Volunteer Participation and the Development of Civil Society in China: A Case Study of Jinan

Xu Ying ()
Additional contact information
Xu Ying: Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Nonprofit Policy Forum, 2013, vol. 5, issue 1, 139-168

Abstract: Spontaneous volunteer participation has developed rapidly over the past decade, though compulsory volunteer participation through top-to-bottom, government-based organizations is still prevalent among Chinese citizens. Drawing on a case study of Jinan, a city in China, this study explores the types of and motives for volunteer participation including how volunteers differ in their voluntary service experiences and what their attitudes are toward volunteering and the future development of civil society in China. The findings illustrate: first, spontaneous participants with rewarding experiences who volunteer through grassroots, issue-based VSOs are most likely to have a positive attitude toward volunteering and believe that volunteering can make contributions to the development of civil society. Second, participants in grassroots and community-based VSOs are most likely to have an enthusiastic attitude toward volunteering, but they tend to be indifferent about the idea of civil society. However, they tend to contribute to the development of volunteering and civil society when given the opportunity, because participation in voluntary services enhances their participatory abilities and their sense of self-organization and mutual collaboration. Last but not least, volunteers who participate in a poorly managed volunteering organization and have a dissatisfactory, non-rewarding volunteering experience are most likely to have a pessimistic attitude toward volunteering and civil society. The implications of volunteering for the development of civil society are also discussed.

Keywords: volunteering; volunteer participation; civil society; voluntary service organization; non-governmental organization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/npf-2012-0003 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:nonpfo:v:5:y:2013:i:1:p:139-168:n:1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/npf/html

DOI: 10.1515/npf-2012-0003

Access Statistics for this article

Nonprofit Policy Forum is currently edited by Dennis Young

More articles in Nonprofit Policy Forum from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().