Aims and objectives.

Tutor: Dr Georgina Brewis

Email: g.brewis@ucl.ac.uk

Office: Room 733, UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way

Course Overview:

We cannot write the history of modern Britain without considering the vital role of voluntary organisations to social and political life. Across the fields of social welfare, health, education and youth work, social policy, leisure, the arts and culture, international development and humanitarian aid, non-governmental organisations have made and continue to make significant contributions. This course aims to put voluntary organisations and the volunteers, campaigners and fundraisers these bodies involve at the centre of students’ understanding of the history of modern Britain. The module will introduce students to the latest research and exciting debates in what is a vibrant and burgeoning field of history, with historians calling for the study of voluntary action to be taken more seriously by those studying recent British politics, and growing interest in the topic from allied disciplines such as historical geography.

The module explores change across the twentieth century from challenges to Victorian and Edwardian models of philanthropy during and after the First World War to the age of the big international NGO in the 1980s. The course examines the experiences and motivations of school children, students and other members of the public who collected money, volunteered their time, signed petitions and joined marches for a huge range of causes, organisations and campaigns in the twentieth century, and examining the class-based and gendered nature of this participation. In so doing it aims to open up students’ eyes to the importance of voluntary action for ordinary people – particularly women – across the twentieth century, and aims to promote an enhanced understanding of todays’ non-profit sector. The course has a strong focus on examination of a diverse range of primary sources and, in line with the aims of UCL’s Connected Curriculum, will invite students to explore the ephemera of charity in the past through object handling.

Aims and Objectives:

The module aims:

• To critically examine the vital role of voluntary organisations to social and political life in twentieth-century Britain;
• To put voluntary organisations and the volunteers, campaigners and fundraisers these bodies involve at the centre of students’ understanding of the history of modern Britain;
• To examine the changing ways in which the British public has understood and engaged with voluntary organisations and charity over time;
• To explore the evolution and growth of a distinct ‘voluntary sector’ in Britain, and the role of professional experts working in this field;
• To introduce students to the latest research and historiographical debates in a vibrant and burgeoning field of history;
• To equip students to study voluntary organisations and NGOs through critical engagement with a wide range of primary sources including objects
• To promote students’ greater knowledge of the voluntary and NGO sectors in today’s Britain.

By the end of this module students will:

• be familiar with key themes and debates in the history and historiography of voluntary action in modern Britain;
• be able to understand, analyse and evaluate the British public’s changing relationships with voluntary organisations and NGOs;
• be able to put forward cogent arguments about voluntary action through critical engagement with a wide range of textual, visual and material primary sources;
• have enhanced their analytical and critical thinking skills in order to be able to work independently to produce well argued pieces of written work, including assessments that mirror ‘public engagement’ in research;
• be able to situate their own knowledge and understanding of charity, voluntary action and the role of NGOs in broader historical and global contexts.

Assessment:  

2 x 2,500 word essay.