Content and context of volunteering

Abstract

This chapter explores the content and context of engagement in voluntary action in contemporary Britain. It finds that, over the last 30 years, the pattern of engagement in voluntary action has remained stable, in relation to specific causes supported, and types of tasks undertaken. However, voluntary effort is highly concentrated within a ‘civic core’ of volunteers. The distribution of volunteers is highly stratified; those most likely to engage in formal, organisational roles tend to be those with high levels of economic, social and cultural capital. Using Mass Observation Project (MOP) material the chapter examines the content and context of individual volunteering and finds that MOP writers contribute a complex mix of different voluntary activities. However, many do not immediately recognise their contribution as volunteering, which leads us to question how surveys can successfully capture different types of voluntary engagement. MOP writing also points to the very blurred boundary between informal care and informal volunteering. The chapter finds that MOP writers’ emphasis on familial commitments is a striking feature of their accounts of unpaid work and of voluntary activity; yet this has been largely absent from public discussion about volunteering rates.