On solidarity and volunteering during the covid-19 crisis in Denmark: The impact of social networks and social media groups on the distribution of support

11/11/2021

Date of Publication: 2021

Authors:  Hjalmar Bang Carlsen, Jonas Toubøl, and Benedikte Brincker

Published by: European Societies Journal

As an immediate reaction to the pandemic, many countries issued far-reaching lockdown measures and closed their borders. Both government and non-government welfare providers had to downscale or completely put on hold social and health support and services in order to contribute to the prevention of the spread of the virus. Consequently, many citizens did not receive the support they depended on.

This paper explores how informal civil society quickly mobilised to provide support and fill that void.

Data were drawn from a survey on solidarity, volunteering, and support during the COVID-19 crisis conducted between 3 April and 11 May 2020 in Denmark. The age range of the participants was between 16–99 years old (n = 3,389 respondents).

The research focused on the role of social networks and social media groups. It found that the vast majority of this support was distributed through existing social networks and, therefore, was not available to those lacking social connections. The research also found that social media groups played an important role in the mobilisation. Informal civil society mobilised rapidly to offer support as an alternative to suspended formally organised welfare services.

On 11 March, when the lockdown was announced, 56 new support groups were established on Facebook. Within 3 weeks, 247 support groups had emerged, and membership added up to hundreds of thousands.

The types of support covered (1) information sharing; (2) caretaking; (3) practical, material, and economic support; and (4) donations. The numbers only related to online mobilisation; not informal help (53% of participants took part in informal helping).

The paper concludes by discussing the potential of social media to affect the impact of social networks on the distribution of support, pointing to some of the potential barriers to social media groups’ successful facilitation of support to those without a social network.

The full report is available here.