Project Background
At the Center for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector, researchers have conducted four surveys concerning voluntary effort in 1997 (Wollebæk and Selle 2000), 2004 (Sivesind 2007), 2009 (Wollebæk and Sivesind 2010) and 2014 (Folkestad et al. 2015). These surveys constitute the most important single data source for The Center, next to the data on local associations and organizations in Hordaland (1980, 1990, 2000 and 2009) and the rest of the country (2009). Therefore, it is important to continue the data collection with a new survey in 2018, with the purpose of further developing the time series from the previous studies.
Project Aim
Based on data from Statistics Norway collected at the end of 2017, as well as other individual surveys conducted by The Center, this project will:
- Give an updated picture of voluntary effort regarding participation, voluntary work and financial presents, with special focus on new forms of volunteerism (outside of established organizations) and new forms of social engagement.
- Bring new knowledge about trends that characterize the established voluntarism (i.e. membership, participation and voluntary effort within the traditional voluntary organizations) and about the development of different forms of engagement that takes place outside of the established organizations (e.g. festivals, social media, ad hoc engagements, direct help to people outside ones household and close family, etc.).
- Cast light on complex mechanisms that explains differences regarding voluntary participation and voluntary effort.