Background
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, many voluntary organisations have expressed concern about weakened motivation and willingness for voluntary effort in the population. Previous surveys have shown that important barriers to voluntary engagement include lack of time, interest, and motivation. The motivational factors that are important vary by life phase and voluntary field. For example, social motives are important among volunteers in culture, leisure, and sports, while value-based motives are central in the health and social fields. Volunteers involved in activities led by paid staff have higher motivation, while parental volunteers generally report lower motivation. The purpose of this project is to follow up on previous studies and examine changes in motivation over time, as well as explore causal relationships between motivation and voluntary effort.
Project Approach
The project will analyse changes in motivation for voluntary effort and variations between different voluntary fields and tasks. It will also investigate how the media discourse on Norwegians' voluntary engagement has changed over time. The project will analyse existing and new surveys on voluntary effort to examine how motivation for volunteering has changed. To investigate the public media discourse on voluntary effort, the project will analyse data from the media archive Retriever/A-tekst. The project will start in 2025 and last until 2027. The main deliverable will be a report in 2027 summarising knowledge, data, analyses, and results.
