Vrijwilligerswerk en participatie aan het verenigingsleven binnenstebuiten: Praktijken van aanspreken en ondersteunen in het sociaal-cultureel volwassenenwerk

Research indicates that people volunteer and participate in associational life because they are asked to. In other words, the way of addressing and supporting volunteers and participants, determines who is participating, who becomes a volunteer, and which work volunteers do. So mechanism of addressing and supporting are at the forefront of the discussion about voluntary work and the problems of participation in associational life. Our research ‘participation in associational life’ makes practices of addressing and supporting of associations in socio-cultural work with adults visible. The focus is on the policies of the associations and their ‘mechanism’ and on the diversity in forms of participation. The research results indicate that addressing and supporting of participants is based on accidental factors, and less on a thorough analysis of the meaning of associational life and the contribution made by volunteers in society.