What’s next?

This brings us to the end of the unit. Here is a summary of what we have looked at:

The focus of this unit has been on volunteering both as a theoretical concept and as a social practice in its processual dimension.

Although there are different approaches to defining volunteering, it is possible to identify key characteristics that are invariably found in definitions. Volunteering is defined as:

• an activity for the good of others and society as a whole;
• is the result of free will;
• is unpaid;
• is variously linked to the non-governmental and non-profit sectors.

However, shifting the focus from the background of volunteering and its outcomes to the experience of everyday volunteering allows us to critically rethink these basic characteristics of volunteering and see their

• complexity;
• hybridity;
• dependence on institutional frameworks;
• variability of manifestation in different contexts;
• dependence on the personal characteristics and motivations of the people performing volunteering functions.

Focusing on the process of volunteering allows us to move away from a binary view of volunteering as either spontaneous or formalized and to see different hybrid volunteering practices and strategies.

Some of these remain at the level of a spontaneous one-off reaction or a series of spontaneous reactions, while others may develop into stable and formalized activities.

In addition, the focus on the hybridity and the processual nature of volunteering allows us to see how volunteering generates new forms of cooperation, integration, and creates new discourses that contribute to social transformation.

We hope you have enjoyed following this unit. Here is a short reading list of key texts you may want to consult for further information:

Reading List

Hustinx, L., Cnaan, R.A. and Handy, F. (2010) Navigating theories of volunteering: a hybrid map for a complex phenomenon, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 40(4): 410–34. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-5914.2010.00439.x

Shachar, I.Y., von Essen, J. and Hustinx, L. (2019) Opening up the ‘black box’ of ‘volunteering’: on hybridization and purification in volunteering research and promotion, Administrative Theory & Praxis, 41(3): 245–65. doi: 10.1080/10841806.2019.1621660

Mikheieva, O., & Kuznetsova, I. (2024). War-time volunteering and population displacement: from spontaneous help to organised volunteering in post-2014 Ukraine. Voluntary Sector Review, 15(1), 74-91. https://doi.org/10.1332/20408056Y2023D000000009.

Channell-Justice, E. (2022) Without the State: Self-Organization and Political Activism in Ukraine, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Oleinik, A. (2018). Volunteers in Ukraine: From provision of services to state- and nation-building. Journal of Civil Society, 14(4), 364–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2018.1518771

Belina, A. (2022) Semi-structured interviewing as a tool for understanding informal civil society, Voluntary Sector Review, 14(2): 331–47. doi: 10.1332/204080522×16 454629995872