The social fabric of voluntary and community initiatives: On crafting space for meaningful relationships

The publication The social fabric of voluntary and community initiatives reflects on the role that voluntary and community initiatives can play in pressing societal issues. How do they contribute to such a social fabric? The publication is based on the ethnographic research of the University of Humanistic Studies. The most important insight is that voluntary and community initiatives do not simply strengthen social fabrics but perform the ongoing work of crafting space within these fabrics for something meaningful to emerge. Simply bringing people together does not automatically add value to people’s life. Among the support and activities in for example community centers, attention is needed to foster meaningful relationships.

The publication is a special edition associated with Growing Older Together a development program of NOV (Association of Dutch Volunteer Organizations) in which older people are the resource to improve health and wellbeing.