The Values of Volunteering Cross-Cultural Perspectives

The Values of Volunteering explains not only the differences and similarities in volunteering between countries and the conditions that may be conducive to or hinder volunteering, it also discusses: -Why people volunteer; -How volunteers relate to each other and to the people they want to help; -The ideals volunteers wish to promote; -The diversity of and developments in volunteering; -Future trends; -The relationships between volunteers and between volunteers and clients and organizations; -And more. This useful new resource places volunteering in a broader theoretical and empirical framework of value shifts and political democracy.From the reviews: This book examines volunteering in detail from a civil society perspective, using empirical data garnered from various sources for countries all over the globe. The contributions deal with a broad spectrum of questions, ranging from the diversity, social and cultural determinants and organizational settings of volunteering, to its possible individual, social, and political effects.   "The values of this relatively unique work lies in the many comparisons and analyses based on cross-cultural data." (Social and Behavioral Sciences, 41:10)   "In summary, this volume is all the more impressive given the difficulty of the subject matter with which it deals.  It should be required reading for any scholar interested in the nonprofit sector, volunteering, and the comparative study of civil society more generally." (John Wilson; American Journal of Sociology, 109:6) "The Values of Volunteering, presents chapters that advance a vision of volunteering as involving more than a way of providing service to persons in need. A second goal of the work is to contribute to the recognition of volunteering as an interesting topic for further social research. To these ends, the chapters are rich and rewarding and have been well crafted to provide a coherent advance of the books argument." (Jon Van Til, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 34 (2), June, 2005)Dekker and Halman, both of Tilburg University, The Netherlands, present 12 contributions on such subject as why people volunteer, how they relate to each other and to the people they want to help, and differences and similarities among countries. Studies from around the world look at the social and cultural determinants and organizational settings of volunteering and its potential individual, social, and political effects. Material is of interest to academics in social theory, and to policymakers and managers in volunteer organizations. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)