Volunteering, the market, and neoliberalism

This paper builds on recent literature which has examined how trends in volunteering, at the organisational, operational and policy levels, may be negatively affecting the nature of volunteering itself. Within the hegemony of neoliberalism, theorists and researchers have argued that greater market individualism and flexible capitalism can ultimately damage kinship, collectivism, altruistic tendencies, and social compassion. While participating in volunteering clearly benefits the individual volunteer as well as the person or community they are helping, it is argued that a social order which prioritises benefit to the individual over benefit to the collective may cause potential long-term damage to the act of volunteering. Drawing on the work of theorists from a range of disciplines, this paper aims to frame current developments in volunteering within the wider theoretical critique of marketisation and neoliberalism, particularly those critiques which focus on the damage to or decline of community life.