RJ Morris on voluntary societies

Roberts talks about there being three framing narratives for the discussion of moral reformers and voluntary societies - seeing it as an aspect of the development of capitalist industrial society; a "civil society" approach looking at the emergence of a "social sphere"; and one looking at its role in terms of mediating or resolving conflict, which he associated with R J Morris (and Brian Harrison?). This third narrative is one that is particularly useful when looking at the role of immigrant charities as a mediating space between host society (and power structures and elites) and immigrant communities (ie bridging and linking social capital).

Morris' Voluntary Societies and British Urban Elites" includes various useful discussions in relation to this. He sees voluntary societies as mediating spaces which could help the "organization of consent" and in which different groups could come together to achieve (or at least try to achieve) some common aim but in which they could avoid the resolution of inherent contradictions between different groups of the middle class. These contradictions could be a barrier for state or local action, where the need to allocate official resources could lead to conflict (eg "evangelical and utilitarian competition for middle-class attention took place between rival voluntary societies, not as a disruptive contest for the resources of the state"). One might also use this to look at whether the notion of charity (or voluntary action) as inherently a good thing (a "public benefit") could mean that "reactionaries" could come to support what might be seen as a "progressive" cause. Was this true for immigrant charities?

Morris also places the development of voluntary societies in the context of the creation of a middle class mission and identity. They asserted their authority within the new society and sought to defend their place in that society by their voluntary endeavours on behalf of the whole community. But the middle class was also widely varied and involvement allowed for hierarchies within the middle class, with an elite assuming certain roles and titles in a system that ensures outside trust and confidence in the society, encouraged participation and sought to maximise donations ("the need for financial support, and in many cases for men of property and probity to act as trustees, in whom the property of the society could be vested, meant that patronage was welcomed by many members of lower status").

"The organization of consent which they continually sought was not only the consent of the subordinate classes to a beneficial domination but the consent of fragments of a potential middle class to cooperate with each other in seeking and sustaining this domination".

On the effect of voluntary societies on the working class, Morris like Roberts does not come down conclusively on one side or the other. He talks about late nineteenth century clerks and lower middle class as symbolizing the mixture of "defence and proud independence" that these societies sought but he also discusses the way in which the working class was able to take "items from the cultural package" offered them and to turn them to their own advantage "without compromising their own class identity or interest".