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About CSD |
Asset Building | State Assets Policy
| Civic Service | GAP
|Projects|
SEED |
Publications |
Search | Contact
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Research Grants International
Service |
Purpose & Goals | Priorities | Applicant Eligibility
Global Service Institute Research Grants and Fellows Program The Global Service Institute (GSI) of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis has completed its second round of the Civic Service Research Grants and Fellows Program. For descriptions of the projects, please go to 2002 Projects and 2005 Projects. The primary objectives of GSI are to build a global knowledge base and understanding of civic service and to assist with the design and implementation of policies and programs worldwide. The Small Research Grants Program will support and increase civic service research in countries around the world. For the purposes of GSI, civic service is defined as "an organized period of substantial engagement and contribution to the local, national, or world community, recognized and valued by society, with minimal monetary compensation to the participant" (Sherraden, 2001, p.2). Civic service is different from occasional volunteering. It refers to organized programs, where there is a formal role for the server. The service may be voluntary or compulsory. Service programs can be local, national, international, or transnational in scope. They may be targeted toward servers that are younger, older, of faith, and in school. For example, there are national youth service programs and international faith-based programs. Examples of civic service programs include the United States' AmeriCorps, the Nigerian National Youth Service program, Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, and Germany's civilian service alternative to military service called Zivildienst. For more information on civic service, please visit GSI's website at: http://www.gwbweb.wustl.edu/csd/gsi/. Civic service may be an emerging social institution in many countries around the world. In a recent assessment, 210 programs were found in 57 countries (McBride, Benitez, & Sherraden, 2003). Even though civic service is a global phenomenon, more is known about civic service in the United States than in other nations. The purpose of the GSI Small Research Grants Program is to promote theoretically driven and rigorous social science research on civic service in countries around the world. Across all the program forms and types, service may represent a "strong policy" approach, which produces a range of social, economic, and political outcomes. Service is often performed to increase education and skill acquisition, social and economic development, and civic engagement. It may also promote peace and cross-cultural understanding, and support health and human services, cultural and environmental preservation, and disaster relief. Service may have benefits for both the server and the served. What structures and activities might produce these effects? Service may also have negative consequences. It may disrupt the career paths of young people or serve the interests of a corrupt or authoritarian state. What are the possible negative effects of service, and what explains these? Research on service is limited. Most civic service research is descriptive and exploratory, and focuses on service learning, youth service, or national service, and most of the research is in the United States (Grantmaker Forum on Community and National Service, 2000; Perry & Imperial, 2001). Beside studies of the U.S. Peace Corps, there are few studies of international programs, even though these may be the most prevalent type of civic service program worldwide. More diverse and rigorous scientific research is needed. Given the status of existing research, the GSI Small Research Grants Program seeks to develop a global knowledge base on civic service. The goals are to support innovative social science research, and to develop a multi-national, inter-disciplinary network of scholars and researchers. GSI gave priority to social science research proposals that studied civic service in a country or countries outside of the United States, though proposals from the United States were not excluded from consideration. Comparative proposals were encouraged. Priority was also given to those proposals that specified a theoretical perspective. Quantitative or mixed method designs were encouraged. Methods were judged for their ability to answer the stated research question(s) and for the technical rigor of the proposed sampling, data collection, and analysis procedures. Priority was also given to proposals that addressed one or more of the following areas: Contextual understanding. To encourage a comparative understanding of service, it is important to document the effects of different social, economic, and political environments on service development, implementation, and outcomes. For example, what are the cultural determinants of the forms of service? What roles does service play in nation building? Civic engagement and citizenship development. Service represents a form of civic engagement. The service experience may have long-term effects on the participants' social, political, and economic participation. Most service programs specify citizenship goals as integral to their program designs, but research has been limited. Cross-group interactions and impacts. This area of research would explore the impacts of cross-group interaction in the context of service programs. This may include interaction between groups that are different from one another, e.g., by ethnicity, language, religion or age. What are the long-term impacts of cross-group interaction on prejudice and discrimination? Are tolerance and peace promoted? Service and the environment. Some service programs have as their focus the protection of the environment and earth's diverse ecosystems. These service activities include forestry projects and the development of sustainable agricultural practices. How prevalent are environmental activities among the range of service programs? What are the effects of environmental service? Inclusive service. Research on all forms of volunteering around the world demonstrates that more privileged members of society tend to participate, especially those with advanced education and more income. Ability to serve in intensive, long-term and uncompensated service programs may be constrained by economic or physical factors beyond individual control. Some programs are creating compensation structures that expand opportunity for innovative methods of service delivery, e.g., on-line volunteering. The effects of these strategies on inclusion are not known. Elder service. As societies across the world age and the numbers of healthy older adults increase, meaningful roles during "retirement" are desirable. Civic service has been recognized in several countries as one way to galvanize the skills and resources of elders. As such, elder service may become a burgeoning area of development. What is required to increase the opportunities to serve by older adults? For existing elder service programs, what are the effects of participation on the servers? What are the effects on the community and society? International and transnational service. International and transnational service opportunities are increasing around the world, with citizens traveling across national and cultural borders to serve. What are the effects of these experiences on cross national relations? What are the effects on the servers? To promote and facilitate the exchange of ideas and perspectives from different disciplines, proposals were invited from anthropologists, economists, social workers, psychologists, political scientists, and other scholars from any part of the world. Proposals were accepted from individuals associated with universities and/or other not-profit institutions that have a demonstrated capacity to conduct sound empirical, social science research. Grants were also awarded to a small number of dissertations for doctoral candidates who have completed all the necessary requirements except the dissertation at the time of the award.
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