TY - JOUR
T1 - When to Work for Pay, When Not to
T2 - A Comparative Study of Australian and Danish Volunteer Care Workers
AU - Overgaard, Charlotte
PY - 2016/4/1
Y1 - 2016/4/1
N2 - This paper explores the links between volunteers care workers’ current unpaid work and their own present or former paid work with the objective of analysing the ways welfare states influence volunteer care work. Data were collected between August 2012 and May 2013 through 41 face-to-face interviews with Danish and Australian volunteers working with the frail elderly, very sick and terminally ill. Three related arguments are made. One, paid and unpaid care work are so intertwined that it is not possible to understand volunteers’ unpaid working lives without simultaneously understanding their paid work lives. Two, many volunteer care workers are attracted to care work, not volunteering per se. Three, volunteering must be understood in relation to men’s and women’s ‘access to work’ in the welfare state, access that ultimately depends on the design and developments of these two contrasting welfare states.
AB - This paper explores the links between volunteers care workers’ current unpaid work and their own present or former paid work with the objective of analysing the ways welfare states influence volunteer care work. Data were collected between August 2012 and May 2013 through 41 face-to-face interviews with Danish and Australian volunteers working with the frail elderly, very sick and terminally ill. Three related arguments are made. One, paid and unpaid care work are so intertwined that it is not possible to understand volunteers’ unpaid working lives without simultaneously understanding their paid work lives. Two, many volunteer care workers are attracted to care work, not volunteering per se. Three, volunteering must be understood in relation to men’s and women’s ‘access to work’ in the welfare state, access that ultimately depends on the design and developments of these two contrasting welfare states.
KW - Access to work
KW - Care work
KW - Country comparative research
KW - Gender
KW - Volunteering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84960468143&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11266-015-9620-0
DO - 10.1007/s11266-015-9620-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84960468143
SN - 0957-8765
VL - 27
SP - 810
EP - 830
JO - Voluntas
JF - Voluntas
IS - 2
ER -