Volunteering and professionalization: Trends in tension?

Abstract

The last several decades have witnessed the proliferation and popularity of volunteering both as a means for individuals to connect with social issues and as a way of sustaining nonprofit organizations; indeed, it dominates contemporary discussions about civic engagement. Whereas some social theorists have promoted volunteering as a benchmark to assess democratic participation, civic-mindedness, social capital, and trust (Putnam, 2000), others have questioned the uncomplicated associations among volunteering, civic engagement, and community (Ganesh & McAllum, 2009). Like Snyder (2001), we position volunteering as a “hybrid strain of helping” (p. 16309) that falls between spontaneous bystander intervention and highly obligated caregiving. Specifically, we propose that volunteering involves sustained identity investments by volunteers performed and realized in organizational settings.