Abstract
Despite the large body of research regarding volunteerism, knowledge of its dimension and specificity in Latin America is still partial. The polysemic character of this notion may affect public perceptions and academic conceptualizations of volunteering. Numerous authors have emphasized the need to establish perceptional nuances of volunteering as a social practice in both developed and developing countries. Likewise, the quantitative reach of this social phenomenon is subject to debate as figures denote a wide range of voluntary participation levels, depending on the instrument with which it is measured. Most of the individuals that volunteer in Latin America do not consider themselves volunteers. Moreover, for international comparative purposes, local perceptions strongly diverge on what differentiates a voluntary action from a simple gesture of good manners. The concept is complex and often measured in a simplified or imprecise manner. This chapter presents literature that discusses definition, measurement, and nature of volunteering in the region. Our research presents the first estimation of voluntary work in a single large city using Household Surveys as data source.
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Notes
- 1.
Survey Analytics or Omnibus Survey is a method of quantitative marketing research where data on a wide variety of subjects is collected during the same interview. Usually, multiple research clients will provide proprietary content for the survey (paying to get on the omnibus), while sharing the common demographic data collected from each respondent. See https://www.surveyanalytics.com/omnibus-survey-definition.html. Accessed February 17, 2015.
- 2.
It should be highlighted that Mexico is the country that counts with the most solid and most systematic academic and statistical production on volunteering in Latin America . In the case of the Mexican Nonprofit Institutions Satellite Account, home surveys were resorted to in order to establish the value of voluntary work in the different subsectors of activity (health, education, social services, etc.). To this purpose, the National Statistics and Geography Institute (INEGI) take the data generated by National Survey of the Nonprofit Institutions (Encuesta Nacional de Instituciones sin Fines de Lucro—ENISFL) 2009, implemented by the Mexican Center for Philanthropy (CEMEFI). However, Household Surveys were used just for complementing the data about labor force. See Salamon et al. (2012).
- 3.
Civil Society Organizations (CSO) or Nonprofit Organizations (NPO) or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) are most the common denomination. Nonprofit Institutions (NPI) is the term adopted by the Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work (2011) and the Handbook on Nonprofit Institutions in the System of National Accounts (2003). In this chapter, we use all this terms as a synonym.
- 4.
These authors refer to regular surveys of volunteering that have recently been conducted by the statistical offices of Australia, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States.
- 5.
They highlight the resistance to measurement of volunteering and their economic values as a common believe among diverse social actors. For instance, volunteer leaders consider that placing an economic value on volunteer work will actually undervalue it by ignoring the deeper and broader impacts volunteering has in terms of building self‐respect, fostering solidarity , providing a sense of self‐worth, deepening feelings of altruism , contributing to social capital , and promoting democracy. Additionally, there are concerns that policymakers will see estimates of the value of volunteering as an invitation to cut back on public sector support for needed services and assume that volunteers can handle the chores. (…) Labor groups also have concerns about too visible an appearance of volunteer activity, particularly when that activity is identified with “work” and assigned at least an implicit “wage.” Such concerns for instance are particularly intense given the current high unemployment rate in Europe.
- 6.
A demonstration of this type of inconvenience is variations in the results of different surveys. Regarding this point, Bosioc et al. (2012, p. 4) highlight the case of Hungary as an example of marked differences in the results that appear in different surveys. Recent studies of the volunteering rate in Hungary put this figure at 5.5, 10.8, and 40 %, all within the space of 4 or 5 years. These differences seem to have had less to do with any variations in the actual performance of Hungarians than with variations in the definitions and measurement methods used by researchers. Thus, for example, the Hungarian National Volunteer Center got the 40 % figure by including all manner of voluntary activity, formal and informal, as well as long‐term voluntary service engagements, whereas the Hungarian Statistical Office came up with its 5.5 % figure by focusing narrowly on NGOs that engage volunteers.
- 7.
See Volunteering England Information Service Volunteering Definition http://www.ocva.org.uk/sites/ocva.org.uk/files/Definitions%20of%20volunteering%2009.pdf
- 8.
A research carried out by Gallup in 2005 Latin America shows values that are very inferior to Canada and United States and slightly beneath Western Europe’s average. Therefore it cannot be averred, without pertinent specifications that the percentage of population that does volunteering work in the region be, in any case, significantly inferior to that registered in developed countries. Accessed February 27, 2015.
- 9.
ENSAV (Encuesta Nacional de Solidaridad y Acción Voluntaria) the National Survey on Solidarity and Voluntary Action carried out by CENEFI. http://www.cemefi.org/cemefi/sala-de-prensa/19-boletines-para-medios-de-comunicacion/1765-090113encuesta-nacional-de-solidaridad-y-accion-voluntaria-ensav-2012-presentacion-de-resultados.pdf?type=raw. Accessed February 26, 2015.
- 10.
Regarding this point, it is useful to take into account the survey that TNS-Gallup Argentina carried out as part of the project Voice of the People at a global level. This consulting firm estimated that in Argentina 13 % of the population over 18 carried out voluntary activities in 2013, the lowest value since 1997 and is far from the peak of 32 % of participation in 2002 when the country was going through a social and economic crisis. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qYT6KgMI2EwJ:www.cyapublicos.com.ar/admin/archivos/informe%2520%2520voices!%2520voluntariado.docx+&cd=1&hl=es-419&ct=clnk&gl=ar. Accessed February 26, 2015. Different specialists regarding the data produced by the above-mentioned survey, consider that the fall of traditional volunteering in Argentina is due to the fact that it is changing to new participation forms, of a more informal and occasional nature, motivated by specific causes. http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1679132-nuevas-formas-de-ayudar. Accessed January 6, 2015.
- 11.
Household surveys are an important source of socioeconomic data. Important indicators to inform and monitor development policies are often derived from such surveys. In developing countries, they have become a dominant form of data collection, supplementing or sometimes even replacing other data collection programs and civil registration systems. Source: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/hhsurveys/. Accessed January 6, 2015. ILO together with the Study Center of John Hopkins’ Civil Society recommend to carry out data gathering on voluntary work via household surveys where a specific module destined to capture information on voluntary work. Nevertheless, one must keep in mind that there are other information sources based upon wide coverage surveys such as the Time Use Survey . An instance of this modality is the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) that measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing. Source: http://www.bls.gov/tus/. Accessed January 6, 2015.
- 12.
The Communes are the administrative units in which the City is divided. Buenos Aires city has been organized in 15 Communes. Each commune is made up of several neighborhoods. They have municipal responsibilities in some local specific aspects, such as caring of trees, maintenance of squares and parks, sidewalks, streets, and the use of the public spaces. http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/comunas. Accessed May 15, 2015.
- 13.
This module was included in the Annual Household Survey (EAH) designed by the Dirección General de Estadísticas y Censos (General Direction of Statistics and Census) of the City of Buenos Aires at the request of the Center for the Study of State and Society (CEDES).
- 14.
For further information of this Survey, see the document of María E. Lago “Diez años de la Encuesta Anual de Hogares (EAH) de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.” http://www.estadistica.buenosaires.gob.ar/areas/hacienda/sis_estadistico/EAH/eah_2002_2011.pdf. Accessed December 20, 2014.
- 15.
In this way, the surveyed person did not confuse voluntary activity with unpaid work within the framework of an economic unit (for instance a family business) or a household.
- 16.
This indicator was proposed with the aim of recovering information on the issue that covered a greater reference period.
- 17.
We have used the International Classification of Nonprofit Organization (ICNPO) adopted by the U.N. Handbook.
- 18.
This question (number of days and hours devoted to voluntary work ) was put only to those interviewees that carried out such activities during the previous month to the interview, in this way avoiding the type of mistake that those surveyed fall into when they try to recall aspects of relatively remote actions or events.
- 19.
The figures in absolute values correspond to the sample expansion of the data from the population-based survey.
- 20.
TNS-VOICES is a local branch company associated to Win-Gallup International. See http://www.wingia.com/en/countries/Argentina/. Accessed February 2, 2016.
- 21.
nfpSynergy is a UK research consultancy organization, devoted to the charity sector and not-for-profit issues. See http://www.nfpsynergy.net. Accessed February 2, 2016.
- 22.
See http://nfpsynergy.net/critique-governments-citizenship-survey. Accessed February 2, 2016.
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Roitter, M. (2017). Beyond Images and Perceptions: Conceptualizing and Measuring Volunteerism in Buenos Aires. In: Butcher, J., Einolf, C. (eds) Perspectives on Volunteering. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39899-0_9
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