Common Core and Variety of Volunteering. Testing International Standards in Italy

This introductory chapter presents the Volume and the rationale behind it. The core content of the Volume is the presentation of the results of a twofold test – methodological and substantial – of new international standards for the measurement of volunteering in Italy. In methodological terms, we tested their capacity to conciliate a global perspective with the local connotations of volunteering. In substantial terms, we wondered if their application allowed for an advancement of knowledge of contemporary volunteering. We explain that the data and conclusions presented in the Volume have global relevance and will be of interest for scholars, statisticians, third sector practitioners and policy makers. As the Volume contains data standardized to the new statistical definition of volunteering (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division, Satellite Account on Nonprofit and Related Institutions and Volunteer Work. UN, New York, 2018), it focuses on critically assessing the capability of the international standard to capture the common core of volunteering in different cultural settings. The data are elaborated and discussed in a complexity-driven perspective through the lens of Italy, showing how several traits of the different manifestations of contemporary volunteering are connected to territorial, family and individual differences. This carefully documented presentation of the Italian experience of generating and using the statistical data on volunteering provides methodological guidance and substantial benchmark that address scholarship and policy interests.