Volunteer, citizen, human: Volunteer work between cosmopolitan ideal and institutional routine

Driven by empathy with refugees’ condition and the desire to contribute to implementation of human rights in the everyday, volunteer local initiatives promise to make a real difference. While the proliferation of such initiatives is well documented, the processes of their institutional development are not. In this chapter, we trace the transformation from a loose group of people in a Berlin neighbourhood to a registered association with a solid managerial structure. We focus on the tensions, emotions and contradictions that are inevitable to such a process of bureaucratization. Studying this case, we address the possibilities and limitations of the institutionalization of cosmopolitan ideals and the transformation of values and norms towards an open and just society in the context of volunteering with the aim of improving the situation of the refugees.