Continuity and change in voluntary action

Dr Rose Lindsey has experience of working both in academia and in the voluntary sector. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow based in the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Southampton. She has been the CEO of a domestic abuse charity and a trustee for several charities.John Mohan is Professor of Social Policy, University of Birmingham, and Director of the Third Sector Research Centre. He has published extensively on contemporary and historical aspects of the third sector, with a particular recent focus on analyses of volunteering and the resources and characteristics of voluntary organisations. Elizabeth Metcalfe was a research fellow in the Third Sector Research Centre, working on quantitative analyses of survey datasets for this project. She has subsequently moved to data scientist positions in ONS and the private sector.Sarah Bulloch worked in the Third Sector Research Centre in the early stages of this project; from there she became research manager at Scope. She is currently a Teaching Fellow at the University of Surrey; and an associate of QDAS, specialising in mixed-methods approaches to research and teaching.

"An important and innovative contribution to understanding how and why people engage in voluntary activity; how important they feel it is in their lives; and the ways in which it contributes to the wider community." Colin Rochester, London School of Economics

• Introduction;The changing policy environment for voluntary action from 1979;Data, sources and definitions; Trends in volunteering and trends in the voluntary sector; Content and Context of Volunteering; Why people volunteer: contextualising motivation; Volunteering trajectories: individual patterns of volunteering over the life-course; Attitudes to voluntary action;Conclusion.