Maintenance Mechanisms of Cultural Volunteer Service in Financially Weak Townships from the Perspective of Rural Civilization Construction: A Field Study in Wuqiao Town

Abstract

Against the backdrop of building civilized rural customs, constrained by urban-rural disparities in resource provision, financially weak townships face challenges in the sustainable development of public cultural service supply due to the lack of regular funding. Taking the construction of civilized rural customs as its specific perspective and the Cultural Volunteer Association of Wuqiao Town, Jiangdu District, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province as a field case, this paper uses semi-structured interviews and participatory observation to examine the internal mechanisms enabling the association to operate continuously for over ten years without fiscal appropriation and with volunteers receiving no material compensation. The study finds that the association has developed a triple maintenance mechanism centered on Party building guidance and organizational development, professional promotion, and commendation and media coverage: Party building guidance and institutional norms provide organizational belonging and an operational vehicle; the professional promotion channel transforms unpaid dedication into institutionalized identity recognition; and commendation and media dissemination amplify volunteers' social prestige in the acquaintance society. Together, these three elements replace material compensation with the scarce resources of "identity, prestige, and belonging" within rural society, forming a low-cost, endogenous path for cultural service supply. This provides practical references for similar financially weak townships in cultivating cultural volunteer organizations and advancing the construction of civilized rural customs.