Reintermediating Voluntary Action: The Path-Dependent Pluralization of the Italian Volunteering Field

Abstract

AbstractWhile the international literature has significantly addressed the “new forms of voluntary action,” there has been limited attention paid so far to the reintermediation processes of contemporary volunteering. This paper intends to fill this gap. First, a research approach based on a renewed sociological consideration of volunteering, path dependency and strategic field theory is presented and four ideal–typical traditions of volunteering (active membership, direct, program-based and organize-it-yourselves) are introduced. Then the Italian case is explored. Although the analysis is only exploratory, it enables us to understand the coevolutions of the four traditions and to identify a new restructuration model based on professional agencies coming from the membership tradition. The paper can help future studies to reconsider the magnitude and dynamics of second modernity trends and to tackle continuities and changes in the reintermediation of volunteering in situated and processual terms.