ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between Olympic volunteering and subsequent community engagement in order to throw light on the aspect of the socio-cultural impacts and legacies of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The theoretical framework of Van Gennep's three-stage rites of passage is used to structure the findings. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport links London 2012 legacy commitment to the government's aim of promoting a Big Society, which puts an emphasis on community self-help. The contribution of the volunteers to the London 2012 Games was stressed continually during the Games, with government and Olympic officials expressing appreciation in their speeches. A variety of theoretical and conceptual models relating to the study of volunteerism have been generated, according to Hustinx et al (2010), with different conceptual preferences evident across disciplines. Inspired by the volunteer process model, ithe methodologies explores further the idea that volunteering may be seen as a progression involving before, during and after stages.
