“I knew I needed to live what I realised was faith in me”: enacting and transcending religious identity through food aid volunteering

Wakefield, J.R.H. ORCID: 0000-0001-9155-9683, Bowe, M. ORCID: 0000-0002-0491-1472, Kellezi, B. ORCID: 0000-0003-4825-3624, Harkin, L.J. ORCID: 0000-0003-0511-5934, Baker, C.W. and Shala, A., 2023. “I knew I needed to live what I realised was faith in me”: enacting and transcending religious identity through food aid volunteering. European Journal of Social Psychology. ISSN 0046-2772 (Forthcoming)

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Abstract

Volunteering can enhance both help-recipients’ and volunteers’ lives, so it is important to explore what motivates people to begin and continue volunteering. For instance, research underpinned by the Social Identity Approach recognises that group-related processes are consequential. Recent quantitative research within this tradition highlighted the potential importance of volunteering as a means of religious identity enactment, but no work has yet explored this idea qualitatively, which means that the richness and complexity of identity enactment as a motive for volunteering remains unexamined. Addressing this, we conducted interviews with volunteers (N = 26) within English religiously-motivated voluntary organisations that are responding to an important real-world issue: growing levels of food insecurity. Theoretically-guided Reflexive Thematic Analysis developed four themes showing that volunteering can facilitate enactment of different identities (i.e., religious, volunteer, and human), thus illustrating the nuanced and complex nature of identity enactment through volunteering. Theoretical and practical implications are explored.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	European Journal of Social Psychology
Creators:	Wakefield, J.R.H., Bowe, M., Kellezi, B., Harkin, L.J., Baker, C.W. and Shala, A.
Publisher:	Wiley
Date:	14 November 2023
ISSN:	0046-2772
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1002/ejsp.3012 DOI 1828367 Other
Rights:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: WAKEFIELD, J.R.H., BOWE, M., KELLEZI, B., HARKIN, L.J., BAKER, C.W. and SHALA, A., 2023. “I knew I needed to live what I realised was faith in me”: enacting and transcending religious identity through food aid volunteering. European Journal of Social Psychology, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3012. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	01 Nov 2023 11:49
Last Modified:	27 Nov 2023 09:29
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/50199

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