This is a Thinking Aloud Podcast from the BBC and for more details in our terms of use and much,

much more about thinking aloud. Go to our website at BBC.co.uk. Hello, my father stubbornly subscribe to the idea that charity should begin and for that matter end at home.

As someone who struggled hard to extricate himself from familial poverty,

had little sympathy with the idea of offering help to those who apparently couldn't help themselves.

Well, I saw either wonder how much of my father's cynicism had rubbed off on me as I began running through the checklist of

informal ways of helping out which were included in the government-sponsored citizenship survey.

Had I done the shopping or collected a pension or paid a bill or done any cooking or cleaning or gardening for someone who was not a relative?

Had I looked after a property or a pet for someone who was away or transported or escorted anyone to hospital.

No, no, no, no, no, all the way down the page.

In fact, my total volunteering in the past six months

seemed to amount a little more than testifying that my friend Georgina's unsmiling, unfringed passport

photo was the true likeness.

It was this shocking evidence of my testimony that aroused my interest in a new paper which

promised to consider the economic circumstances which prompted

or discouraged volunteering activities and that paper is entitled Doing Good when Times

are Bad volunteering behavior in economic hard times.

And its author is James Lawrence,

who's an ESRC research fellow

at the University of Manchester,

and he's now with me.

James, tell me a little tiny bit more about this citizenship survey.

I mean, how often does it come out and who issues it?

...