Lærke Høgenhaven forsvarer sin Ph.d.-afhandling på Sociologisk Institut

Kandidat

Lærke Høgenhaven, Sociologisk Institut, Københavns Universitet

Titel

The Dual Structure of Volunteering during Crises

- Crisis and Ordinary Volunteering during COVID-19

Bedømmelseskomité

• Associate Professor Carsten Strøby Jensen (Chair), Københavns Universitet
• Professor Swen Hutter, Freie Universität Berlin
• Associate Professor Sanne Lund Clement, Aalborg Universitet
• Vejleder: Associate Professor Jonas Toubøl, Københavns Universitet

Tid og Sted

Fredag d. 21. marts 2025, kl. 13:00 

Bygning 35, lokale 35-3-12

Københavns Universitet, Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet, Gammeltoftsgade 15, 1355 København K.

Efter forsvaret er Sociologisk Institut vært ved en reception i bygning 16, 1. sal, lokale 16.1.62 fra kl. cirka 15:00.

Info plakat: Dual Structure of Volunteering during Crises

Engelsk resume (kort):

This dissertation investigates volunteering during crises, proposing a shift from a dominant distinction between formal and informal volunteering to a framework based on the activities and aims of volunteer efforts. It argues that volunteering during crises exhibits a dual structure, where crisis volunteering mobilizes in response to new tasks placed within civil society relating to the crisis, while ordinary volunteering, tackling tasks unrelated to the crisis, experiences a temporary decline.

Using the Danish case of COVID-19 as a case study, the dissertation answers the following question:

To what extent did volunteering during the pandemic exhibit a dual structure regarding the distinction between crisis and ordinary volunteering?

Drawing on representative Danish cross-sectional and panel survey data, the findings reveal that volunteering during the pandemic did reflect a dual structure, as crisis and ordinary volunteering developed differently over the course of the pandemic.

This dissertation contributes to the empirical and conceptual understanding of volunteering during crises by emphasizing the activities carried out by volunteers rather than the organizational settings in which they occur. This approach challenges the dominant formal-informal framework, which has struggled to account for the distinctiveness of crisis volunteering as well as informal volunteering, and offers an alternative focused on voluntary activities and their contexts. Additionally, the dissertation provides valuable insights into recipients of volunteer help, illustrating how volunteering can play a role in redistributing resources, which is a relevant issue both within and beyond crises.

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