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ABSTRACT
This paper challenges prevailing theories on volunteering which explain participation in volunteer work by the high capital resources of individuals (resource theories). Using care theory and focusing on volunteers working with the frail elderly, the sick and the dying, we ask whether resource theory is a suitable theoretical framework for this particular kind of unpaid work. With a 2012 Danish population survey, we find that care volunteering attracts lower-resourced individuals who are predominantly female. We use this finding to argue that resource theory is unhelpful in explaining this particular form of volunteering and to call for more theory development.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Professor Thomas Boje and Professor Lars Skov Henriksen for valuable feed-back. We would also to thank session participants who commented on an earlier version of this article presented at ARNOVA conference, 2015.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. This certainly implies that capital resources may not just be a perquisite for volunteering but a product of volunteering. However, the vast majority of the literature uses capital resources as predictors of volunteering and whether volunteering boosts capital resources for most individuals is still somewhat speculative (Spera et al., Citation2015; Petrovski, Dencker-Larsen, & Holm, Citation2017).
2. Culture and recreation, Education and Research, Environment, Development and housing, Civic and advocacy, International Aid, Religious congregations, Business and professional unions, Others.
3. 3.5 % volunteer within social services and 3.9 % volunteer within health.
4. The terms ‘white collar’ and ‘blue collar’ refer to whether respondents report that they perform high-skilled office work or low-skilled and manual labour.