The geography of civic participation in northern Adelaide

Abstract

This paper examines the geography of civic voluntary participation in northern Adelaide, South Australia. Voluntary participation refers to the spectrum of activities encompassing formal volunteering with an organisation, participation in clubs and societies and informal neighbourhood activities. We review the literature on the geography of voluntary participation and address data from the 2005 Northern Adelaide Social Inclusion Survey of two thousand respondents conducted by the SA Department of Health. Our study examines how variables such as age, gender, socio-economic status and location relate to the forms of voluntary participation evident at the local area level. We examine differences in the way respondents participate in voluntary and civic activities according to where they live and by demographic variables and offer an explanatory framework for understanding the geography of voluntary participation.