Volunteer Work and Its Interrelationship with the Labor Market

By applying global standards presented in the ILO Manual to the Italian Aspects of Daily Life (ADL) Survey, the authors analyze volunteer work through the categories of traditional paid work in order to grasp similarities, innovative content, competences, and individual values. The empirical work analyzes the various volunteer occupations by means of the paid work global statistical classification system (ISCO), a major innovation proposed by the ILO Manual, which describes volunteer work activities and the socio-structural characteristics of volunteers by groups of occupations. This chapter further develops new insights into the impact of volunteering on the development of human capital by analyzing the competences and the values incorporated in the ten most common volunteer occupations. Thus, this chapter lays the groundwork for a new methodological approach to studying and legitimizing volunteering as a category of work.