I thought this recent study may be of interest to the list. Details of the 
project outputs are available below.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/ViewAwardPage.aspx?AwardId=3183

In recent years the government has been pushing volunteering as a way of
reconnecting people with the labour market. However, in a recent study
published today and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council,
researchers argue that this understanding is too narrow. Most people
volunteer to make a difference in the community rather than for career
development.

While many volunteers may describe what they do as work, there are some key
distinctions. Not least the fact that many volunteers are beyond the labour
market - for reasons of age, disability or care responsibilities. Policy
focused on volunteering as training for the labour market risks excluding
and discouraging those who can't work.

The study found that volunteering plays a valuable role in developing
social capital within communities. Volunteering enhances the levels of
active citizenship and community spirit in an area and helps people build
up a sense of belonging to a place.

On a personal level volunteering also develops an individual's
self-confidence and provides a structure for their lives - getting them out
of the house and interacting within the community. While being driven by
different motivations, volunteering provides the sense of meaning and
identity that many people find in a satisfying job.

The study was carried out by Professor Irene Hardill from Nottingham Trent
University and Dr Susan Baines from Newcastle University. They employed an
innovative and detailed methodology to spend extended periods of time
interviewing and working alongside four different groups of volunteers and
programme organisers in one of the most deprived areas of the English
Midlands.

The researchers identified four main motivations for volunteering:

Mutual aid - people volunteered to help those within their own community.
They want to put something back;

Philanthropy - people from outside the community volunteered out of a sense
of altruism. They felt fortunate and wanted to make a difference;

'Getting by' - people volunteered in reaction to a personal need or as a
result of an individual life event like retirement or bereavement. This is
volunteering as a form of self-help;

'Getting on' - people who volunteer as a way of developing new skills and
experiences that are valued in the labour market. This is volunteering to
get a job or for career development. In successive government policy
initiatives like the New Deal and Sure Start New Labour have been steadily
pushing volunteering as a way of 'getting on' in the labour market. The
government believes that volunteering offers opportunities to develop
skills and credentials, and to foster a work ethic.

However, this study found that this type of motivation was the least common
amongst those they interviewed and worked with. Instead, most volunteers
want to make a difference out of an ethic of care - expressed as mutual aid
or philanthropy. Fewer people volunteer for career development than the
government might expect.

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