On both sides of the Mediterranean, the first substantial attempts at distinguishing Salafis from Wahhabis took place in the aftermath of the First World War. Examining why this process occurred and how it unfolded provides valuable historical insights, especially into the initial conceptualisations of Salafism. In post-war Europe, the newly invented notion of a so-called Salafi movement emerged for intellectual and political reasons as a foil to the Wahhabi movement—of which it was supposed to represent the good twin. In Arab societies, it was the popularisation and conceptual expansion of the word ‘Salafi’ that eventually caused some Muslims to distinguish it from ‘Wahhabi’ in the late 1920s and allowed others to use ‘Salafi’ as a synonym for ‘Wahhabi’. In each of these cases, the criteria that past intellectuals employed to demarcate the two categories (or not) help us to infer how they understood Salafism and why they outlined its history or its genealogy in the way that they did.

This article is intended as the leading article in a special issue devoted to the achievements, limitations, opportunities and risks entailed in the research and practice of contemporary philanthropy. The article first characterizes philanthropy as a highly diverse and dynamic set of social practices that has only recently been subject to the systematic scrutiny of an emerging field of research, parallel to its rapid transformation and increased societal visibility. The main debates that emerged during the last two decades while researching the complexities of contemporary philanthropy are contextualized from the perspective of multiple disciplines; and the main foci for contentious conceptualizations and societal expectations explored. In this context, contributions of the special issues are summarized. Further avenues for pushing the boundaries of philanthropy research in ways inclusive of the dynamism, diversity, multi-disciplinarity and controversy that characterize the field, while at the same time providing meaningful answers to societal concerns about the potential and shortcomings of new philanthropic practices, are drawn.

Why do certain morphemes spread their tones, while other morphemes do not? We address this fundamental question in Kalabari (Kalaḅarị-Ịjọ), where certain clitics trigger a process of ‘low tone spread’ targeting following high tones (e.g. à ‘I’ in /à páḅụrụ tẹ↓ẹ/ → [à pàḅụrụ tẹ↓ẹ] ‘I have stammered’). We provide a comprehensive description of this process, establishing that its only triggers are a small class of prosodically-deficient pronominal clitics, all of which are low-toned, monosyllabic, and onsetless. We claim that these properties together prevent it from being parsed as a separate phonological word, and instead, the low tone of these clitics must tonally incorporate into a neighboring prosodic domain. We argue that the domain for low tone spread is the phonological phrase and show independent evidence for this exact constituent from grammatical tone. Finally, low tone spread is unbounded and targets a contiguous string of high tones within the relevant domain. We attribute its unboundedness to a consequence of tonal incorporation: this creates new LHH sequences which are independently marked in the language and consequently repaired by low tone spread. In total, our study demonstrates that tone spreading can profitably be decomposed into several sub-operations triggered by multiple interacting factors (here, word-minimality, prosodic constituency, and *LHH tonotactics).

Dutch citizens on welfare have to volunteer at Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in return for their benefits. Through applying the ‘worlds of justification’ of Boltanski and Thévenot, this article aims to provide a better theoretical and empirical understanding of social justice of policies that obligate welfare clients to participate in CSOs. The analysis of 51 in-depth interviews with Dutch welfare recipients shows that respondents perceive these policies partly but not unilaterally as unfair. If respondents perceive welfare as ‘free money’ and if they are convinced that civic behavior demands interventions against free riding on welfare resources, ‘mandatory volunteering’ is considered as fair. Our main contribution is to the theoretical debate on recognition and redistribution by showing empirically how ‘othering’ plays an important role in determining when mandatory volunteering becomes a matter of redistribution or recognition.

Engagement of vulnerable groups in co-creation has attracted growing scholarly and policy interest. Most research, however, focuses on the public sector, and less is known about the factors that support co-creation with these groups in the third sector. This study explores the role of non-profit leadership in engaging refugees in co-creation through volunteering. It draws on evidence from Veiviser—an NGO-initiated project in Bergen (Norway)—where refugees co-create their integration services by volunteering alongside established immigrants and Norwegian-born volunteers. The findings suggest that engaging vulnerable groups in co-creation in the third sector may be easier because of its voluntary nature and the gatekeeping role of non-profit leaders in a selection process that favors people who are more motivated to participate and capable of doing so. The findings also reveal that creating an environment conducive to participation is critical, requiring leadership commitment to building trust, creating a safe space for participation, fostering equality, and empowering refugee participation. Several leadership tactics for achieving these goals are identified, and implications for practice and theory are discussed.

This paper explores the relationship between neighbourhood level density of civil society organisations (CSOs), diversity, and deprivation. We compare the UK and Sweden, two countries with different civil society traditions and welfare state regimes. We use data on formal civil society organisations to examine whether diverse neighbourhoods have lower levels of civil society infrastructure. In the UK, contrary to what could be expected from Putnam's assertion that diversity has a negative effect on trust, thus limiting civil society activities at the neighbourhood level, we observe a positive relationship between the density of CSOs and diversity. In Sweden, we find different patterns. First, we observe a negative correlation between CSO density and diversity. Second, we find lower density of formal CSOs in areas with high diversity and high economic disadvantage and higher density in areas characterised by low diversity and high disadvantage.

This paper seeks to reconstruct the specific experiences that strengthen or erode the commitment of volunteers in the welfare sector. The empirical basis is narrative interviews with volunteers who have withdrawn from their role at a welfare organisation in Germany. The findings show tensions: on the one hand, experiences of successful relationships with clients and fellow volunteers strengthen volunteers’ commitment. On the other hand, volunteers observe practices and approaches that run counter to their values. This tension between engaging and disengaging experiences arises from the welfare sector itself, for while care can enable close interpersonal experiences, it is also shaped by economisation. Overall, our study shows that the motivations underlying volunteers’ long-term commitment can be both strengthened and undermined by actual volunteering experiences. In the light of our findings, we present heuristics for understanding volunteering processes that focus on field-specific experiences and tensions.

Transparency means being honest and open about one’s practices. Transparency is considered a gold standard in the nonprofit sector and associated with a range of positive outcomes. We propose that transparency should also become a guiding principle and documented practice for nonprofit scholars. In this article, we articulate the context for discussing transparency in social science research and the potential risks of not being transparent. Acknowledging the epistemic and methodological diversity of our field—and therefore, the need for flexibility in how transparency will be practiced by different scholars—we encourage nonprofit researchers to consider how they can enhance their research transparency. To this end, we outline the benefits of transparency and offer concrete suggestions for different ways to demonstrate transparency in nonprofit research.

This paper presents a typology of occupation-related volunteering where an individual’s occupational competencies and resources underpin their volunteering. Their occupation is the key to employability’s occupational competencies and resources intersecting volunteerability’s availability, willingness, and ability to volunteer (see Meijs et al. in Voluntary Action 8:36–54, 2006). It theorizes the intersection as occupation-related volunteering (Biermann et al. in SAGE Open, 14:1–24, 2024). The typology’s two dimensions capture employment and volunteering practices across all work-life stages and create five explanatory types of occupation-related volunteering: self-facilitated Occupational Volunteering and Occupational Development Volunteering and the employer-facilitated Occupational Bestowing, Senpage Service, and Occupational HR Development. The conceptualization captures employability intersecting volunteerability due to the underlying, often prerequisite, occupation and caters to cultural and organizational diversity in praxis and theory. It synthesizes and reorganizes cross-disciplinary knowledge, creating concepts and language to encourage a volunteering-specific research approach. The typology and the research lenses of “becoming, doing, and relating” to one’s occupation (Anteby et al. in Academy of Management Annals 10:183–244, 2016) combine to prompt empirical volunteering research with suggested questions about the praxis, practices, and practitioners of occupation-related volunteering.

Social enterprises have gained wide recognition as a tool for solving social and environmental problems. They generate new opportunities in the social sphere, while being active in the commercial field. They are hybrid organizations that face many challenges when pursuing frequently conflicting goals. Social enterprises are therefore an expression of the possibility of different institutional logics coexisting as part of the same organization. Social enterprises running a commercial activity and using business-like practices legitimize the market logic, while the social goal of their operation is consistent with the logic of social welfare. Although there an intense discussion takes place in the literature on institutional logics that may affect nonprofits’ activity as hybrid organizations, so far the topic has been empirically verified only to a limited extent. The aim of this article is to examine the successful coexistence of the market logic and the social-welfare logic in NGOs acting as social enterprises. On the basis of a representative national survey of 3800 NGOs, including 412 carrying out market sales and thereby referred to as social enterprises, a one-factor analysis of variance was carried out. The obtained findings of the study indicate that social enterprises acting as non-governmental organizations successfully combine the market and the social-welfare logics.

How the price of giving affects charitable donations has been subject to extensive scrutiny in the literature, but the empirical evidence so far has been inconsistent. We conduct a meta-analysis to synthesize the empirical findings on the price-donation relationship, estimate a generalized effect and explore underlying moderators. After combining 386 effect sizes from 52 existing studies, we find that the price of giving generally has a significant, negative association with the level of charitable donations. Further meta-regression analysis suggests that this price effect on charitable donations is moderated by donor type and data year. Overall, donors are sensitive to the price of giving, and the price effect varies under certain circumstances.

Many subjects within the arts, humanities and social sciences are judged harshly by some within society, particularly those who believe that they lack the heft and intrinsic usefulness of the hard sciences. Rishi Sunak, the former British Prime Minister, implied the primacy of maths within the subject hierarchy when he argued it should be privileged amongst subjects by being taught to all students in the UK in some format until they were 18. He also implied within this that some students were taking other subjects rather than maths and that this was detrimental to British business, although it was not stated so overtly (Sunak, 17th April 2023, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-outlines-his-vision-for-maths-to-18). The necessity of social sciences, particularly Political Science within the UK context will be discussed in this paper. Political Science as a subject area has always been viewed with some suspicion by those who fear the education of individuals on the mechanisms of power within a nation and those who confuse education with indoctrination. This fear has, yet again, become a prevailing concern in many countries and this paper will explore that concern. It will conclude that the social sciences and humanities perform a vital role within society and academia and the elevation or denigration of subjects focusing on contentious issues should not be tolerated when driven by political expediency or the desire of some to close down debate.

One essential role of nonprofits (NPOs) is to provide opportunities for people to participate in movements and resolve collective issues. This study investigates how NPO participation affects participation in political activities in Asian countries. Specifically, we ask how nonprofit engagement fosters active political activities in Asia. Using the Asian Barometer Survey, which provides information on NPO participation, political contact, and political participation activities, this study empirically examines the correlation between nonprofit participation and political participation in Asia. Our findings confirmed a positive relationship between nonprofit participation and political participation in Asia when controlling individual characteristics, location, and time fixed effects. Furthermore, our analyses further verify moderating effects of political regimes on this relationship, especially for the authoritarian and hybrid regimes. Our findings suggest that regulations, policies, and self-governance should be designed to cultivate a healthy NPO sector in terms of growth, diversity, and accessibility to citizens.

Contemporary ageing policy often constructs demographic change as a challenge requiring urgent intervention. While ageing is not seen as a problem per se, in policy debate it is often presented as a crisis. Consequently, countries and institutions have sought to identify solutions to the represented problem. A common policy response in Western nations has been to focus on individual activity as a solution. The implications of such developments are, however, seldom explicitly discussed. This article focuses on Finland, a country often positioned as a Nordic welfare state. Using the post-structuralist approach ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be’ (WPR), it examines problems of and solutions to changing demographics represented in Finnish policy, highlighting the implications for older adults and their care. From an analysis of 42 governmental policy and related documents (2002-2024), 11 documents (2008-2024) were selected for detailed examination concerning the health and social care of older adults. The analysis shows that the predominant responsibility for care of older adults is laid on older adults themselves, their family members and peers, while the responsibility of the state is largely silenced. The article highlights the wider analytical, policy and practice implications of neo-liberal ageing policy and discusses how older adults are governed through policy in the midst of the absent interaction between policy, conceptual debates and everyday life material realities through a three-level conceptual model. This absence is not merely a gap but a mode of governance that reflects broader neo-liberal shifts in welfare policy.

While populism has been subject to growing scholarly interest, its relationship to feminist politics has remained conspicuously understudied. This article investigates this relationship by analysing two cases of European populism: left populism in Spain (Podemos), and right populism in Finland (the Finns Party). The questions asked, and the challenges posed to feminist politics from populist political forces are intriguing: How is feminist politics articulated in both left and right populism? What differences can be discerned between left and right populism for feminist politics? To explore this, the article analyses three core dimensions: (1) political representation: descriptive representation (numbers of women, men and minority positions) and substantive representation (policy content in relation to gender equality); (2) populist parties’ formal and informal gender institutions such as internal quotas, gender equality plans and institutional culture; and (3) dedicated spaces for feminist politics such as women's sections or feminist groups. It is argued that political ideology matters for feminist politics, and while left parties are more responsive to feminist concerns and populism poses specific problems for feminist politics, it is the gendered culture of political parties that ensures both left and right parties are problematic for feminist politics.

Care-giving comprises everyday tasks that revolve around the home, yet few studies have examined care-giving as practices that shape home as a place of care in Singapore. This article focuses on the choreographed routines that arrange people, activities and things at home for care-giving of older persons with various needs, examining the effects of these socio-material arrangements on the home as a place of belonging, intimacy, safety and control. Building on literature on care assemblages and sociology of home, it examines five case studies that showcase how care-givers appropriated, adapted and improvised in situations of uncertainty, conflict and competing demands while providing care for their ageing loved ones. It highlights different practices and configurations of people and things as well as varying experiences and intensities of care-giving, through three themes: the interplay of physical, social and emotional proximities; socio-economic leverage and inequalities that enable or constrain care-giving; and distributed agencies across spaces. Care assemblages are characterized by tensions, yet held together by ideals and idealization of home, rooted in everyday realities and shaped by socio-economic conditions and government policy directions. This article contributes to understanding the relationship between care-giving and home, highlighting the complexity of ageing in place’ beyond maintaining older adults in existing residences to encompass the dynamic reconfiguration of domestic spaces into viable care environments. It has implications for policy makers seeking to support ageing-in-place initiatives, practitioners working with family care-givers and researchers examining the spatial dimensions of care in multicultural societies with significant migrant domestic worker populations.

What channels can an authoritarian state employ to steer social science research towards topics preferred by the regime? I researched the Chinese coauthor network of civil society studies, examining 14,088 researchers and their peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1998 and 2018. Models with individual and time fixed-effects reveal that scholars at the center of the network closely follow the narratives of the state’s policy plans and could serve as effective state agents. However, those academics who connect different intellectual communities tend to pursue novel ideas deviating from the official narratives. Funding is an ineffective direct means for co-opting individual scholars, possibly because it is routed through institutions. Combining these findings, this study proposes a preliminary formation of authoritarian knowledge regime that consists of (1) the state’s official narrative, (2) institutionalized state sponsorship, (3) co-opted intellectuals centrally embedded in scholarly networks, and (4) intellectual brokers as sources of novel ideas.

As fertility decreases and singlehood increases, research is growing on the spread of ‘kinlessness’ – commonly defined as having neither a partner nor children – and its impact on the wellbeing of middle-aged and older adults. However, the beneficial impact of having partners and children may depend on the quality of those relationships. This study contributes to this research by integrating family structure types with different forms of parent–child contact – face-to-face, phone and digital. Using cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey tenth round (2020–2022) on 24,262 adults aged 50 or over in 30 European countries, we estimate ordered logistic regression models on the likelihood of reporting higher levels of happiness. The results show that men and women without a partner or children have lower levels of happiness compared to those that have both, with unpartnered parents occupying an intermediate position. Kinless men along with unpartnered parents with sporadic contact with children report the lowest level of happiness. Among unpartnered men, having frequent contact with children is associated with higher happiness levels than having infrequent interactions with them. We find no substantial differences between men and women in other family structure types, between different contact types or across European country clusters. The findings highlight the importance of considering both the presence/absence of children and the quality of their relationships in the analysis of middle-aged and older parents’ wellbeing.