VOLUNTEERING INFRASTRUCTURE

Following Max Weber’s two main logics on social activism, which setdistinctions between the purposive/instrumental rationality (logic) and thevalue/belief-oriented rationality (logic), we can identify a reasoning thatled to the creation of volunteering infrastructure both “vertically”, in termsof infrastructure created by the state and “horizontally”, when it comes toinfrastructure created by the volunteering movement. The infrastructurefor volunteering has been constituted on the basis of ideological reasonsand sometimes seeking compliance with other values ​and purposes aimed atachieving a rationalization of the sector.Table 1. Logic Purposive and Value Oriented RationalityThe logic of ideasIdeological logicWith the logic of ideas we refer to ideologies underlying political parties/politicalgroups and therefore to those who govern at any given time an administrationand that have an impact in the infrastructures of volunteering. Theideologies are fundamental to understand the infrastructure of volunteeringin Spain. The territorial organisation of the Spanish State generates differentideas at national, regional, province and municipality levels. This means thatwe have similar ideas (conservative, liberal, socialist) or very diverse onesthat are then mirrored into measures and services equally similar or differentdepending on the territory.Normative logicBy normative logic we mean the set of rules and laws (in any form: Law,Decree, Order, Statute of Autonomy, etc.) that have been used by governmentsto regulate volunteering or the regulations that the organisationsthemselves have made.Organisational and Executive LogicHere we refer to agencies that manage volunteering policies that differentadministrations put forward. Such bodies can be only administrative or alsomixed, that meaning that there is participation of the voluntary movement.Control LogicBy control logic we mean all the instruments that governments have createdto control the organised voluntary movement. These control systems havean accreditor or enabler character since they are used to legalise and by thatempower an organisation or to accredit them in order to finance them.Economic LogicWe understand that economic logic is what allows volunteering organisationsto create different sets of funding.Informational LogicThe means by which the national and regional governments advertise volunteering.Media, publications, events etc.378 Volunteering infrastructure in Europe 27 Spain