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Volunteering driven by religious inspiration: Is it really doomed to death?

Religion is widely recognized as the principal driver of volunteering for social solidarity and voluntary associations linked to religious institutions have been an important actor in the social services field in all Europe, regardless of the welfare regime. Now, recent research trends show that religious voluntary associations are under pressure: traditional life-long membership-based participation declines, intermediary corps are losing appeal, religious participation has plummeted. Counter-intuitively, Ksenija Fonović claims that religious volunteering can rely on an important resource to re-invent itself in the future. Starting from the results of her doctoral studies, published in a book (2023), Ksenija will explore the potential for furthering this line of research in comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives and share her experience of international practitioner and PhD candidate at the WWU - University of Münster in Germany.