Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Volunteering and Democratization

SES-1409243托马斯·雅诺斯基·萨拉·R·康普顿肯塔基大学这项研究通过以非洲为中心的社会学视角，对公民社会理论做出贡献，解决了新兴民主国家在志愿服务方面的一个重大知识空白。联合公益将采用社会学方法和公民资本的概念来研究社团志愿服务是如何形成和正在被民主化塑造的。这位研究人员将使用混合方法、跨国家比较的方法来研究20个民主化非洲国家的国内志愿服务。首先，这项研究将确定积极参加志愿组织的非洲人的概况。其次，它将志愿服务作为这些人所处的不同公民和经济气候的一种功能。这是通过对2008年非洲气压计调查数据进行多层次统计分析来实现的。最后，将完成南非和赞比亚的民族志案例研究，以分析文化曲目、价值观和身份认同如何塑造民主公民的概念，并自下而上地指导志愿服务行为。这项研究的结果将确定在20个非洲国家积极加入协会志愿者组织的人的类型和特征。量化模型将揭示民主进步是否促进了个人志愿服务。定性的案例研究将解释人们为什么和如何志愿，以及他们的志愿活动是否建立了他们的公民资本，从而促进民主。更广泛的影响研究结果将有助于我们理解社团志愿服务和民主之间的深层次交织关系是如何在发展和民主化的背景下展开的。这些成果将有助于对非洲国家进行比较、定量的分析，从而提高现有公民社会理论在西方以外国家的普适性，从而具有更广泛的学术潜力。这些发现可以指导未来致力于最大限度地发挥志愿人员的公民行动的努力，并制定有针对性的战略，鼓励和招募那些尚未参与公民活动的人。国家规划者可以利用这项研究的证据，将外国援助引导到那些增加民主国家建设所需公民资本的志愿者活动中。最后，非营利组织可以从如何使其组织更加民主、更具参与性和以公民为导向的最佳情况中受益。

SES-1409243Thomas JanoskiSara R. CompionUniversity of KentuckyThe research addresses a significant gap in knowledge concerning volunteering in emerging democracies, by contributing an African-centered, sociological perspective to theories of civil society. The co-PI will employ a sociological approach and the notion of civic capital to study how associational volunteering shapes and is being shaped by democratization. The researcher will use a mixed-method, cross-national comparative approach to study domestic volunteering in 20 democratizing African countries. First, the study will identify a profile of Africans who actively belong to volunteer organizations. Next it contextualizes volunteering as a function of the varying civic and economic climates in which these individuals live. This is done through a multi-level statistical analysis of the 2008 Afrobarometer survey data. Finally, ethnographic case studies in South Africa and Zambia will be completed to analyze how cultural repertoires, values, and identity shape notions of democratic citizenship and inform volunteering behavior from the bottom up. Findings from this research will identify the types and characteristics of people who actively join associational volunteer organizations in 20 African countries. The quantitative models will reveal if democratic advancement facilitates individual volunteering. The qualitative case studies will offer explanations about why and how people volunteer, and if their volunteering builds their civic capital which in turn fosters democracy. Broader ImpactsResearch findings will contribute to our understanding of how the deeply intertwined relationship between associational volunteering and democracy unfolds within developing and democratizing contexts. Results will have broader scholarly potential by contributing to comparative, quantitative analysis of African countries that increases the generalizability of existing theories on civil society to countries beyond the West. The findings can direct future efforts dedicated to maximizing the civic action of volunteering populations, and building targeted strategies for encouraging and recruiting those who are not yet civically engaged. State planners can use the evidence from this study to direct foreign aid towards those volunteer activities that increase the civic capital necessary for democratic nation building. Finally, non-profit organizations can benefit from the best-case scenarios on how to make their organizations more democratic, participatory, and civically oriented.