Thomas Janoski Sara R. Compion University of Kentucky
The research addresses a significant gap in knowledge concerning volunteering in emerging democracies, by contributing an African-centered, sociological perspective to theories of civil society. The co-PI will employ a sociological approach and the notion of civic capital to study how associational volunteering shapes and is being shaped by democratization. The researcher will use a mixed-method, cross-national comparative approach to study domestic volunteering in 20 democratizing African countries. First, the study will identify a profile of Africans who actively belong to volunteer organizations. Next it contextualizes volunteering as a function of the varying civic and economic climates in which these individuals live. This is done through a multi-level statistical analysis of the 2008 Afrobarometer survey data. Finally, ethnographic case studies in South Africa and Zambia will be completed to analyze how cultural repertoires, values, and identity shape notions of democratic citizenship and inform volunteering behavior from the bottom up.
Findings from this research will identify the types and characteristics of people who actively join associational volunteer organizations in 20 African countries. The quantitative models will reveal if democratic advancement facilitates individual volunteering. The qualitative case studies will offer explanations about why and how people volunteer, and if their volunteering builds their civic capital which in turn fosters democracy.
Broader Impacts
Research findings will contribute to our understanding of how the deeply intertwined relationship between associational volunteering and democracy unfolds within developing and democratizing contexts. Results will have broader scholarly potential by contributing to comparative, quantitative analysis of African countries that increases the generalizability of existing theories on civil society to countries beyond the West. The findings can direct future efforts dedicated to maximizing the civic action of volunteering populations, and building targeted strategies for encouraging and recruiting those who are not yet civically engaged. State planners can use the evidence from this study to direct foreign aid towards those volunteer activities that increase the civic capital necessary for democratic nation building. Finally, non-profit organizations can benefit from the best-case scenarios on how to make their organizations more democratic, participatory, and civically oriented.
