Technical paper
Social Cohesion and Volunteering: Correlates, Causes, and Challenges
Volunteerism
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Drawing primarily from evidence from the United Kingdom and United States, this study critically explores the relationship between social cohesion and volunteering. Specifically, it considers how investment in social cohesion may enhance volunteer engagement and how investment in volunteering infrastructure may support and sustain social cohesion.
Synthesis
- This study establishes that social cohesion (i.e., the vertical and horizontal connections between people that bind society) and volunteering are positively related, such that each can benefit from investment in the other, though the strength of these relationships is dependent on the specific forms of social cohesion and volunteering that are involved.
- It is found that the impact of volunteering on social cohesion is weaker than that of social cohesion on volunteering, and the strength of these relationships depends on the specific aspects of social cohesion and volunteering involved.
- Therefore, public policy to invest in social cohesion is likely to sustain and facilitate volunteering and other positive outcomes, whereas investments solely in volunteering may not improve cohesion and may be more limited in their impacts.
- It is suggested that policy should start with a strategy for building social cohesion within specific communities in ways that increase volunteer engagement and its benefits, and that the strategies must consider both the intragroup and intergroup implications of these interventions.
