Civil society is facing many challenges in modern society and there is a lot of debate about where it is heading - is volunteer work declining or just taking a new form Whichever hypothesis will prove correct in the future, organizations that are dependent on Volunteers will need to adapt to the new circumstances. This study aims to examine what forces drive voluntary work at Rädda Barnen (Save the Children Sweden) and Hungerprojektet (The Hunger Project Sweden). Through interviews with employees and Volunteers at the two organizations, this study finds that Volunteers at Rädda Barnen are primarily driven by values and understanding, and that the Volunteers at Hungerprojektet are primarily driven by career and to some extent by values, enhancement and social factors. Understanding these driving forces allow the organizations to adapt to the new circumstances by matching the Volunteers interests with the organizations' needs..

This Master´s thesis aims to aquire knowledge about Volunteers attitude toward work. It emphasis is on the differences between Volunteers and non Volunteers. There are four research questions used in order to fulfill the aim in a scientific manner. The essay aims to get in depth knowledge regarding whether or not the respondents feel that they have gained advantages in work life due to the fact that they are involved in volunteer work. One of the pivotal questions is if there is a possibility to see a pattern that binds together the reasons for volunteer work and the attitude toward work.

This Master´s thesis aims to aquire knowledge about Volunteers attitude toward work. It emphasis is on the differences between Volunteers and non Volunteers. There are four research questions used in order to fulfill the aim in a scientific manner. The essay aims to get in depth knowledge regarding whether or not the respondents feel that they have gained advantages in work life due to the fact that they are involved in volunteer work. One of the pivotal questions is if there is a possibility to see a pattern that binds together the reasons for volunteer work and the attitude toward work.

The aim of this study was through theories of emotional labor; understand how staff and Volunteers within women?s shelter handled their emotions in the encounters with battered women. To examine this we used a qualitative method and interviewed four staff members and three Volunteers spread across four different women?s shelters. The data collected was analyzed using Hochschilds? theory of emotional labor.

Every year big events takes place in different cities, one of the largest half marathons in the world is located in Gothenburg and is called GöteborgsVarvet. These kind of events rely on Volunteers to even be able to manage the pressure from the arrangement. The purpose of the study was to investigate the motivation factors among Volunteers? at GöteborgsVarvet 2012. This study is a part of a bigger project called EVINN that is an EU-financial researchproject which aims to develop arrangements.

Background: Today, the tourism sector is one of the economically fastest growing sectors in the world. Volunteer travel is a type of service that is gaining in popularity and a number of tour operators organize these trips. Few aid agencies engaged in volunteer activities and therefore the interest in volunteer travel is caught by tour operators. These tourists travel in small groups and interact with locals. Today fifty million children in Africa are orphaned and Africans struggling with the care of these children by founding orphanages.Research questions:What does Volunteers contribute with during their stay at orpahanges?What view does Volunteers and orphanages have on volunteer tourism?Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the positive and the negative effects that volunteer tourism contributes to orphanages.Method: The study is based on a qualitative approach with semi-and unstructured interviews, observations, and email interviews.

This thesis explores strategic communication management within the non-profit sector. Communication models need to be adapted to the specific sector as different sectors require different approaches of strategic communication management. In the spring of 2013, the non-profit organization Save the Children Sweden initiated a communication model based on volunteer communicators. The following study explores how non-profit organizations can manage communications with a focus on Volunteers as a communication resource. The applied research questions concern how Volunteers may be integrated into communication activities, the opportunities and challenges connected to involving volunteer communicators and how this may affect the role of the organization's employed communicators.

The purpose of this study is to use a qualitative approach to highlight the western involvement in Thai orphanages and, on basis of Western moral development workers and Volunteers, enlighten how Western colonial heritage can be recreated in the humanitarian economic aid.The study is based on the recent tsunami disaster in 2004 which led to a huge voluntary effort by Western Volunteers and organizations who wanted to rebuild the country. Now, seven years after the disaster, the country has recovered well and thanks to a strong turism, and industrial growth, the country has now reached the position of a middle income country with regional power.The study presents a selection of previous ressearch in the area from different critical perspectives. It is a field study based on qualitative interviews with six informants that highlights the individual engagment in humanitarian assistance. Theories based on Post-colonialism and globalization have been used in order to analyze and reach the result of this study..

This paper examines how the ideal of manhood is portrayed and constructed and how the participation of Swedish soldier Volunteers are motivated and legitimatized. The purpose of this examination is to gain understanding and knowledge about the Swedish soldiers in the Swedish brigade, how they legitimatize and motivate their participation and how the ideal of manhood is portrayed and constructed. The study is based on material from the war archive in Stockholm. The empirical material is composed by letters and propaganda material. In the analysis of the empirical study, there have been two theories used which are Eric Hobsbawms historical method and theory about invented traditions and Peter Aronssons historical method and theory about ?historiebruk? and legitimacy.

This study is based on the notion that the most widely cited and used instrument for assessing volunteer motivations, the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI), might not be sufficient in its aspiration to aid, streamline and benefit the recruitment and retention process within volunteer organizations. Understanding Volunteers? motivation is a crucial component in the process of securing future volunteer engagement in a world where their efforts are desperately needed.This study aims to explain motives and motivation behind volunteer efforts in extreme situations as well as to examine the dependability of the theoretical framework in relation to the forthcoming result, based on the following research questions:What motivated Swedish medical personnel to volunteer during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa?How could the motives and motivation of Swedish medical personnel be categorized in accordance with the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI)?Is the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI) a sufficient tool for analyzing the motives and motivation of Swedish medical personnel in the given case?The presented research questions will be answer through a qualitative theory-consuming study, based mainly on interviews. The interviews are, however, complimented by various written sources in the field of research.The result and subsequent analysis confirms the authors? notion on the VFI and highlights certain deficits in the tool?s execution and its succeeding result.

What impact has volunteering on the individual and their career development? For the young man about to enter the world of work, for the non-profit organization that needs to recruit new Volunteers or employers who are facing hiring new staff. This study may provide a new approach in their search for work, Volunteers or employees. The purpose of this study is to highlight the experiences of volunteering for individuals' personal learning and development, and the importance of volunteering for their career development. The study has a qualitative approach.

The purpose of this thesis was to describe the economic situation for popular culture venues. During the study, four different ways of financing were encountered. These are sponsorship, Volunteers, government funding and ticket sales. A case study, based on interviews, were conducted on Pinkerton, a non-profit organisation. The result showed that Pinkerton needs a solid subsidy from government funding.

The Swedish legislation (Socialtjänstlagen, SoL 5 kap 1§ 6 st.) state that the social welfare committee is particularly responsible for those children whom are in need of support and help after an adoption or custody matter has been decided. "Adoption - but at what price?" SOU 2003:49 is a state report with the purpose to investigate different aspects around international adoptions, which brings up and discusses what supports there is for adoptive families in Sweden. With this background and a special attention towards adoptive children's health conditions when arriving to their new country we decided to study the subject adoption. By interviewing different professionals and Volunteers that work with adoptive families in Sweden the aim with this study was to acknowledge how they look upon the support the Swedish community offers for adoptive parents and also how they consider the knowledge about adoption among those who in their line of work can meet adoptive children is.

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore which inner conceptions about the abused older women the professional social workers had and how they experienced the enconter of an abused old woman in an intimate partner relation. The theoretical background is social construction by Berger and Luckmann. This theory was uset to analyze the transcribed interviews. This study is based on nine interviews with five professionals in social services, three Volunteers from the voluntary sector and one social worker who worked in a community based support group for abused older women. The result of this study shows that older women were often abused, by a relative they were dependent on, in their home.

The focus of this study is to dig deeper into what motivates volunteer travelers. The commercial side of volunteer travelling has increased in the past years, and young Swedes pay large amounts of money to travel to other countries and work as Volunteers. The purpose of this study is to get a glimpse into what motivates these young people, and how this correlates to the rapid increase of commercial travelling bureaus that focus on volunteer travelling. Five people under the age of 30, who had been volunteering through a commercial travelling agency, where interviewed for this study. The results show that the main motivation for paying to go work abroad is actually the experience, meeting new people and seeing new things.