Formel frivillighed og uformel hjælp. To forskellige former for civilt engagement?

Formel frivillighed og uformel hjælp er begge kategorier under fællesbetegnelsen civilt engagement. Der er tale om begreber, der i de senere år har fået en stadig større opmærksomhed, men som det dog alligevel har været svært at afgrænse. Denne artikels formål er at belyse, hvordan sociale ressourcer og netværk indvirker på folks deltagelse i frivilligt arbejde. Der er tale om en analyse af Danmark anno 2012. Et vigtigt resultat i den empiriske analyse er, at der ikke er den store forskel på personer, der er aktive i enten formel frivillighed eller uformel hjælp, men forskellen er nok større i forhold til personer, der ikke er frivillige. Socialisering spiller dog en væsentlig rolle. Personer, der er vokset op med frivillighed, er mere tilbøjelige til at udføre formel frivillighed end andre. For dem, som udfører uformel hjælp, har tradition for frivillighed mindre betydning. Her er det primært styrken af de tætte sociale netværk, som er afgørende. Den gruppe, som adskiller sig mest fra de inaktive, er gruppen, der udfører begge former for frivillighed. Gruppen af dobbeltengagerede er kendetegnet ved at have flere ressourcer, stærkere sociale netværk, mere tillid til andre personer og dedikere meget tid til frivillighed. De har med andre ord meget social kapital. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Jonathan Hermansen and Thomas P. Boje: Formal Volunteering and Informal Help. Two Different Forms of Civil Engagement? Formal volunteering and informal help are both examples of civic engagement. They are concepts, which have received increasing attention in recent years. The aim of this article is to analyze how social resources and networks affect the propensity to undertake formal volunteering and informal help. The data is from a survey of volunteering in Denmark from 2012. An important result of the empirical analysis is that there is little difference between the people who are engaged in formal volunteer work or informal help, but there is a difference between them and those people who are not active. Socialization, however, plays a significant role. People, who grew up with volunteering as a family tradition, are more likely to engage in formal volunteering. In contrast, a tradition of volunteering does not have significant impact on whether you informally help others. Rather, it appears that the strength of the close social networks (”bonding social capital”) is crucial for informal helping. People engaged in both types of civic engagement differ remarkably from the group that is not active in any type of volunteering. People engaged in both types of civic engagement possess more social resources and stronger social networks. They have more trust in other people and they spend much time volunteering. That is, this group has much ”social capital”. Keywords: civic engagement, civil society, formal volunteering, informal help, social capital.