Developing Voluntary Activity: Some Policy Issues Arising from the 2001 Home Office Citizenship Survey

This paper aims to promote greater discussion and debate on the implications and legitimacy of the current UK government policy approach that seeks to nurture voluntary activity by encouraging participation in voluntary groups (formal volunteering) and neglects the cultivation of one-to-one help (informal volunteering). Analysing the 2001 Home Office Citizenship Survey data on the geographical variations in volunteering, this policy approach is argued to privilege the development of a volunteering culture characteristic of affluent areas and to fail to recognise and value the informal volunteering culture more characteristic of lower-income populations. Why this is the case and how it might be resolved is then considered.