Kamerade, D 2011, 'An untapped pool of volunteers for the Big Society? Not enough social capital? Depends on how you measure it....' . (Submitted)

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Abstract

The key factor in determining the success of the Big Society in the UK is the availability of volunteers. How large is the pool of adults in Great Britain not already volunteering? To answer this question this paper adopts an under-utilised dynamic approach to measuring volunteering and compares its results to the more commonly used cross-sectional approach. Using longitudinal data from the British Household Survey, this paper finds considerable movement of individuals into and out of volunteering. The results show the vast majority of British adults have volunteered at least once and most of them do it repeatedly. Consequently the untapped pool of individuals who have never volunteered is significantly smaller than cross-sectional analysis suggests. This study recommends that Big Society policy should therefore give greater emphasis to retaining and re-engaging its existing volunteers and less emphasis to recruiting people who have never volunteered.

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