Itay Greenspan

Immigrant Volunteering A Stepping Stone to Integration

This article investigates volunteering by immigrants. It examines if and how volunteering experiences can attenuate the effects of relocation for immigrants as they seek to regain social and human capital lost in the migration process. Based on analysis of 754 surveys, 33 focus groups, and 34 in-depth interviews, the authors explore the volunteering experiences of immigrants in ethnic congregations in four Canadian cities. Using a grounded theory approach, they propose a conceptual framework that delineates factors at the individual and organizational levels. Although individual-level factors are useful determinants of volunteer participation, for immigrants organizational factors are also an important part of the picture. These factors influence immigrants’ volunteer participation rates and the intensity of their participation. The benefits of volunteering include the enhancement of social and human capital, which provides a stepping stone for the integration of immigrants into the host society.

High (on) Technology: Producing Tourist Identities through Technologized Adventure

This study explores how adventure mountain tourists and their local hosts relate to, benefit from, and are influenced by, technology. It examines the impact of technology on the everyday lives of climbers, hikers, and service providers, and considers the capacities of technology to facilitate social behavior, interactions, and relationships. A narrative analysis of a Web log (blog) of an expedition to Mount Everest provides an understanding of the roles of technology in the construction of adventure mountaineer identities. The study positions mountaineering as a consumption experience used by participants to create and manifest social identities. As such, it integrates and extends theory from consumer culture and tourism, in order to trace the impact of technology on tourist identities, social outcomes, and social behavior. The study reveals the system-wide technologized lens through which Western tourists view the world and the ways in which technology simultaneously facilitates and inhibits identity construction. It points to the heterogeneous and paradoxical influences of technology: whereas technology breeds new tourist identities (hikers, climbers, and mountaineers), it simultaneously strengthens pre-existing identities (Westerners, professionals). The analysis also demonstrates how technology supports the enactment of multiple identities wherein actors function in multiple roles and contexts. Implications regarding the interconnectedness among tourists and hosts as technology users are highlighted.

Volunteering and Civic Participation among Immigrant Members of Ethnic Congregations: Complementary NOT Competitive

This article explores the relationship between voluntary activity of first-generation immigrants who attend ethnic congregations and their civic participation outside their congregations. We distinguish between attendance and volunteering within the congregation and examine whether and how these concepts relate to civic participation in the wider community. To address this question, survey data from 495 first-generation immigrants who attended 23 ethnic congregations in the United States were analysed using a composite variable of civic participation. Our analysis suggests that volunteering within the congregation is significantly related to civic participation, while attendance is not. We discuss the implications of volunteering as a factor in facilitating civic participation, and hence integration, among first-generation immigrant members of ethnic congregations.

How Can Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital Benefit the Understanding of Advocacy NGOs? Theoretical Framework and Empirical Illustration

This article offers a Bourdieu-inspired organizational analysis of advocacy nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Pierre Bourdieu’s writings provide valuable propositions for understanding nonprofit advocacy resources that go beyond commonly analyzed economic, human, or social resources. The article describes the relational, accumulative, and transferable nature of Bourdieu’s forms of capital, and connects them to advocacy NGOs. By examining the forms of capital at the disposal of advocacy NGOs involved in the conflict between the State of Israel and the Negev Bedouin, the article empirically illustrates the applicability of Bourdieu’s ideas for the analysis of advocacy resources. The questions addressed are “How are NGOs using the various forms of capital to influence public perceptions and access decision-making forums?” and “What are the implications for nonprofit advocacy research?” Bourdieu’s theory could help nonprofit scholars better understand the prospect and limits of nonprofit advocacy within policy fields.

Environmental Philanthropy: Is It Similar to Other Types of Environmental Behavior?

The authors analyze environmental philanthropy as a form of environmental behavior that has received scant attention in the literature. Environmental philanthropy refers to the giving of time and money in support of environmental issues through environmental nongovernmental organizations. The authors examine the way values, knowledge, political orientation, and a variety of sociodemographic variables are associated with environmental philanthropy and compare it with several other forms of environmental behaviors. Results from analysis of a sample of 1,565 American students indicate that environmental philanthropy is not shaped by the typical set of variables influencing environmental behavior that are reported in the literature. They conclude that the personal traits that shape environmental philanthropy should be theorized differently than other environmental behaviors.

Factors predicting proclivity and intensity to volunteer for the environment in the US and South Korea

This research compares environmental volunteering among students in South Korea and the US (n = 3612). Given differing environmental histories of these countries, we explore whether and to what extent volunteer proclivity and intensity varies, and potential factors that explain existing variation. Findings suggest that American students are more likely to volunteer for, and devote time to, environmental causes, while South Korean students differ on socio-economic correlates of such behaviour. In a global society, understanding determinants of environmental volunteer participation is critical to the management of environmental NGOs that are involved in broad-based and participatory planning, educating stakeholders and legitimising environmental advocacy.

From discovery to recovery and beyond: The role of voluntary health sector organizations in the lives of women with breast cancer

Purpose – The goal of this chapter is to understand the role of nonprofit voluntary health organizations (VHOs) in the lives of Canadian women coping with breast cancer. Methodology – Through qualitative interviews with breast cancer survivors and records of VHOs active in this field, we assess the level and nature of their interactions and impact on womens quality of life. Findings – Our findings suggest that at the micro-level, VHOs are venues for women to receive auxiliary services such as information, counseling, and support that complement the mainstream health care provision. While VHO services empower women as health care consumers, we show that they also serve as venues for women to reciprocate by volunteering. This process of reciprocity helps women cope with their own healing and allows them to be not only consumers but also producers of health services. Research limitations – The non-random nature and the small sample size make our findings not easily generalizable to the larger population of breast cancer survivors; rather they are indicative of the experiences of Canadian women in one large urban metropolitan area. Value of the chapter – We demonstrate the role of VHOs as venues of health consumerism as well as places for consumers to become involved in the production of services by volunteering.

The Relationship between Value Types and Environmental Behaviour in Four Countries: Universalism, Benevolence, Conformity and Biospheric Values Revisited

Using the social-psychological literature on the antecedents of environmental behaviour and comparative data from Germany, India, Israel and South Korea, we test four value types that correspond with environmental behaviour. Our cross-national context represents varying social, economic, cultural and environmental configurations, giving credence to the effects of values. The authors collected survey data among students on a variety of environmental behaviours and on questions that comprise Schwartzs value scale. The results show similarities between the countries in the effect of biospheric values and differences in the effects of the other values tested. We also find that biospheric value is the most important value type for explaining environmental behaviour, and that biospheric values, universalism and benevolence - three key values that we analyse - have different effects on environmental behaviour, and therefore should be treated separately rather than in a unified self-transcendence value orientation. We finally demonstrate the importance of conformity in the analysis of environmental behaviour. Our conclusions point to the importance of further exploring the mechanism that links values and environmental behaviour while contextualising it in different national and cultural settings.

Israel's environmental movement: strategic challenges

We report results of a recent national survey of the Israeli environmental movement, assessing its activities, strategies, and financial viability. Since the early 1990s, the movement has undergone significant expansion, with numerous new organisations at both local and national levels. The movement is undergoing notable operational and ideological changes, and exhibiting tremendous capacity, cooperation, and increased sophistication. Yet, environmental NGOs still lack professional capabilities in key areas, greater inclusiveness of minority populations, and financial stability with sufficient funding from a diversity of Israeli donors. Key issues involving sustainability, such as consumption and overpopulation, still remain outside its agenda.

MIND THE GAP: EXPECTATIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF CLIENTS UTILIZING JOB-TRAINING SERVICES IN A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

This paper offers an underexplored perspective of social impact assessment by integrating clients evaluation of the impact of job-training and skills-building programs. Drawing on the literature of met expectations, we investigate the personal and social impact, beyond job placement, of job-training and skills-building programs provided by a Canadian social enterprise from the perspective of the clients. Utilizing data from a pre-test/post-test quasi-experiment, we assess the differences, between program participants as compared to a control group of nonparticipants, on several measures. Findings illuminate the gap between expectations and actual experiences, and point to the importance of integrating the clients perspective. Such measures enable leaders of social enterprises to account for the often neglected intangibles of their social missions.