Reconciling Diversity and Sustainability: A Study of the Cultural Heritage Sector

This paper explores possible tensions between the desire of policymakers to encourage greater demographic diversity among volunteers and the appeal to volunteers of working with people who are part of their personal community, often resulting in demographically homogeneous groups. This situation has implications from volunteers’ attraction to commitment, retention and ultimately the group or organisation’s sustainability, particularly for communities where inequality and exclusion is already a significant challenge. We suggest this issue is rarely surfaced because it implies two socially unacceptable assertions; that diversity may not always be an unalloyed good, and that volunteers are in some way prejudiced likely to react negatively to greater diversity. The picture is much more complex, requiring holistic consideration of the unique nature of volunteer work, contextual and individual characteristics. This paper is based upon the author’s doctoral research on cultural heritage volunteers, and several years of experience coordinating volunteers across the Tees Valley.