Typology of volunteers for a changing sociopolitical context: The impact on social capital, citizenship and civil society

This article presents a theory on volunteers that is grounded in the findin gs from a qualitative study of participants in a social planning initiative . From participants' descriptions of their experiences, a typology of volun teers emerged that differentiates between Citizen, Techno and Labour Volunt eers. This article describes the initial themes that emerged from the quali tative study and the patterns that led to the development of the typology. In addition, the three types of volunteers are differentiated further throu gh connections to the theoretical literature. Specifically, volunteering as a form of serious leisure is divided into three types and the relationship of each type to specific benefits and forms of trust are discussed. The ty pology enables us to refine our understanding of the connections between th e individual activity of volunteering and collective action, citizenship an d social capital. In addition, the impacts of recent neo-conservative shift s on volunteers are discussed. Three main implications for leisure studies arise from this study. First, future research must explore further the cont ributions of leisure to not only the promotion of harmony in society (i.e., social integration) but also in the negotiation and constructive uses of c onflict. in addition, the findings suggest the need to address the politica l capacity of volunteering as a leisure activity, and the role that leisure studies may play in safeguarding the public sphere.