Inequality in Volunteering: Building a New Research Front

Abstract Volunteering research focuses predominantly on
predicting participation in volunteering, proceeding from
the quasi-hegemonic foundation of resource theory and
dominant-status theory. Empirical research in this tradition
has provided extremely robust evidence that dominant
groups in society are more likely to volunteer. At the same
time, it has reinforced the status quo in the production of
knowledge on volunteering, thereby neglecting the clear
problematic of ‘‘inequality in volunteering.’’ Compared to
the guiding question of ‘‘participation,’’ the concept of
‘‘inequality’’ can generate a more variegated, critical, and
change-oriented research agenda. With this special issue,
we aim to build a ‘‘new research front’’ in the field of
volunteering. In this introduction, we advance a novel
research agenda structured around a multidimensional
understanding of inequality, concomitantly delineating four
central research programs focusing on (a) resources,
(b) interactions, (c) governmentalities, and (d) epistemologies.
We discuss the focus of these lines of research in
greater detail with respect to inequality in volunteering,
their main critique of dominant research on participation in
volunteering, and key elements of the new research agenda.