TY - ENCYC

T1 - Volunteering, Humanitarian Support, and Social Movements

AU - Carlsen, Hjalmar Alexander Bang

AU - Toubøl, Jonas

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Social movement activism typically denotes conflict, anger, and protest against those in power under the heading of contentious politics. Due to political conflict's obvious centrality to social and historical change, which is the principal reason for studying movements in the first place, social movement scholars have almost exclusively focused on the contentious dynamics and not paid much attention to humanitarian support and voluntary social work in the movements. Humanitarian support and voluntary action – denoting neutral altruism, sympathy, and direct action to relieve others of their suffering – have instead been allocated to the neighboring research field of voluntary studies. This implies that the studies of, on the one hand, social movements and, on the other hand, volunteering have, to a large extent, developed independently and have paid little attention to one another. Recently, however, several scholars have argued for an integration. For instance, Donatella della Porta argues that both social movement studies and the field of volunteering are interested in (i) voluntary participation in collective action, involving (ii) cooperative and conflictual relations, for (iii) causes defined, implicitly or explicitly, as the public good. Therefore, both fields stand to gain from greater integration.

AB - Social movement activism typically denotes conflict, anger, and protest against those in power under the heading of contentious politics. Due to political conflict's obvious centrality to social and historical change, which is the principal reason for studying movements in the first place, social movement scholars have almost exclusively focused on the contentious dynamics and not paid much attention to humanitarian support and voluntary social work in the movements. Humanitarian support and voluntary action – denoting neutral altruism, sympathy, and direct action to relieve others of their suffering – have instead been allocated to the neighboring research field of voluntary studies. This implies that the studies of, on the one hand, social movements and, on the other hand, volunteering have, to a large extent, developed independently and have paid little attention to one another. Recently, however, several scholars have argued for an integration. For instance, Donatella della Porta argues that both social movement studies and the field of volunteering are interested in (i) voluntary participation in collective action, involving (ii) cooperative and conflictual relations, for (iii) causes defined, implicitly or explicitly, as the public good. Therefore, both fields stand to gain from greater integration.

U2 - 10.1002/9780470674871.wbespm715

DO - 10.1002/9780470674871.wbespm715

M3 - Encyclopedia chapter

BT - The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements

A2 - Snow, David A.

A2 - della Porta, Donatella

A2 - McAdam, Doug

PB - Wiley-Blackwell

CY - Chichester, UK

ER -