Continuity and Change in Voluntary Action

This book draws on an innovative longitudinal study of individual understandings of and attitudes toward volunteering and voluntary organizations, combined with analyses of their own reporting of how their volunteers approach their roles and work. The rich data,previously unanalyzed, provide a unique commentary on attitudes to voluntary effort and to the appropriate balance between statutory responsibility and community initiative in the voluntary sector.

Rose Lindsey joined the Third Sector Research Centre at Southampton University in 2010, after taking four years out of academia to work as the CEO of a domestic abuse charity. She was previously the lead researcher for projects at the Universities of Bristol, Reading, Winchester and Southampton. Rosalind Edwards is professor of sociology at the University of Southampton, where she is also social sciences director of research and a co-director of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. Sarah Bulloch manages the research team at Scope; she was previously a researcher in the Third Sector Research Centre, University of Southampton. Elizabeth Metcalfe started working on the “Continuity and Change in Volunteering” study in September 2013 within the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Southampton. John Mohan works in the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham.