The Changing Face of Volunteering: Current and future trends

Abstract

After reviewing the ways in which the context within which volunteering takes place has been transformed by societal changes (in Chapter 6) and the development of public and social policy (in Chapter 7), we now turn our attention to the ways in which volunteering itself is changing. We will begin by taking a closer look at the phenomenon of shortterm or episodic volunteering which was introduced in Chapter 3 and discussing the growing diversity of the activities undertaken by volunteers, as ‘the brain volunteer’ begins to supplant ‘the brawn volunteer’ (Evans and Saxton, 2005: p. 44). We will then review two areas in which the numbers of volunteers have been growing rapidly (although it remains to be seen if these trends will survive the recession of the winter of 2008–2009) – volunteering which is promoted and supported by employers on the one hand and transnational volunteering on the other. The scale of virtual volunteering is also expected to increase dramatically, and this will provide a new set of challenges for volunteerinvolving organisations which we discuss next. The chapter will then look at trends in the field of participation and engagement – where unprecedented numbers of people have been mobilised in support of two very different causes, the Countryside Alliance and the coalition against the war in Iraq – before concluding by reviewing the rediscovery and repackaging of mutual aid under the banner of timebanking.Keywords21st CenturyVoluntary ActionVolunteer CentreInternational VolunteerEmployee VolunteerThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.