Participation In Voluntary Organizations Research Articles

Does Discrimination in Childhood Reduce Trust and Participation Among Adult Immigrants?

Trust is an important determinant of well-functioning democratic societies. Immigrants, however, often have lower trust than the majority population. Experienced discrimination might be a factor in reducing trust levels among immigrants. In this study, we use data from a survey of young adults in Norway to investigate the relationship between experienced discrimination in childhood and trust as an adult among immigrant minorities and the majority population. We also investigate how trust and experienced discrimination are related to attachment to Norway, participation in voluntary organizations, and employment. We find that experienced discrimination in childhood is related to lower levels of both social and institutional trust. Discrimination does not, however, affect levels of participation or employment. Our findings support the view of both institutional and social trust as dynamic concepts that are shaped through experiences in life. Further, our results indicate that discrimination is likely to contribute to lower levels of trust among minorities.

Empowerment through engagement: assessing the female university students’ involvement in volunteering activities

PurposeThis study aims to identify how the involvement of female university students in volunteer organisations is contributing to their self-empowerment in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional study with a qualitative approach was conducted. A total of 20 in-depth interviews with female student volunteers, two focus group discussions with student members of the volunteer organisation and ten key informant interviews with academics, gender experts and high-level representatives of civil society organisations were conducted. The data were collected from eight purposively selected universities in Dhaka. The data were collected between 1 January 2023 and 23 March 2023.FindingsThe inter-organisational environment appears to be supportive and welcoming, despite the fact that some male colleagues belittle women with insulting comments. Female students are predominantly involved in public presentation activities and their advice is rarely considered. To reach a top position, they have to show more commitment than their male colleagues. Subjective prejudices discourage women from taking on positions of responsibility. Participation in voluntary organisations strengthens the self-confidence, critical thinking, networking and social capital of female students, making it easier for them to gain employment. These factors contribute to the empowerment of female students.Originality/valueThis study is an excellent empirical document that establishes a link between the empowerment of female students and their participation in voluntary activities. The recommendations of this study pave the way for future research in different countries on how volunteering helps young people, especially female students, to shape their future by taking on social responsibility alongside their academic activities.

Preparedness behaviors for natural hazards and their association with experiences, perceptions, and social engagement in Taiwanese society

ABSTRACT This study examined how individuals’ past experiences and perceptions of natural hazards, as well as their participation in voluntary organizations, were associated with their hazard preparedness. The study first explored how individuals’ past experiences of three types of natural hazards (floods, landslides, and earthquakes), and their perceptions of hazard risk and controllability, were associated with their participation in voluntary organizations – an important indicator of social capital. This study also investigated how individuals’ experiences and perceptions of natural hazards, and their participation in voluntary organizations, were associated with their adoption of preparedness behaviors for future hazards. The results of this study indicated that residents who experienced a natural hazard in the past generally reported better preparedness behaviors although the results differed according to the type of natural hazard. Both perceived risk and perceived controllability were positively associated with preparedness behavior, but perceived controllability was more strongly associated with participation in voluntary organizations.

Does participation in voluntary organizations protect against risky alcohol and tobacco use? Findings from the UK panel data.

Drawing on the literature that posits heterogeneous influences of social networks on health behaviors, we tested whether different forms of participation in voluntary organizations predicted more or less alcohol and tobacco consumption over time. (Access preregistration at https://osf.io/guzem/) We used panel data from younger (aged 14–29 at baseline), middle-aged (aged 40–50), and older (aged 65–75) UK adults, Ns = 1280–9073, followed from 1991 to 2014. Annual measures of smoking included status and intensity. Frequency of pub attendance was assessed biennially between 1996 and 2008. In 2010 and 2013, more precise measures of alcohol consumption were available. We conducted two-level regression analyses for the outcomes measured more than twice and residual change analyses for other outcomes. Over time (within persons), there were no significant effects on smoking. Activity in voluntary organizations predicted slightly less frequent pub attendance in younger adults. In residual change analyses, activity in voluntary organizations decreased last-week ethanol consumption and risk of heavy episodic drinking in younger women. These effects pertained mainly to service-orientated organizations. In middle-aged adults, membership and attendance at meetings of voluntary organizations predicted slightly more frequent pub attendance. Residual change analyses showed volunteering to reduce the risk of heavy episodic drinking in middle-aged men. In older adults, few significant effects emerged. Between persons, all indicators of participation were associated with less smoking, whereas membership was associated with more and activity with less frequent pub attendance. Thus, most associations between participation in voluntary organizations and substance use reflected interindividual differences.

Understanding social capital in sports clubs: participation, duration and social trust

A central claim in Robert Putnam’s theory of social capital is that participation in voluntary organizations can foster social trust among members that are active and engaged. Based on this claim, this article examines how duration of membership and member participation impacts upon levels of social trust among sports club members. The results show that neither participation nor duration impacts on levels of social trust – a result found in survey studies conducted in Denmark and the Netherlands. Sophisticated participation measures and the inclusion of duration of membership set this study apart from previous studies on social capital. The fact that no correlation can be identified between participation and duration on one side and social trust on the other adds weight to the claim that, even though numerous studies find higher levels of social trust among members of voluntary organizations than among non-members, this cannot be attributed to member socialization.

Trust and civic engagement: Evidence from six Latin American cities

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the association between revealed attitudes of trust and participation in voluntary organisations and makes a contribution to the growing literature on the relation between attitudes, preferences, behaviour, and social participation (civic engagement). A distinguishing characteristic of this study is that it employs a unique data set that combines experimental and survey data of more than 3000 individuals of six Latin American cities. Results of the Trust Game show that trust is not significantly associated with civic engagement and the intensity of that engagement.

Life Course, Gender, and Participation in Voluntary Organizations in Italy

This article investigates the gender differences in participation in voluntary organizations across the life course in Italy. It shows that three forms of engagement in voluntary organizations—donating money, attending meetings, and doing unpaid work—may depend on some stages of the life course—leaving the parental home, forming a union, and becoming a parent—as it is plausible that they may change personal resources and pose constraints or provide opportunities for involvement. Using the household survey “ISTAT Multipurpose Survey—Aspects of daily life”, the article finds that while leaving the parental home is positively associated with both men’s and women’s involvement, forming a union, and being a parent is detrimental for women’s involvement and not for men’s. This pattern indicates that gender roles may constrain more women’s than men’s probability of participation in voluntary organizations.

A social capital approach: An examination of Putnam’s civic engagement and public relations roles

Social capital approaches to public relations suggest that public relations professionals serve as brokers of social resources on behalf of organizations in that just as other forms of capital (e.g., financial capital) may be exchanged for organizational outcomes, so too can social resources (e.g., relationships, reputation, trust and so on) embedded in the networks of organizational publics. Robert D. Putnam’s widely recognized conceptualization of social capital suggests that civic engagement behaviors serve as surrogate measures of social capital. Results of the current research support such a social capital approach to public relations. Data indicated public relations professionals are more likely to participate in civic engagement behaviors than the general U.S. population, and differences were found between public relations roles (manager/technician) for three researcher-created subcategories of civic engagement behaviors: political involvement, participation in voluntary organizations, and personal interaction. Theoretical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Does Gender Equality Influence Volunteerism? A Cross-National Analysis of Women’s Volunteering Habits and Gender Equality

Research regarding the roles of women in society and in political and social organizations is large, with scholars focusing on the likelihood of political and social engagement. However, few of these studies examine the influence of gender on participation in voluntary organizations by utilizing cross-national data. This study intends to analyze the influence of gender on the type of organization that an individual volunteers and on whether these volunteering habits are influenced by the gender equality in a country. Is there segregation in the type of organizations men and women volunteer? Do women in more gender equal societies have similar volunteering patterns as men, or does the difference continue in volunteering? For this study, we use the World Values Survey from 1999 to 2002, to identify the differences in the types of organizations that men and women volunteer and discuss the impact gender equality has on these volunteering patterns.

The Implications of Networked Individualism for Social Participation

An extensive research has suggested the positive and capital-enhancing implications of information and communication technologies (ICTs). However, the mechanisms connecting ICT use to capital-enhancing opportunities for users’ social well-being and social participation remain undertheorized. To address this agenda, we examine how e-mail, instant messenger, and mobile phones are used to maintain interpersonal networks and participation in voluntary organizations, along with engagement in community affairs. We analyze survey data collected from a sample of rural Taiwanese residing on an outer island of Kinmen County, finding that different ICTs allow participants to connect to different types of personal contacts and, in turn, encourage social participation in various ways. Respondents with a larger e-mail network tend to be more involved in civic organizations, whereas participants with a mobile phone network, including more close friends, tend to participate more in civic organizations and community affairs. We conclude with a future research agenda for investigating the link between networked individualism and digital inequality.

Þátttaka í sjálfboðastarfi á Íslandi

Í greininni er fjallað um þátttöku Íslendinga í sjálfboðastarfi. Rannsóknin sem byggir á gagnasafni Evrópsku lífsgildakönnunarinnar (EVS) frá 1990-2010 er sett í samhengi við alþjóðlega fræðilega umræðu um sjálfboðaliða og þátttöku í sjálfboðastörfum. Um þriðjungur Íslendinga 18 ára og eldri tók þátt í sjálfboðastörfum 2009-2010, örlítið færri en 1990, 75% voru í félögum og er það svipað hlutfall og 1990. Flestir vinna fyrir íþrótta- og tómstundafélög og félagsaðild í þeim er einnig mest. Því næst koma velferðarfélög en hlutfallslega mest hefur dregið úr sjálfboðastörfum á sviði velferðarmála. Karlar eru mun líklegri en konur til að sinna sjálfboðastörfum hjá íþrótta-og æskulýðsfélögum en í öðrum sjálfboðastörfum er ekki munur á kynjum. Algengara er að fólk eldra en 50 ára sinni sjálfboðastörfum en yngra fólk, sérstaklega fyrir velferðarfélög. Háskólamenntaðir eru líklegastir til að sinna sjálfboðastörfum. Staða á vinnumarkaði hefur áhrif hvort fólk vinnur sjálfboðastörf, sérstaklega meðal íþrótta-og æskulýðsfélaga. Gift fólk er í öllum tilvikum líklegra en aðrir hópar til að stunda sjálfboðastörf og þeir sem búa í dreifbýli eru einnig líklegri en þeir sem búa í þéttbýli til að sinna slíkum störfum. Niðurstöðurnar eru að meginstefnu sambærilegar niðurstöðum erlendra rannsókna og veita mikilvægar upplýsingar um þátttöku í sjálfboðastarfi á Íslandi og þróun hennar í alþjóðlegu samhengi.

Comfort in Numbers? Social Integration and Political Participation among Disability Benefit Recipients in Norway

There are growing concerns both in academic and political debates that the provision of cash transfers to people in economically active age groups does not support and might even undermine active social citizenship. In this article we study the social integration and political participation of disability benefit recipients in Norway. We anticipate that disability benefit recipients are less likely than others to participate in social and political arenas, but postulate that the degree of their social and political marginalisation depends on contextual factors. In particular we expect that the presence of a large proportion of disability benefit recipients in the local area where the individual disability benefit recipient lives will make it less likely that they will be marginalised in terms of social networks; we anticipate that this positive network effect will also spill over into participation in voluntary organisations and the propensity to vote in national elections. Analysing Norwegian survey-data, we find that disability benefit recipients are somewhat marginalised both socially and in terms of participation in voluntary organisations. In municipalities with a high proportion of disability benefit recipients, individuals belonging to this group are more likely to have close friends, but this beneficial contextual effect is not found to spill over into increased organisational and political participation.

Young farmers' social capital in Greece: Trust levels and collective actions

Rural space seeks a new development model, for which “flexibility” is the key-word, that is the ability to adapt rapidly to the new, constantly changing, conditions of globalized markets. It is argued that flexibility can be achieved by society itself by developing its social capital, which allows for cooperation among actors in order to meet mutual goals. In rural communities, particularly in Greece, although it is expected that the social capital is increased because of acquaintanceships and frequent interactions among members, cooperation among farmers is limited and less than frequent. The purpose of this study is to examine the social capital of a rural society, by focusing on young farmers, because they are expected to play an essential role in the formulation and implementation of a modern model of rural development. Linkages between social capital, trust and collective actions are examined through an empirical investigation of young farmers in an exemplary rural area of Greece in order to provide an explanation as to the processes through which social capital can it play a positive role in the development of a rural society. The empirical analysis yields two findings of crucial importance. First, contrary to a priori expectations, the social capital of young farmers in Greek rural society is limited, considering that both the participation in voluntary organizations (especially in producer groups) and the level of trust, as depicted within the empirical analysis, are low. This entails limited collective actions, which actually translates to limited access to innovation. Second, young farmers' increased trust to institutions (institutional trust) is linked to poor participation in collective actions. On the other hand, young farmers with reduced trust to institutions and enhanced trust to individuals (personal trust) are predominantly those who endeavor collective actions, which allow them to become flexible in order to better adapt to new conditions.

Public Service Motivation Theory and Voluntary Organizations

Research has shown that individuals with greater public service motivation (PSM) values are more likely to work for government, because government jobs offer more public service opportunities; the question then arises of whether they are also drawn into other activities that offer service opportunities, such as participation in voluntary organizations. This study examined the volunteering behavior of government employees in different domains. Using the Americans’ Changing Lives survey, logistic regression models were estimated to examine the relationship between employment in the government sector and self-reported volunteering in five different types of organization. The results indicated that government employees engage in significantly more volunteering than their private-sector counterparts. When separate models were run for volunteering in each organization type, controlling for several other factors, the results showed that these initial big differences were driven primarily by their volunteering in two specific types of organization: Educational institutions and political groups.

Participation in Voluntary Organizations and Volunteer Work as a Compensation for the Absence of Work or Partnership? Evidence From Two German Samples of Younger and Older Adults

We tested whether formal volunteering, in terms of its associations with mental health, compensates for the absence of major work and family roles among older adults or rather complements such roles among both younger and older adults. Two cross-sectional samples of younger (aged 18-42 years, N = 2,346) and older (aged 56-75 years, N = 1,422) German adults were used. We regressed mental health indicators on control variables, 2 indicators of formal volunteering (participation in voluntary organizations and volunteer work), and their interactions with employment/partnership status. Participation in voluntary organizations was associated with higher positive affect, higher life satisfaction, and fewer depressive symptoms in younger adults. In older adults, it was related to higher life satisfaction only among working individuals, although the difference from nonworking individuals was not significant. Volunteer work was associated with higher positive affect in both age groups. In younger adults, it had no relation to life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. In older adults, it was related to higher life satisfaction among nonworking individuals and to fewer depressive symptoms among those without a steady partner. Volunteer work but not participation in voluntary organizations yielded compensatory effects on mental health among older adults.

Youth Religious Involvement and Adult Community Participation: Do Levels of Youth Religious Involvement Matter?

The potential role that a religious background plays in determining adult levels of community participation in Canada has, to date, received limited research attention. The present study examines this relationship by testing whether involvement in a religious organization as a youth positively predicts four measures of adult community participation: informal volunteering, formal volunteering, participation in voluntary organizations, and community association membership. Drawing on data from the 2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating (NSGVP), the findings show that involvement in a religious organization as a youth positively predicts all four adult community participation measures. The analysis also shows that, unlike other youth activities, the number of Canadian youths involved in religious organizations has declined in recent decades. The implications of this decline, combined with the evidence that religious involvement as a youth appears to be a good predictor of adult community participation, are discussed.

Social capital and health – a multilevel analysis of 25 administrative districts in Oslo

Background: Studies of place and health have recently gained increased interest among social researchers. This interest has brought society back to the study of health inequalities and drawn attention to the health effects of contextual psychosocial phenomena. Social cohesion, generalised trust, social networks and social participation are seen as being such phenomena in the social environment that affect health. Methods: This study investigates the association between social capital and self reported health in Oslo. I have used data from the Oslo Health Study 2000 (HUBRO), which includes 11,807 respondents residing in 25 administrative districts. For the multilevel analysis, contextual social capital was measured by aggregating the individual variables generalised trust and participation in voluntary organisations. In addition to the individual variables, the association between social capital and health was controlled for median income, economic inequality and educational level in the administrative districts. Results: In the models that only include the individual variables, both contextual trust and organisational participation had significant effects on self reported health. The associations between place, social capital, and health was attenuated and partly rendered insignificant by the other contextual variables. Conclusions: This study concludes that social capital is not associated with health when other contextual variables are taken into account, and suggests that previous findings may be mediated by median income and the educational level in the areas under study. However, strong conclusions cannot be drawn from this study due to low statistical power and the low response rate. None the less, the study supports the hypothesis that place matters for health

Does Social Capital Create Trust? Evidence from a Community of Entrepreneurs

Which kind of social capital fosters the diffusion of development-oriented trust? This paper carries out an empirical investigation into the causal relationships connecting four types of social capital (i.e. bonding, bridging, linking, and corporate), and different forms of trust (knowledge-based trust, social trust, trust towards public services and political institutions), in a community of entrepreneurs located in the Italian industrial district of the Tuscia. Our results suggest that the main factors fostering the diffusion of social trust among entrepreneurs are the perception that the local community is a safe place, and the establishment of corporate ties through professional associations. Trust in people is positively and significantly correlated also to higher levels of satisfaction and confidence in public services. Participation in voluntary organizations does not appear to increase trust in people. Rather, we find evidence of the other way round: interpersonal trust seems to encourage civic engagement

A Cross-National Comparison of the Internal Effects of Participation in Voluntary Organizations

This article draws on two recent and largely untapped sources of data to test empirically the Tocquevillian argument about the impact of involvement in civic organizations on individual attitudes and behaviors. Our analysis is based on two related studies – the European Social Survey (ESS) and the US ‘Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy’ (CID) survey – that incorporate innovative and detailed measures about respondents' involvement in voluntary associations in nineteen European countries and in the United States. These surveys provide us not only with rich individual-level data within a cross-national comparison, but they also allow us to develop and test a new measure of civic involvement that distinguishes between different levels of participation. After employing our ‘civic involvement index’ in pooled and individual country analyses, we find general support for the Tocquevillian argument. On average, those persons with greater levels of involvement in voluntary organizations also engage in more political acts, have higher life satisfaction and are by and large more trusting of others than those who do not. These findings highlight the general importance of actual involvement as opposed to nominal membership.

Social Economy Policies as Flanking for Neoliberalism: Transnational Policy Solutions, Emergent Contradictions, Local Alternatives

While early assessments of neoliberalism stressed its destructiveness, more recent analyses have begun to consider and assess how its consolidation has involved the creation of new institutions and governmentalities to stabilise emergent contradictions and instabilities. This article traces how the social economy has been positioned in the OECD's public policy discourse as a flanking mechanism, and especially the friction in these policy proposals between an “entrepreneurial” vision that attempts to extend market relations and the social capital/social cohesion vision of meeting unmet needs and promoting participation in voluntary organisations. The tension between the entrepreneurial and social capital visions is a recurrent theme in the national case studies canvassed here, with the former frequently crowding out the latter. The article concludes by looking at how the women's movement in Québec, Canada, has attempted to exploit this tension to push policies beyond neoliberalism.