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An Interdisciplinary Theory of Individual Volunteering and Why So Few Researchers Have Tested It
Philanthropy includes non-coerced (voluntary) giving of time (volunteering) as well as giving money, things, and blood or body organs to help other individuals or charities outside one’s household without (full) remuneration. Philanthropy is a general example of altruistic behavior, often based on a sense of morality, and contributes to human social solidarity. The author has been developing an interdisciplinary, general theory of individual volunteer activity for several decades. An overview of the latest version is presented briefly, with references to fuller versions and also to literature reviews bearing on the value and validity of the theory. Some possible reasons are presented why so few researchers have tested the theory adequately in the past. The two most important reasons seem to be (1) the intrinsically interdisciplinary nature of the variables needed and especially (2) the social structural barriers to interdisciplinary theory posed by the existing social science academic disciplines. ARNOVA (www.arnova.org) can help, as can ISTR (www.istr.org) and ICSERA (www.icsera.org).