Occupational inequalities in volunteering participation: Using detailed data on jobs to explore the influence of habits and circumstances

Citation

Lambert P & Rutherford A (2020) Occupational inequalities in volunteering participation: Using detailed data on jobs to explore the influence of habits and circumstances. British Journal of Sociology, 71 (4), pp. 625-643. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12756

Abstract
In this paper we present empirical results that show that detailed occupations have distinctive patterns of association with voluntary participation. We draw upon data from four secondary survey datasets from the UK (coverage 1972-2012). Occupations are shown to link to volunteering in a wide range of scenarios and in individual, household, and longitudinal contexts. We argue that these linkages provide insight into social inequalities in volunteering, and that they can help us to understand the relative influence of ‘circumstances’ and ‘habits’ in enabling or inhibiting voluntary participation.

Keywords
multilevel models; occupations; social class; social stratification; volunteering

Journal
British Journal of Sociology: Volume 71, Issue 4

• Lambert Rutherford