Although the way associations and the organization of local social life are intertwined is one of the oldest approaches to community study, the way citizens and residents come together informally to act and solve problems has rarely been a primary focus. Associations are central to important and developing areas of social theory and social action. This handbook takes voluntary associations as the starting point for making sense of communities. It offers a new perspective on voluntary organizations and gives an integrated, yet diverse, theoretical understanding of this important aspect of community life.

Voluntary associations have been presented as a solution to political apathy and cynicism towards representative democracy. The authors collected in this volume, however, argue that these claims require more robust substantiation and seek to critically examine the crucial link between the associative sector and the health of democracy. Focusing on the role of context and using diverse approaches and empirical material, they explore whether these associations in differing socio-political contexts actually undermine rather than reinvigorate democracy.