Generosity as Volunteering, Giving and Solidarity in Mexico, a National Longitudinal Study. Contributions to Civil Society.

• In Event: Measuring Volunteer contributions

Abstract

Ranging from the study of spontaneous voluntary action to formal volunteering campaigns, research on volunteering and solidarity in Mexico has come a long way. The first systematic efforts to study its dimensions and dynamics date back to the past decade (cf. Butcher, 2000; Becerra & Berlanga, 2003; Serna, 2005; Layton, 2006). Today we know significantly more about its dimensions (Butcher, 2017), economic value (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, INERGI, 2016), specific aspects of its psychology such as the meaning volunteers attribute to their service (Ballesteros & Heredia, 2014) and several other aspects of interest concerning this phenomenon.

In order to understand the contribution of volunteering in Mexico , in 2021we have implemented a new edition of the Encuesta Nacional de Solidaridad y Acción Voluntaria (National Survey on Solidarity and Volunteer Action, ENSAV). This addition now covers almost 20 years of surveys on this subject, where the ENSAV- originally created in 2005 – ( Butcher , 2010) was followed by three others in 2012, 2016 and its newest edition in 2021, becoming a series and the basis of a longitudinal comparative study. In this paper we offer a discussion of the prompting strategy we employed to approach the construct of volunteering within the Mexican population, to provide the latest and most specialized findings on the main dimensions of volunteering in Mexico. We offer a descriptive exploration of the most relevant findings of the ENSAV across time and we provide a descriptive analysis of the main findings of the survey in three areas: demographic variations, donations, volunteer activity and time related parameters.

Methodologically the ENSAV collected data using a national household survey obtaining 1,600 responses for 160 previously selected initial points with 10 questionnaires applied at each point. The resulting random sample was produced five independent regional samples of 320 cases each selected for the five proposed regions: North, West, Center, South and the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA).

The paper also discusses some of the limitations and challenges of international measurements and comparisons of volunteering since how to best measure volunteering is a controversial issue. The first international efforts to gage and compare the dimension of the voluntary sector (Salamon et al., 1999) where prominently researchers from the Global North analyzing the Global South from a self-centric perspective ( Butcher, J. & Einolf, C., 2017 ) thus creating inequalities for research of the southern region. (Perold, Butcher, Mati, & Millora, 2023). For this purpose, we analyzed the case of an international comparison of the volunteering rates of nearly 140 countries. We then compared these findings to our own assessing differences between nations and also pinpointing the importance of community particularities, traditions, culture and or/history, in respect to the meaning of volunteering. We conclude by looking at the particular example of endogenous and exogenous measurements of volunteering in Mexico since it is now time to consolidate our knowledge tracing developments through time well as portray the contributions of the information on volunteering, participation and giving to Mexican Civil Society.

References

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Author

• Jacqueline Butcher, CIESC/Tecnologico de Monterrey