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Informal groups

Original title: Informele groepen

Going out running with a group of friends, rather than joining an official sports club. Individuals who decide to take action themselves rather than giving money to good causes. Maintaining contact with others not as a member of an association, but through an Internet forum. Small-scale, loose and informal networks appear to be becoming more and more important in our modern society. Those networks are the focus of this report. These forms of voluntary association are often locally organised, more informal and therefore often less visible at societal level.

People are increasingly seeking contact with others outside the framework of formal organisations. This 'informalisation' process appears to play an increasingly important role in people's political and social engagement. It also plays a role in the problems with which people wrestle in seeking meaning in their lives.

This publication explores the broad research field of informal groups. Through a literature review and a discussion of various types of informal groups - ranging from informal sports clubs and reading groups to neighbourhood gardening groups and mutual support groups - it gives an impression of the heterogeneity and diversity of informal groups in the Netherlands.