Perspectives on Volunteering

?This volume overlooks the distinct expressions and awareness of volunteering in the lived reality of people from different regions of the world. By casting the net widely this book not only expands the geographic reach of experiences, models and case studies but also transcends the conventional focus on formal volunteering. It highlights institutional forms of volunteering specific to developing nations and also describes volunteering that is more loosely institutionalized, informal, and a part of solidarity and collective spirit.  As a result this book provides a different look at the values, meaning, acts and expressions of volunteering.

The chapters in this book consist of essays and case studies that present recent academic research, thinking and practice on volunteering.  Working from the premise that volunteering is universal this collection draws on experiences from Latin America, Africa including Egypt, and Asia. This book focuses on developing countries and countries in transition in order to provide a fresh set of experiences and perspectives on volunteering. While developing countries and countries in transition are in the spotlight for this volume, the developed country experience is not ignored. Rather the essays use it as a critical reference point for comparisons, allowing points of convergence, disconnect and intersection to emerge.

Jacqueline Butcher is Director of the Centro de Investigación y Estudios sobre Sociedad Civil, (CIESC) (Center for Civil Society Research and Studies) in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Tecnológico de Monterrery, Mexico City Campus. Her areas of research focus on civil society, volunteering and solidarity. Her work has appeared in various academic journals such as Voluntas, and the Mexican Journal of Psychology and Human Development. Recent edited publications include Mexican solidarity: Citizen participation and volunteering (2010, Springer) and Generosidad en México (Generosity in Mexico) (2013, Porrúa). She is associate editor for Voluntas as well as a former President of the International Society for Third Sector Research, (ISTR).

Christopher J. Einolf is an Associate Professor at DePaul University's School of Public Service in Chicago, where he researches volunteering, charitable giving, and human rights. His work has appeared in Journal of Marriage and Family, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Social Science Research, and Social Indicators Research, and he recently published America in the Philippines, 1899-1902: The First Torture Scandal (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014). He wrote the report on informal volunteering for the 2011 United Nations State of the World's Volunteering Report, which will be published as a chapter in the forthcoming Palgrave Handbook on Volunteering and Nonprofit Associations