

As such, her three research questions are:

1: In what ways did New Labour promote volunteering?
2: Was there consistency between discourse and the direct support given to volunteering?
3: Has there been a continuity or difference in policy between New Labour and previous governments?

Anjelica is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Supervisors: Graham Smith, John Mohan, David Owen