This paper explores how ethnographic approaches to third sector and nonprofit studies allow for context-based understandings of the links between volunteering and development. Drawing from our ethnographies of volunteering in Sierra Leone, Burundi and the Philippines, we argue that ethnographic methods could tease out local ideologies and practices of volunteer work that can challenge knowledge monopolies over how volunteering is understood and, later, transcribed into development policy and practice at various levels. The contribution of ethnography as a methodology to third sector research lies not only in the in-depth data it generates but also in the kind of ethos and disposition it requires of scholars—providing attention to issues of power and voice and leaning into the unpredictability of the research process.

本文探讨了第三部门和非营利研究的民族志方法如何允许对志愿服务和发展之间的联系进行基于情境的理解。根据我们在塞拉利昂、布隆迪和菲律宾的志愿服务民族志，我们认为民族志方法可以梳理当地志愿工作的意识形态和实践，可以挑战关于如何理解志愿服务的知识垄断，然后转化为发展政策和实践在各个层面。民族志作为一种方法论对第三部门研究的贡献不仅在于它产生的深入数据，还在于它需要学者的精神和性格——关注权力和声音问题，并倾向于不可预测性。研究过程。