Varieties and Changes of Volunteering: Challenges for an International Standard on Voluntary Action

The chapter illustrates the traditional varieties and recent transformations of volunteering in five different cultural areas of the world (Anglo-Saxon, European, Latin American, East Asian, sub-Saharan African) and connects the peculiarities of domestic voluntary action to the different cultural and socioeconomic local patterns. It identifies in the intricate heterogeneity of local manifestations of volunteering one of the problematic challenges for the global research and policy-making agenda on the topic. Problematic aspects and cultural specificities with regard to the core elements of the common definition of volunteering – free will, unpaid, general interest – are put in focus. Opportunities and challenges of the future work with the ILO Manual are assessed.