Civic Volunteering Research Articles

Weaponized volunteering in schools: The discourse of volunteering and pre-military education in Israeli high schools

This article examines the interrelations between two educational endeavors in Israeli high schools, which are usually perceived as separated. The first is a pre-military education program that is an inherent part of Israeli schools’ formal and nonformal curriculum. The second is the incorporation of volunteering activity in and for the community as a compulsory prerequisite for the matriculation diploma. An integrative analysis of policy and curricular documents of both programs suggests that a shared common discursive framework characterizes these programs. This discourse glorifies an ideal Israeli citizen who serves his country through both civic volunteering and military service. This dual discourse blurs the boundaries between what is considered civic and what is considered military in the education system. Thus, it calls for a reconsideration of the ways in which civic education may be implemented in the education system together with militaristic ideals.

Do Private Schools in Australia Produce More Active Citizens?

The focus of this paper is whether type of Australian school attended makes a difference in student engagement in political and civic culture. Recently private schools have been said to “undermine cohesion” in Australian society. Similarly, it was argued over two decade ago that Australian private schools have skimmed the elite students from the government sector and now “impart to their pupils values and preferences of the culture from which they are drawn”, namely the dominant culture. Using data from the Youth Electoral Study (YES) survey, this analysis examines whether Australian students in government, Catholic and Independent schools differ in six political domains: voting commitment, positive attitude toward voting, political knowledge, political activism, political trust and civic volunteer behaviour. At the bivariate level, students in private schools generally show higher levels of political engagement compared to students in government schools in all domains. However, when family and school variables are controlled, the differences between these students in voting commitment, political knowledge and volunteer behaviour disappear. However students in Catholic schools show significantly higher levels in positive attitude toward voting and political activism. The effects of Independent schools disappear for five political domains but a significantly high level of political trust remains. Explanations for these patterns of outcomes are put forward, and directions for future research are explored.

Why DO citizens engage in government social media accounts during COVID-19 pandemic? A comparative study

The worldwide COVID-19 outbreak that crushed the global economy and healthcare increased the public willingness to acquire more information and enthusiasm to engage online among billions of users through social networks. As more towns, cities, and regions turn to lockdown, government social media accounts (GSMAs) develop as a trustworthy source to obtain information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, investigating the determinants and consequences of citizens' participation behavior on GSMAs is essential. Drawing on the self-determination theory (SDT) and civic volunteer model (CVM), we examine the influence of motivational factors (i.e., intrinsic extrinsic) on citizens' participation behavior on GSMAs, which leads to online civic behavior. Comparative research between China and Pakistan is carried out using data collected through an online survey. This study shows that information-seeking, political benefits, self-development, altruism, and perceived reciprocity are the critical antecedents of citizens' participatory behavior on GSMAs in both countries, resulting in online civic behavior. Furthermore, moderating results reveal that perceived connectivity moderates the relationship between certain motivational factors (intrinsic and extrinsic) and citizens' participatory behavior on GSMAs, whereas trust in government moderates the relationship between participatory behavior on GSMAs and online civic behavior during COVID-19. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed in detail.

Transition Into Adulthood With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Longitudinal Population Cohort Study of Socioeconomic Outcomes

This longitudinal population cohort study tracks the transition of 1,405 adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) into adulthood, and highlights functional and social skills as core predictors of social outcomes (tertiary education, civic volunteering, and employment). Applying regression methods with sample selectivity to administrative data records obtained from Israel’s National Insurance Institute, we show that these outcomes are not highly correlated, suggesting that the high/low functioning dichotomy frequently used to categorize individuals with ASD is not supported by these data. We show that there is no causal relation between civic volunteering at an earlier stage and subsequent participation in tertiary education. This suggests that the traditional sequential model of developmental disability does not apply to ASD, and that the social-functional model of disability seems more applicable. We also show that functional and social severity vary inversely with year of diagnosis, due probably to the application of more liberal diagnostic standards. Disability among successive birth cohorts has been decreasing and is expected to decrease further in the future. Parents’ income has only a modest beneficial association with the transition into adulthood, and socioeconomic environments have no effect at all. Findings are discussed with respect to policy and practice.

On the Volunteers and Volunteering: The Case of Russia

The project mentioned below is aimed at the study of a possibility and forms of the civic volunteers’ participation in a mitigation or prediction of modern natural and environmental disasters in Russia. Such participation is necessary taking into account the huge size of its territory and variety of natural and built landscape as well as of types of small settlements including the nomadic ones. In spite of very shaky Russian history of the XX century there were a diversity of types of the state and civil society’s voluntary organizations. From the 1960s and up to now the environmental movement and its local grassroots and NGOs existed throughout the USSR/Russia’s territory. Nowadays, the interest of lay people to the state and prospects of their living environment is rapidly growing especially due to the emergence of a global network structure. The global world is becoming more unstable, unpredictable and therefore more risky, be it natural, social or artificially-constructed. The process of a gradual transformation of the biosphere into a sociobiotechnical sphere is rapidly going on. As social and natural sciences continue to develop separately, the citizen’s social science began quickly developing both in many parts of Russia and across the world, and the volunteer’s units took an active part in that process. The standard modes of rescuers’ activity came into contradiction with our movable and unpredictable world. Under such conditions the volunteers should be not only well-experienced but interdisciplinary specialists able to translate from one language, say local nomad people into two-three scientific languages.

Civic engagement among student veterans

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess participation rates in civic volunteering among service member and veteran students. Participants: Data for the present cross-sectional study were obtained from the American College Health Association’s (ACHA) 2011–2014 National College Health Assessment II (NCHA). Methods: Demographic characteristics of the study sample were explored by calculating frequencies and percentages by military service status. Research questions were explored with either Fisher’s exact test or maximum likelihood multiple logistic regression. Results: Service member and veteran students were more likely to engage in volunteerism than their non-veteran counterparts. Additionally, student veterans and non-veteran students reported that engagement in volunteer efforts both reduces their feelings of depression and increases their use of mental health services. Conclusion: The findings of this research suggest that the promotion of civic engagement and participation in volunteerism for service member and veteran students on college campuses might contribute to successful reintegration outcomes.

Profile of Susan Fiske

Social psychologist Susan Fiske, Eugene Higgins Professor, Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, investigates aspects of social cognition, such as how stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination are encouraged or discouraged by relationships with others. Her analytical approach, which now often employs neuroscience as well as more traditional social science research methods, has resulted in theoretical contributions and other works that have influenced numerous psychology students and researchers over the past four decades. Fiske’s teachings additionally have gone far beyond the classroom. A 1989 United States Supreme Court landmark decision on sex bias, for example, cited her research on sex-based discrimination. In 1998, her research concerning biological and social drivers of prejudice was mentioned during testimony before former United States President Clinton’s Race Initiative Advisory Board. In 2013, Fiske was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her distinguished and continuing achievements in the field of psychology. Susan Fiske. Photo courtesy of Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School. Born in 1952, Fiske grew up in Chicago’s Hyde Park in a racially integrated community. Her father, Donald Fiske, was an accomplished psychology professor at the University of Chicago. Her mother, Barbara Page Fiske, was a full-time civic volunteer and editor. Her economist grandmother and her great grandmother were both suffragists who fought for women’s rights. Fiske credits her brother, Alan Page Fiske, now an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, as being another important role model. “Dinner table conversations were stimulating,” Fiske says. In 1973, Fiske enrolled in Radcliffe College for her undergraduate degree in social relations at Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude. A passion for both civic activism and scientific learning helped fuel her efforts. “The nature of the times and my mother’s legacy made me feel obligated to try to make the world …

Targeting the Local: Policing Clandestine Methamphetamine Production in a Rural US Community

AbstractIn the United States, state-based efforts to curtail the spread of methamphetamine (“meth”) have targeted domestic producers through heightened regulation of precursor chemicals used in the clandestine meth-production process. This article examines the impact of these efforts on the exercise of police power in a rural community affected by methamphetamine. As the author shows, the targeting of local meth production has incorporated residents of rural communities into the policing process by variously encouraging and requiring them to adopt a new way of perceiving the local landscape, centred around methamphetamine. Under the new legislation, previously benign objects such as cold medicine, batteries, and drain cleaner have been re-signified as objects with criminal potential that residents of rural communities are called upon to police. This has led to the expansion of police power within and beyond the formal domains of law enforcement. Through the targeting of local production, civic volunteers, pharmacists, retail clerks, natural resource officers, and others have been drawn into the policing of the meth problem. This reveals a key dynamic in the localization of police power: as police power is localized, the local is reimagined in terms of police power.

Manufacturing Trust: Community Currencies and the Creation of Social Capital

In this study I examine whether an innovative government program in Ichikawa, Japan has been successful in increasing the level of generalized interpersonal trust in the community by rewarding civic participation by local citizens. Japan has sponsored the development of a number of “community currency” programs at the local level that are designed to create social capital. A community currency is a local “money” that is only useable within a neighborhood or town. In a typical community currency program, a town rewards civic volunteers with credits to barter with other citizens, use at participating stores, or pay for town services. These programs are specifically designed to stimulate generalized trust by rewarding civic engagement and encouraging social interaction. I evaluate whether the new Tekona community currency program in Ichikawa, Japan has been successful in raising levels of trust among participants, as compared to a randomly selected control group of town residents. I find that community currency involvement increases general trust, which demonstrates that it is possible to institute government programs that create social capital.

Moral Dilemmas of Community Leaders and Sense of Community

This paper draws on Kohlberg's tiieory of moral development, and on an empirical research conducted with leaders (two women, two men) in Venezuelan urban working-class communities. The leaders were repeatedly interviewed during a two-year period, about their experiences leading their communities. Those narratives were analyzed and discussed with them. Based on these grounds, two interrelated products were constructed: (1) Three moral dilemmas to be used in educational discussions with community leaders such as members of organized community groups; civic volunteers, officers from non-governmental organizations working with communities, and (2) A developmental approach to the sense of community in urban working-class communities. Finally, it argues about the need of balancing the current approaches of moral development, through a stronger emphasis on the community dimensions of that sense and its consequences on leadership.