Projects on Civil Society and the Voluntary Sector

The project examines the characteristics of volunteer-run open meeting places, how they can be distinguished from other leisure and youth services, and their current scope in Norway.

The City of Oslo wishes to map the voluntary sector in Oslo. This was last done in 2019, before the pandemic, and there is therefore reason to update knowledge about the city’s voluntary sector.

SURE-AI is a research centre that addresses major challenges related to resource use, risk, and ethics.

How prepared is the population to contribute when crises occur? PREPCI examines the factors that influence citizens’ ability and willingness to act in situations ranging from natural hazards to hybrid threats, and how this aligns with the expectations of emergency management actors.

In the CoPro-project we will investigate the coproduction of welfare services between government- and voluntary actors within elderly care and drug care, in Norway and Germany. 

This project maps changes in organisational population and organisational form at local, regional, and national levels. The goal is to update the data foundation for both local and national organisations and analyse their development over time.

This project investigates the impact of tax deduction schemes on monetary donations to voluntary organisations, with a focus on social inequality and distribution effects. The goal is to document how tax deductions influence donation patterns and the organisations' revenues.

This project explores how civil society organisations affect political processes, both through conventional channels and alternative strategies such as protests and legal actions. The aim is to understand the organisations' democratic role and their influence on political decisions.

This project examines how the increase in the number of paid employees impacts voluntary organisations and their functioning. The aim is to identify both challenges and benefits of professionalisation, as well as sources of conflict between volunteers and employees.

This project explores the experiences of Ukrainian refugees with participation in civil society and leisure activities in Norway. The aim is to identify barriers and success factors for participation, as well as to compare these experiences with those of other refugee groups.

This project investigates the role of volunteering in rural areas with declining populations in Norway. The goal is to understand how volunteer organisations can mediate the interests of the population, meet service needs, and create social structures.

This project investigates the impact of government grants to voluntary organisations, focusing on how the funds contribute to addressing societal challenges. The goal is to develop methods for evaluating the effectiveness of grants and identifying success factors.

This project examines the social composition among board members and leaders in voluntary organisations, focusing on representativeness and inclusion. The goal is to analyse changes over time and compare them with the composition of the population.

This project investigates how immigrant parents' access to information and their involvement affect children's participation in leisure activities. The goal is to understand the parents' experiences and expectations, as well as the strategies of organisations and municipalities for inclusion.

This project investigates how social media influences civil engagement and participation in voluntary organisations. Through a comprehensive analysis of data from 2025 to 2028, we aim to understand changes in forms of participation and social inequality related to digital engagement. This project is part of the Centre for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector.

This project analyses how the role and content of volunteering vary across different contexts. The goal is to understand how these variations influence the use of voluntary effort and the professionalisation of volunteering.

The project investigates voluntary effort and community engagement in the five Nordic countries. The goal is to understand similarities and differences in voluntary work and put Norwegian volunteering in a Nordic perspective.

This project continues the time series of surveys on voluntary effort in Norway, aiming to map changes in participation and understand barriers and motivations for voluntary work. The project will also examine the role of civil society in democratic robustness and social integration.

This project examines Norwegians' motivation for voluntary effort and how this has changed over time. The goal is to understand variations between different types of voluntary fields and tasks, and to analyse the public media discourse on voluntary engagement.

The project aims to provide insight into racism and discrimination across various areas of Norwegian public life.

The project examines the role that voluntary low-threshold services play in the inclusion of children and youth and the interaction between such services and public services in education, welfare, and health.

The project is part of the Center for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector.

This project is part of the Centre for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector

How can youth clubs be strengthened to provide better services for young people? 

Coordinated Online Panels for Research on Democracy and Governance in Norway (KODEM) allows multiple projects to share common observational platforms (i.e. online panels).

Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, the ISF examines the cooperation between municipal

Co-constructing Solution Pathways with Coastal Vulnerable Groups in Africa and Asia

In collaboration with the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association, the Institute for Social Research (ISF) is conducting a follow-up evaluation of the establishment of Kvinnehelsehus in four Norwegian cities. The project is funded by the Foundation Dam.

This project is part of Centre for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector.

This project is part of Centre for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector.

The coronavirus pandemic affected all parts of Norwegian society, including the voluntary sector. The Center for Research on Civil Society and the Voluntary Sector has conducted surveys in the population and among organizations before, during, and after the pandemic.

This project examines participation motives for volunteering work among children, young adults and adults with an migration background. 

This project is a commission for a public committee established by the King in Council on August 12, 2022, tasked with assessing how commercial operations can be phased out in various tax-financed welfare services.

Voluntary organizations have an impact on both the individuals who participate and on society in general. This project investigates voluntary organisations social effects on inclusion.

The project highlights people's institutional trust with a particular focus on institutions that are relevant to national security and national security interests.

This project investigates municipalities' cooperation with voluntary organizations and municipalities' use of self-recruited volunteers, within the field of health and care.

COST-aksjonen EMPOWER SE forsøker å adressere eksisterende fragmentering i kunnskapsnivåene angående sosiale virksomheter (SE)

The project consists of four sub-projects that shed light on volunteering in different ways: consequences of the corona pandemic, life course and motivation explanations, and volunteering among the elderly and immigrants.

"New trends in civic engagement and digital media" illuminates the scope and importance of new forms of community engagement. The project focuses in particular on the importance of social media for participation in civil society and voluntary organisations.

How can private companies and voluntary organizations work together? This project examines how the cooperation between the business world and volunteering in Norway.

This project resulted in an report about the consequences of the covid-19 pandemics for the voluntary sector in Central Norway.

Co-production is a new way of working together, where all involved partners in public services plan, implement and evaluate. This project studies co-production in the Nordic countries.

This project evaluates trials with the Leisure Card pilot project in selected municipalities. The leisure card is a scheme for all children and youth aged 6 to 18, which provides semi-annual monetary support to cover participation fees in regularly organized leisure activities.

This is a European cooperation project with the aim of equipping European employees and volunteers in civil society organizations by strengthening their knowledge.