Who (else) is Involved? - How Voluntary Associations Connect and Separate Us

Since the early 2000s, volunteering rates are stable on a high level (approx. 30% volunteer at least once a month) in the UK and constantly rising in Germany. In the sociological literature, volunteerism is seen as an important contributor for the well-functioning of society. Bridging ties across various salient boundaries, such as ethnicity, class or political affiliation, are assumed to be formed within voluntary organizations. Thus, voluntarism plays a vital role for social integration of individuals and groups, and social cohesion at large. The study of volunteering has been neglected for many decades but there is a growing interest of sociologists since the 1990s. Most research focuses on the United States thereby leaving a research gap on Volunteering in Europe.

In my DPHIL project, I aim to do tackle the question "What are the antecedents and consequences of volunteering from a causal perspective?". As current research in this field is limited to the detection of correlational patterns, I would like to investigate causal links based on rigorous statistical methods. From a more substantively perspective, my thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, I aim to study the causal effects of personality traits, time endowment and spousal dynamics on the likelihood of starting and quitting volunteering. Using panel data analysis and exploiting a natural experiment in Germany (introduction of short-time work), the causal relevance of these antecedents for volunteering should be investigated. This would contribute to the research on productivity in the realms of work and well-being. In the second part, the effects of being active in voluntary organizations on outcomes like health, well-being
and social trust, which are all related to the ESRC-priority research areas, are studied. These effects will be examined using panel data analysis, too.