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Determinants of Individual Prosociality and of Collective Social Solidarity- Cohesion
A Literature Review
Series: - Brill Research Perspectives in Humanities and Social Sciences, Volume: 18
- Voluntaristics Review, Volume: 18
Author:
The foundations of volunteering, charitable giving, voluntary associations, voluntary agencies, and other aspects of the Voluntary Nonprofit Sector (VNPS) collectively and of individual voluntary action lie in various aspects of human nature and societies. These foundations may be referred to variously as altruism, morality, ethics, virtue, kindness, generosity, cooperation, social solidarity, and prosociality (eusociality). These foundations of the VNPS, and specifically of social solidarity and prosociality, are the subjects of this literature review article/book. The central goal is providing a comprehensive and interdisciplinary theoretical framework for understanding, explaining, and predicting such phenomena, based on two versions of the authorâs S-Theory:
(1) Individual-System-Level General S-Theory of Human Behavior, as presented briefly here and in greater detail elsewhere (Smith, 2015, 2020a, 2020b; Smith & van Puyvelde, 2016);
(2) Social-System-Level General S-Theory of Collective Prosociality-Social Solidarity, as partially sketched here for the first time in print.
Social-System-Level General S-Theory of collective Prosociality-Social Solidarity argues that collective social solidarity can be better explained with a broader than usual range of factors as major causal influences, beyond normative systems. Individual prosociality behavior can be best explained and understood using the authorâs Individual-System-Level General S-Theory of Human Behavior.
Prosociality includes (a) instrumental (task-oriented) helping behavior, such as formal and informal volunteering or charitable giving for non-household/non-immediate family persons and also informal care of residential household/immediate family persons, plus (b) expressive prosociality or sociability that involves positive interpersonal relations with one or more other persons, both in the residential household/immediate family or outside of it, based on feelings of attachment, fellowship, friendship, affection, and/or love.
Prosociality and social solidarity are clearly human universals, as Brown (1991) concludes from anthropological studies on hundreds of mostly preliterate societies on all continents. Such individual human prosociality activities often have positive short- and long-term consequences for the people who do them.
(1) Individual-System-Level General S-Theory of Human Behavior, as presented briefly here and in greater detail elsewhere (Smith, 2015, 2020a, 2020b; Smith & van Puyvelde, 2016);
(2) Social-System-Level General S-Theory of Collective Prosociality-Social Solidarity, as partially sketched here for the first time in print.
Social-System-Level General S-Theory of collective Prosociality-Social Solidarity argues that collective social solidarity can be better explained with a broader than usual range of factors as major causal influences, beyond normative systems. Individual prosociality behavior can be best explained and understood using the authorâs Individual-System-Level General S-Theory of Human Behavior.
Prosociality includes (a) instrumental (task-oriented) helping behavior, such as formal and informal volunteering or charitable giving for non-household/non-immediate family persons and also informal care of residential household/immediate family persons, plus (b) expressive prosociality or sociability that involves positive interpersonal relations with one or more other persons, both in the residential household/immediate family or outside of it, based on feelings of attachment, fellowship, friendship, affection, and/or love.
Prosociality and social solidarity are clearly human universals, as Brown (1991) concludes from anthropological studies on hundreds of mostly preliterate societies on all continents. Such individual human prosociality activities often have positive short- and long-term consequences for the people who do them.
David Horton Smith (PhD Harvard University, 1965) is Research and Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Boston College, USA. Founder (1971) of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action/ARNOVA (www.arnova.org) and its SSCI journal, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ), he is founding editor of this journal.
Determinants of Individual Prosociality and of Collective Social Solidarity-Cohesion: A Literature Review
âDavid Horton Smith, PhD
âAbstract
âKeywords
âEditorâs Introduction: âIndividual Prosociality and Collective Social Solidarity as Key Terms in Voluntaristics in Their Larger Terminological Contextâ
â1âOn Human Prosociality: Being Hyper-Social as Distinctive of the Human Species
â2âInformal Prosociality Activities as One Basis for Social Solidarity
â3âApplying Individual-System-Level General S-Theory to Explaining Prosociality
â4âFormal Volunteering and Formal Pro-Sociality Activities
â5âVolunteering as Part of Broader Nonprofit Sector Development
â6âDeveloping a Distinctive Definition of Social Solidarity-Cohesion
â7âApplying Social-System-Level General S-Theory to Explaining Social Solidarity
â8âConsidering Social Solidarity at Different Analytical System Levels with S-Theory
â9âS-Theory Analysis of Fostering, Maintaining, and Changing Social Solidarity
â10âDisorder, Antisocial Behavior, Selfish Egoism, Conflict, Crime, and Other Negative Alternatives to Social Solidarity and Prosociality
â11âConclusion
âAcknowledgement
âBibliography
âAuthor Biography
Anyone interested in the field of Voluntaristics worldwide, academics and researchers in anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, and psychology, and those interested in Area studies, the social professions, and history.