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The kinds of activities volunteers can do have changed, from long-term activities to more short-term, episodic volunteering. AAP/Dan Peled

Why don’t more people volunteer? Misconceptions don’t help

Kirsten Holmes, Curtin University; Debbie Haski-Leventhal, Macquarie Graduate School of Management; Leonie Lockstone-Binney, William Angliss Institute; Lucas Meijs, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Melanie Oppenheimer, Flinders University

Volunteers in Australia are essential to the provision of a range of services. Yet Western countries – including Australia – have recently reported a decline in volunteer rates.
There are shortcomings in celebrity led campaigns against “conflict minerals” such as the one in which US actress Robin Wright is involved. Robin Wright's instagram

The problem with Western activists trying to do good in Africa

Ben Radley, Erasmus University Rotterdam

The relationship between advocacy organisations based in Western capitals and their marketed constituency of marginalised and disadvantaged African groups is tenuous. What then, is the goal?
Volunteering is a way to get involved in your community as this man, who has a refugee background, is doing in his work with older vision-impaired people. Volunteering Western Australia (VWA)

Where have all the volunteers gone?

Melanie Oppenheimer, Flinders University; Debbie Haski-Leventhal, Macquarie Graduate School of Management; Kirsten Holmes, Curtin University; Leonie Lockstone-Binney, William Angliss Institute, and Lucas Meijs, Erasmus University Rotterdam

The rate of volunteering among Australians and the hours individuals contribute appear to be falling. So how do people see volunteering and what can be done to restore this vital community activity?
Ben Affleck championed the piece of legislation requiring companies reporting to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose their use of ‘conflict minerals’ originating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reuters/Yuri Gripas

What’s missing from celebrity activism in Africa? The people

Georgia Cole, University of Oxford; Ben Radley, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Jean-Benoit Falisse, University of Oxford

Celebrities help make causes known to larger audiences and can be effective in obtaining pledges from policymakers. Yet their simplified advocacy messages can lead to ineffective or harmful policies.
Originally, to be honourable meant very different things for men and for women. Simon

Honour and violence in Europe, through the ages

Pieter Spierenburg, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Ideas about personal honour are a major key to understanding violence. This is so today, when “honour” is often replaced by terms such as respect - with “dissing” as its opposite. It was even more true…
Is your social capital worth a free lunch? Research shows only certain types of people benefit from networking opportunities. Silverstone

When going Dutch means a free lunch: how Australians could build social capital

Niki Hynes, Curtin University and Vareska Van de Vrande, Erasmus University Rotterdam

We’re often told networking is essential to our careers, but how many people actually use their contacts? Perhaps filling a LinkedIn or Facebook profile is more of a comfort feeling than a useful resource…

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