Cologne International Forum Innovative Tandem Collaboration: 1 January 2025 - 31 December 2025

 Dr. Kasimir Dederichs (Bergisch Gladbach, Deutschland)

Partner at the University of Cologne: Dr. Ansgar Hudde (Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Science)

Active voluntary involvement in civic organizations like sports clubs, cultural associations, and neighborhood groups is a cornerstone of community life. They can boost individuals’ social integration, alleviate loneliness, and foster community cohesion. These social capital benefits are crucial amidst rising levels of loneliness, individualization, and polarization. However, research shows that civic involvement has become more sporadic in recent decades, suggesting a rising volatility of community integration to changes in people’s lives. It is thus important to understand how far individuals stay involved in community affairs when their situation changes.

In the proposed project, we will therefore study civic involvement trajectories around important and possibly disruptive life events including childbirth, partnership changes, widowhood, residential mobility, labor market entry, and retirement. We address the following research question: ‘How does people’s civic involvement change as they undergo major life events?’

Applying a novel methodical approach for the analyses of panel survey data, we will study these trajectories with an unprecedented level of temporal detail. This will allow us to deduce more precise conclusions about individuals’ vulnerability to withdrawal from community life – both in the immediate aftermath of an event as well as in the long run.  The empirical database for our project is the ‘United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study’ (UKHLS), a high-quality and long-running panel survey with more than 772,000 interviews conducted since its onset in 1991. Compared to other panel surveys, it provides great detail about respondents’ involvement including the specific area of involvement and the number of hours spent on volunteering.

The insights derived from the project will hopefully not only inform social scientists but also practitioners in civil society in search of strategies for retaining and recruiting active voluntary members.