Continuity and Change in Voluntary Action by Lindsey Rose Mohan John

Author:Lindsey, Rose, Mohan, John [Lindsey, Rose, Mohan, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Volunteer Work, Philanthropy & Charity
ISBN: 9781447324874
Google: Kb5aDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 2018-05-30T03:32:16+00:00

Mass Observation Project data

The first point to note is that a little less than half (16) of the writers appear to say nothing about their motives for volunteering/not volunteering. Of the remaining 22 writers, responses which address the topic are sometimes confined to a small number of sentences, generally relating to their participation in a particular domain or role. Echoing the wider academic literature, it seems that writers' motivations for volunteering varies, depending on the domain in which it is taking place, and on the role being taken, concurring with Musick and Wilson's observation that 'We cannot separate our thinking about the motivation for volunteering work from our thinking about what that volunteer work entails' (2008, 78).

This dearth of MOP material on motivation is, in part, due to the nature of the questions put to the writers over the last 35 years: only the 1996 directive on Unpaid Work, and the 2012 directive on The 'Big Society', have asked specific questions about motives for volunteering. The 1996 directive asked writers about 'getting started': why they began working in a voluntary capacity, why they carried on, and, if they didn't report any unpaid work (or had ceased doing it) why that was the case. Our 2012 The 'Big Society' directive simply asked people why they were involved, and how volunteering made them feel. At that point, we had not conceived of the idea of this longitudinal study, so we did not replicate questions from previous directives, nor did we specifically ask about non-volunteering. Most of our information on motivation comes from these directives. A small amount of additional material is found in responses to the 2004 directive, Being Part of Research, which asked about being invited to take part in research studies, and experiences and feelings related to such participation. The 2010 Special Questionnaire on Taking Part in the Mass Observation Project, and the 2010 Belonging directive, both generated responses about belonging to volunteering communities.

Writers tend to sandwich their discussion of motives within descriptions of the type of voluntary activities that they undertake (what they do and for whom), the skills they bring to their volunteering, and the benefits that they receive from taking part. When this material is considered alongside responses to the other directives we have analysed (for example, feelings about their families and communities, their work lives, values and key life events), we gain insights into their personalities, value systems, and capacity for action. It is this additional context about the complexity of these individual lives that informs our understanding of why writers may or may not volunteer over time. For this reason we frame our qualitative evidence about motivation through the context and shape of writers' volunteering lives, examining how motives for volunteering or not can change over the lifecourse.

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