Abstract
Colin Rochester, Angela Ellis Paine, and Steven Howlett team up to elaborate on the intricacies of volunteerism in the United Kingdom. Volunteering and Society in the 21st Century explores much deeper than just the typical surface questions such as “who volunteers? and why?” In Chapters Two and Three, the authors describe different perspectives towards volunteering—“non-profit paradigm,” “civil society paradigm,” and “volunteering as serious leisure”—and how each perspective has its own particular motivation and activities. The importance of one’s cultural values was also rightly noted in the midst of incorporating various definitions of volunteering. Chapter Four boasts that “43 percent of the United Kingdom’s population were volunteering” (p. 39) and notes differences based upon gender, age, ethnicity, religion, and socio-economic status. Chapter Five dips into an international comparison of volunteering and briefly explains these differences. Chapters Six through Eight discuss the transitions volunteering has been experiencing within the realms of changing demographics, the government’s interest, and the nature of volunteering itself. Chapters Nine through Twelve bravely tackle motivation, recruitment, retention, management, and the impact of volunteer work. Who benefits from their labor and to what extent? Chapters 13–16 encounter some of many modern challenges that are still in the process of being hurdled. Additionally, inaccurate views and barriers to volunteering are challenged skillfully.
Drawing from various recent studies, Volunteering and Society in the 21st Century gives a reliable overview of volunteering in the United Kingdom (and world) today. Overall this book was highly informative and fascinating. Throughout, the authors certainly prove their ability to reach each of their target audiences—academics, practitioners, policy analysts, and policy-makers—with both authority and readability.