American Association of Geographers 2021 Annual Conference

On Friday 9^th April, two members of our project team virtually attended the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Seattle. Although the pandemic prevented travel to the US, the presentation was delivered on Seattle time, with the session starting at 11pm UK time.

The presentation was part of a paper session titled: ‘Mediating the Crisis- Voluntary sector geographies in turbulent times’. The collection of papers explored the relationships between the voluntary sector and the state, with a diverse range of studies representing different geographical contexts and types of voluntary sector activity.

Laura and Irene’s paper introduced the Mobilising Voluntary Action project and provided a summary of the key themes from emerging research conducted during the pandemic. Our analysis of the existing research enabled the project team to identify gaps in knowledge and design surveys that asked pertinent questions to advance our understanding of voluntary action during the pandemic. The survey data produced by the MVA will help inform recovery in each of the four UK jurisdictions.

Thank you to the organisers of the session for providing a platform to share our emerging findings. The analysis is forming part of a working paper which will be published on the project website in due course.