Rethinking Volunteering as a Form of Unpaid Work. (February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Overgaard, Charlotte
• Is Part Of: Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly. Volume 48:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 128
• Page End: 145
• Publication Date: 2019-02
• Subjects: care work -- choice -- paid work -- unpaid work -- volunteering; Nonprofit organizations -- Periodicals; Voluntarism -- Periodicals; Charity organization -- Periodicals; 361.763
• DOI: 10.1177/0899764018809419
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0899-7640

Abstract

This article aims to problematize the ways in which volunteering is presently conceptualized, theorized, and studied by positioning it as a form of unpaid labor. Over six focal points, the article highlights areas that deserve closer scrutiny: the question of when volunteering is work; the formal–informal and paid–unpaid distinctions of work; the notion of "choice, " especially volunteering as the lack of paid work choices; the assumption that volunteer work is similar to informal work; and a recognition that volunteering consists of many different forms of activities, not just one.