Product Description: The sixteen neighbors of the European Union are a very mixed bunch. They range from the oil states of Algeria and Libya to wealthy Israel and impoverished Moldova. This group of countries, owing to deep mutual tensions and large geographical distances, either do not or barely talk to each other...read more

Product Description: This book examines volunteering in detail from a civil society perspective, using empirical data garnered from various sources for countries all over the globe. The contributions deal with a broad spectrum of questions, ranging from the diversity, social and cultural determinants and organizational settings of volunteering, to its possible individual, social, and political effects...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This timely volume puts emphasis on the effect of social capital on everyday life: how the routines of daily life lead people to get involved in their communities. Focussing on its micro-level causes and consequences, the book's international contributors argue that social capital is fundamentally concerned with the value of social networks and about how people interact with each other...read more