Weaving subjectivity at the crossroads of volunteerism and professionalism: coping with precarity in a health care NGO

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2486493_(Table of contents)

In the neoliberal era, the state’s role in social aid and social justice has changed considerably, which led to increased social and economic inequalities, especially in terms of access to resources and rights such as health. During this era, civil society organizations do their best to find solutions and meet the needs in the face of these inequalities and injustices for which the state does not play a role. In such conjuncture, consistent with the role of civil society, social workers that I interviewed explain their motivation to work in an NGO as “helping people,” “working in a rights-based social work,” and “turning labor into a social benefit rather than increasing the profit margin of a company.” Both social workers and their organization claim that social work requires volunteering and idealism by its nature. However, this claim puts social workers in a dilemma in their relationship with cancer patients and their problems with the institution due to the emotional burnout and precarious working conditions. Thus, I argue that the dilemma between volunteerism and professionalism has a significant impact on social workers’ well-being in a healthcare NGO in Turkey. To understand these tensions, I will compare neoliberalism’s understanding of care with social workers’ conceptualization of caring as dependent on “care for others” and “cared by others,” using Tronto’s care ethics and Foucault’s care of the self.