Content area
Full Text
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit OrganizationsVol. 15, No. 1, March 2004 ( C 2004)Individual motivation is the core of the actualization and continuity in voluntary
work from both the standpoint of theoretical research and practical
volunteerism. Volunteer motivation also provides an excellent research area for investigating the wider sociological theme of late-modern participation. This study,
based on the data from 18 interviews, explores volunteer motivation utilizing a
phenomenological approach to individual experience and the meaning of volunteerism. Using a phenomenological approach illuminates the nature of volunteer motivation more holistically. The research includes 767 motivational elements in 47 themes and develops an innovative four-dimensional octagon model
of volunteer motivationthe theoretical and practical applications of which are
discussed.KEY WORDS: late modernity; volunteer motivation; phenomenological analysis; religiosity.Maehr and Meyer (1997, p. 372) have aptly said of education that There are
three things to remember. ... The first is motivation. The second one is motivation.The third one is motivation. This also forms the cornerstone of volunteerism.
The present paper explores the essential feature of motivation from the complex
perspective of individual experience and meaning in volunteerism. Volunteer motivation is a research area of particular significance for two reasons. First, individual
motivation is the core of the actualization and continuity of voluntary work from
both a theoretical research perspective and a practical standpoint. Voluntarism and
independencefactors that characterize voluntary action and its actualization
also pose a risk to its continuity. Second, volunteer motivation provides an excellent1Department of Practical Theology, Aleksanterinkatu 7, P.O. Box 33, 00014, University of Helsinki,
Finland; e-mail: [email protected] Octagon Model of Volunteer Motivation:
Results of a Phenomenological AnalysisAnne Birgitta Yeung1INTRODUCTION0957-8765/04/0300-0021/1 C 2004 International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University22 Yeungresearch area for reflection on, and exploration of, the sociological conception of
late-modern commitment and participation.Modernization has been characterized by increasing individualization (Beck,
2000), including the reflexive reconstruction of identity and the decline in the institutional determination of life choices (Heelas, 1998, p. 5). These societal transformations have also been reported to make volunteerism less collective and more
individualistic or reflexive (Hustinx and Lammertyn, 2003). Beck et al. (1994)
summarize the late-modern shift through the concept of reflexivity, distinguishing
between structural reflexivity (institutional, industrial) and self-reflexivity (individual reflection on societal changes), often utilized...