Leisure and time-use perspectives on volunteering

Abstract

Taking a time-use perspective, this chapter examines where volunteering fits in people’s daily, weekly, and annual time use in different countries and world regions. Within a person’s total time-use pattern, the central focus is on free time and the portion within it that is devoted to volunteering and associational activity. Formal volunteering (FV), whether for service programs or associations, is most often a kind of serious leisure, defined below. Such activity has its own temporal requirements that have to be coordinated with other use of free time, as well as with paid work and non-work obligations (such as family care or personal care, like sleep). Informal volunteering (INV) — volunteering done more spontaneously by individuals without any organizational auspices — is also discussed, as is the travel related to FV and INV. Substantial attention is devoted to options in time-use measurement and methodology, and to the special value of such methods to enhance and overcome biases in survey interview methodology.