Regional Civic Engagement and the Expectation of Support from Others

Can a pronounced culture of civic engagement lead to social isolation? I argue that if many members of a society are doing voluntary work, the quality of the social space changes. Thereby, different situations may emerge: 1.) Non-volunteers may experience social exclusion, 2.) Volunteers experience a supportive surrounding and feel rather integrated, and 3.) voluntary work can become an obligation and a matter of prestige. Therefore, high levels of regional voluntarism reduce the subjective expectation of support from others. Additionally, I expected different results in rural and urban regions due to differences in communal life. Using survey data from the German Freiwilligensurvey (National Volunteer Survey; 1999-2014) and multi-level regressions, I examine the link between regional civic engagement and individuals’ expectations of support from people outside the own household. Findings reveal that voluntarism rates on the macro level affect probabilities for expected support for volunteers and non-volunteers differently. Especially in urban regions, and to a lesser extent in rural regions, a pronounced culture of volunteering makes non-volunteers feel socially isolated.