Abstract
This article sketches the development of the organized, interdisciplinary, global field, and emerging academic discipline of altruistics, focusing on academic journals and mainly on researcher associations founded since the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) in 1971. About 55 similar interdisciplinary altruistics researcher associations have been founded worldwide (48 described here; including 9 defunct), 25 of them national in geographic scope, but seven covering a world region and 11 global. Over 100 academic journals that publish research on altruistics or its sub-topics have been published, with 95 active ones described here. The author estimates that there are at least 8,000 active altruistics researchers worldwide, and perhaps as many as 20,000.
The author devised the neologism “altruistics” (or alternatively, “voluntaristics”) to refer to all the phenomena of our field, individual and collective. Included are philanthropy, nonprofit sector, third sector, voluntary sector, civil society, social economy, volunteering, associations, and nonprofit organizations, among other topics. The term is similar to the term linguistics.
Keywords
This paper provides a brief overview of the development and present scope of the organized, interdisciplinary, global field and emerging academic discipline of altruistics. The author recently devised the neologism altruistics as a single term to refer to all the phenomena of our field of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Studies, individual and collective, with the study of altruism being central. This term does not mean to imply that all the phenomena studied involve altruism, let alone only altruism (Smith, 1981). Altruism seems like a common theme in most topics of our field, but not in all. An alternative neologism is voluntaristics, emphasizing voluntary action rather than altruism, which some may prefer (see definition of voluntary action in Smith, Stebbins, & Dover, 2006). No other single-word terms seem appropriate to cover all the phenomena of our field, and such terms characterize nearly all established academic disciplines.
Topics included are the nonprofit sector, voluntary sector, third sector, civil society (sector), social economy, solidarity economy, social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, social investment, solidarity, philanthropy, giving, grants economy, foundations, volunteering (both formal and informal), civic engagement, community engagement, engagement, citizen participation, participation, nonprofit, not-for-profit, nonprofit organizations (NPOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), voluntary associations, associations, sodalities, self-help groups, mutual aid groups, support groups, interest groups, pressure groups, cooperatives, nonprofit agencies, civil liberties, democracy, democratization, social movements, social protest, and mobilization, among other topics. The term altruistics is structurally similar to the term linguistics, which refers to the academic discipline that studies all human languages. Altruistics (or voluntaristics) refers to the interdisciplinary field and emerging academic discipline that studies all forms of altruism (and voluntary action), individual and collective, past and present, human and nonhuman (animal), with attention also to related nonaltruistic influences and activities of individuals and groups.
In the 40+ years since ARNOVA was founded (Smith, 2003), the altruistics interdisciplinary field has spread worldwide to every continent. About 55 similar interdisciplinary altruistics researcher associations have been founded worldwide (with 48 described here; including nine now defunct). Most of these have been national in geographic scope, but some cover a world region or a sub-national area (e.g., a municipality or region of a nation). Several additional global researcher associations have been formed, the most important of which is the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR; www.istr.org). Over 100 academic journals on altruistics or its sub-topics have been published, with 95 active ones described here. In the 21st century, the growth rate of both altruistics associations and of altruistics academic journals has become exponential. These growth rates far exceed the base rates of either association or academic journal growth globally.
Historical Background of Altruistics Research
Published research on altruistics goes back three millennia. Historians wrote accounts of voluntary associations in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Greece, and Rome, among other places (Smith, 1997; Smith, Stebbins, & Grotz, 2014: Chap. 2). Social scientific research on nonprofit associations by sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and economists arose mainly in the early 20th century (Smith et al., 2014: Chap. 1). Similar research on hospitals, universities, museums and other nonprofit agencies became common mainly in the second half of the 20th century (Smith, 2014).
Current Scope of Altruistics Research: Researcher Associations
Altruistics first became an organized field when the author formed ARNOVA (www.arnova.org) in 1971 as an intentionally international and interdisciplinary association of individual researchers (Smith, 2003). At present, ARNOVA has members from 30+ nations. At the same time, the author founded the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ) as the first interdisciplinary, core (primary), generalist, academic journal on altruistics.
Since 1971, both ARNOVA and NVSQ have been “founding models” for many later interdisciplinary altruistics associations of researchers and for many generalist as well as specialist altruistics academic journals. As noted above, about 55 independent, interdisciplinary, altruistics researcher associations have been formed on all continents, most of these national rather than multinational in geographic scope (see Table 1; to be updated periodically on www.icsera.org, under Resources). Some have subsequently dissolved, but the vast majority of them still exist. Many of them publish their own academic journals, and nearly all have their own websites and newsletters for members. All active ones have meetings, seminars, or conferences at least biennially, usually annually, but sometimes more often.
ICSERA List of Altruistics Researcher Associations Worldwide.
The first national altruistics researcher association was the Association for Research in the Voluntary and Community Sector (ARVAC; www.arvac.org.uk), formed in the United Kingdom in 1978. Subsequently, two other national altruistics researcher associations were also formed in the United Kingdom: The Voluntary Action History Society in 1991, as the second national altruistics association (VAHS; www.vahs.org.uk), and later the Voluntary Sector Studies Network in 1996 (VSSN; www.vssn.org.uk) as the fourth national altruistics association. VSSN has published its own academic journal, the Voluntary Sector Review, since 2010.
The third, quasi-national, altruistics, researcher association to be formed (in 1993) was the binational Australia New Zealand Third Sector Research (ANZTSR; www.anztsr.org), publishing its own journal, The Third Sector Review, since 1995. The fifth, national, altruistics, researcher association to be formed (in 1999) was the Japan NPO Research Association (JANPORA; www.janpora.org). JANPORA has published its own journal, the Nonprofit Sector Review, since 2000. The fact that only five of 19 active, national, altruistics, researcher associations had been formed by 1999 indicates in part the exponential growth of the field. About 74% of such active national associations have been formed in this century. A similar percentage of all other active altruistics researcher associations have also been formed in the 21st century.
In the late 1990s and 21st century, similar national, interdisciplinary, altruistics researcher associations have been formed in Canada (NVSN; VSKN; ANSER-ARES), France (ADDES; RIUESS), Ireland (AVARI), Italy (IRIS Network), Poland (KLON/Jawor), Czech Republic (SSNS), India (ATRI; TSRGI), Mexico (REMISOC; RENAETS;), South Korea (NPOKRA; KANPOR;), Taiwan (TATSR), Finland, Israel, and the Netherlands, among other nations. Some 14 of these are still active, which makes a total of 19 known national associations active at present (and eight more that are now defunct), out of a total of about 26 national (or bi-national) altruistics researcher associations ever founded.
Several nations are presently attempting to form national, altruistics, researcher associations, including China and the Russian Federation, where the author is assisting with this development in both nations. A few altruistics researcher associations have also been formed for sub-regions of nations and are still active (e.g., Western Network of Social and Solidarity Economy Researchers-France/RgoRESS), or for metropolitan areas and are still active (e.g., Greater Manchester Civil Society Researcher Network-United Kingdom).
Several independent, multinational, altruistics, (world) regional associations have also been formed in the past decade or so and are active. Some examples are the “Network of Latin American Researchers on Social and Solidarity Economy” (in Spanish, Red de Investigadores Latinoamericanos de Économia Social y Solidaria; RILESS; www.riless.org); the European Research Network on Philanthropy (ERNOP; www.ernop.eu); the European Research Network-Social Economy Europe (EMES; www.socialeconomy.eu.org), and the Third Sector European Policy Network/TSEP (www.kent.ac.uk/tsep). Other, independent, world region associations of altruistics researchers have been recently formed for the Arab nations of the Middle East and North Africa (at least two are in development) and for the Nordic nations of Europe, but their details are lacking now.
At least 10 global, altruistics, interdisciplinary, associations of individual researchers have been formed, plus the International Council of Voluntarism, Civil Society, and Social Economy Researcher Associations (ICSERA) as a global, altruistics, interdisciplinary association of researcher associations (as a federation or umbrella organization). Two global, altruistics, individual researcher associations were formed in the discipline of economics before ARNOVA—the Association for Social Economics/ASE in 1941, and the Association for the Study of Grants Economics/ASGE in 1968. Several, more interdisciplinary, global, altruistics researcher associations have been formed after ARNOVA (see Table 1). The two most important, broad focus, global, altruistics, researcher associations of individuals formed after ARNOVA were the following:
The International Voluntary Action and Voluntary Organization Research Organization (with a parallel French name), IVAR-VOIR, was formed in 1978 by the author and colleagues from 15 nations as the second global, interdisciplinary association of altruistics researchers. IVAR-VOIR held its First World Congress in Brussels, Belgium, in 1980, but dissolved in 1983 for lack of financial resources.
The International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR; www.istr.org) was formed in 1992 as the third global, interdisciplinary association of individual altruistics researchers. The ISTR academic journal, Voluntas, has been published since 1990 (initially independent). ISTR holds biennial conferences in even years, and has networks for several world regions that also hold conferences.
In 2010, the author formed ICSERA (www.icsera.org). With organizational (collective) members only, ICSERA seeks to become a global association of existing, national and regional, altruistics, researcher associations. ICSERA is a global, nonprofit, infrastructure and support organization for altruistics that is unique in its central purposes: (a) to gather and share relevant information on altruistics researcher associations, research centers, academic journals, departments, etc. (such as in Tables 1 and 2 here) through its website; (b) to foster new, independent, national and regional, altruistics, researcher associations and to strengthen existing ones everywhere; (c) to strengthen and help foster the growth of the global field of altruistics collaboratively by providing a discussion forum for leaders of interdisciplinary altruistics researcher associations; and (d) to collaborate with and help build the global memberships of both ARNOVA and ISTR as the principal global associations of individual altruistics researchers.
ICSERA List of Active Altruistics Academic Journals Worldwide.
Note: *Peer-reviewed.
As part of the growing worldwide scholarly and professional attention to altruistics, many national and also international professional associations for researchers, scholars, and practitioners now have developed special sections (official sub-groups) focused on some aspect of altruistics. Some examples from the United States are the following:
The American Sociological Association (ASA) now has two different Sections relevant to the Altruistics field: There is a new (2011) Section on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity (AMSS Section; over 300 members), and also an older Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements (CBSM; over 800 members).
The American Anthropological Association has a Special Interest Group (SIG) on NGOs and Nonprofits, which is now the largest SIG, with over 1,000 members.
In economics, the Association for the Study of the Grants Economy (ASGE) is a relevant independent association that is affiliated with the Allied Social Sciences Association in the United States (about 100 “members” on its mailing list recently).
The American Accounting Association has a Section on Government & Nonprofit accounting, with well over 500 members (estimated, based on 432 in 2008).
The various sections/sub-groups of national academic discipline associations above add up to over 2,700 members. This is more than the combined memberships of ISTR and ARNOVA as the two main global interdisciplinary altruistics associations of individual researchers, without eliminating overlapping memberships. Other American social science discipline associations have still more members in altruistics-relevant sections.
The following are examples of sections in professional associations rather than academic discipline associations:
The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) has a new Section on Nonprofit Policy, Practice and Partnerships, just now recruiting members.
The Academy of Management, a U.S.-based but international association of management researchers, has a Public and Nonprofit Division with 814 members at present, of which 726 are active academics or PhD students.
Other professional associations in America also have similar sections related to altruistics. All these and the two above will likely total well over 1,000 members, perhaps 2,000 members.
There are some similar sections or sub-groups, formal or informal, of social science discipline associations or professional associations in other nations (e.g., France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom). Most of these are small groups (less than 50 members), but the relevant research on such associations has not yet been done systematically.
Current Scope of Altruistics Research: Academic Journals
There are now at least 95 academic journals being published in various languages on altruistics in general (generalist journals), or on special topics of the field (specialized journals), such as on management/leadership, law, policy, education, marketing, social economy, community/civic participation, social movements, labor history, leisure, accounting, and other topics (see www.icsera.org, under Resources). The core or primary altruistics journals have relevant terms like civil society, third sector, social economy, philanthropy, social movements, nonprofit organizations, participation, engagement, and so forth, in their titles or subtitles (see a more complete list above in the second paragraph of this paper). The final column of Table 2 indicates which journals are considered core journals (61 of 95, or about 64%). More than 10 similar core journals have been published in the past but are now defunct.
Secondary altruistics journals (N = 34 in Table 2) often publish articles relevant to the altruistics field, but usually publish a majority of their articles on other topics related to their journal titles. The titles of secondary journals tend to reflect relevant altruistics topics or interests, but not always. The set of secondary journals in Table 2 could easily be expanded. They currently reflect the author’s qualitative judgments based on journal content, with inputs from various colleagues.
Current Scope of Altruistics Research: Other Elements
In addition to associations of altruistics researchers, sections on altruistics in other researcher associations, and academic journals, the altruistics field globally has developed various other elements of an academic discipline:
over 250 research and information centers/institutes, and many university-based education/training centers/institutes;
hundreds of research departments on altruistics or its subtopics within major nonprofit organizations or government agencies;
college- and university-based courses, certificates, and degree programs at hundreds of institutions;
a handful of university departments, and also some college/schools within universities, focused on all or part of the altruistics field;
thousands of published books and tens of thousands of journal articles on altruistics research;
Conclusion
Although research on altruistics goes back at least three millennia, the organized field of altruistics began in 1971 with the formation of ARNOVA. Since then, the original form of ARNOVA as an interdisciplinary association of individual altruistics researchers has spread to all continents. Table 1 lists and describes 48 such associations, and at least an additional seven exist or have existed as well. This total of 55 is doubtless an underestimate. Finding
The membership totals of all, independent, altruistics researcher associations can be added to the similar numbers of members of sections within other academic discipline or professional associations. This produces an estimate of at least 8,000 academics worldwide active in independent altruistics researcher associations or in sections on aspects of altruistics within national or multinational academic discipline associations and professional associations. More precise estimates in the future will eliminate duplicate names of persons who are members of two or more altruistics researcher associations or also in altruistics sections of other associations. Some correction will also be made for nonresearchers who are members of such groups (e.g., the majority of JANPORA members are not researchers or graduate students, according to its website).
If we further add academics who have published an article recently (e.g., in the past 5 years) in an altruistics academic journal (see Table 2) or on a core altruistics topic in other academic journals, the estimate of total “active” altruistics academics worldwide would be upwards of 20,000, and growing rapidly as the number of journals and associations grows quickly. Adding presenters, let alone attendees, recently at any conference of an altruistics researcher association or section presentation/meeting (see Table 1) would likely add thousands more active altruistics researchers.
The altruistics research field has been growing exponentially in the 21st century, based on the present data and on related data not reported here because of space constraints (see Smith et al., 2014: Chap. 1; also, www.icsera.org in the near future). This exponential growth is very striking when the founding dates are plotted for the core set of journals (N = 61, or 64% of the total), rather than for all journals in Table 2 (N = 95). Journals in this core set have relevant words like nonprofit, third or voluntary sector, philanthropy, civil society, social economy, social movements, and so forth, in their names. These association and academic journal growth rates in the present century are much greater than the global average growth rates for either type of entity. Data not reported here on founding dates of altruistics research centers and for other indicators of the growth of the field further support very rapid recent global growth of altruistics research.
This rapid growth of altruistics is likely to continue. Such growth seems faster than the rapid growth of the voluntary, nonprofit sector itself in many nations of the world. However, most of the significant influences on voluntary association and nonprofit agency growth in nations of the world currently drive such expansion (Smith & Shen, 2002). Why altruistics is growing much faster than the phenomena it studies is a topic for future research and theory.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges the research assistance of Jurgen Grotz, Chao Guo, and Carolyn Piano. John McNutt constructed both tables in a very timely and excellent manner, using raw data supplied by the author. Richard Steinberg provided a lengthy list of relevant economics journals. Many altruistics journal editors and researcher association leaders also supplied information not available on the relevant websites. The author is grateful for all the help given.
Author’s Note
This paper summarizes a longer paper that is Chapter 1 in Smith, Stebbins, and Grotz (2014). Lacking space here, full references are given there.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Author Biography
). He was first coauthor of A Dictionary of Nonprofit Terms and Concepts (Indiana University Press, 2006), and second coauthor of the first State of the World’s Volunteerism Report 2011 (United Nations Volunteers, 2011).