Social Economy in Post-communist Romania: What Kind of Volunteering for What Type of NGOs?

Abstract:

This article analyses the social economy from the perspective of NGOs and voluntary work. The research was conducted on four different territorial levels in the Western Region of Romania and employed both quantitative (questionnaires administered to the general population and within NGOs, bivariate analyses) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews within NGOs) methods of analysis.

This method of working has allowed a picture of NGOs and volunteering to be formed that is correlated with territorial realities in the western part of Romania. It has thus been possible to see what underlies the coming into existence of NGOs, their economic scale, and what areas they succeed in addressing. Secondly, a description is provided of the typical Western Region volunteer, focusing mainly on social and motivational aspects.