Challenge assumptions about volunteering, researchers told

By Ben Cook, Third Sector Online, 10 December 2007

Researchers analysing the voluntary sector should use their studies to challenge the preconception that volunteering in all its forms is necessarily a good thing, according to the Institute for Volunteering Research.

Professor Justin Davis Smith, director of the institute, said researchers should not be afraid to criticise what they see as misguided government policy even if they are in receipt of government grants or contracts. “As a sector we need to be braver at examining assumptions about the nature of volunteering...