The Valorization Process: How Marginalized Individuals Experience Social Inclusion Through Volunteering in Voluntary Social Welfare Organizations

This article introduces the concept of valorization to theorize how voluntary social welfare organizations foster social inclusion for marginalized individuals. Departing from dominant frameworks that view volunteering primarily as a pathway to labor market integration, the study conceptualizes inclusion as a dialectical process of valorization—co-constructed through sustained interaction between volunteers and enabling organizational settings. Based on qualitative interviews with 13 marginalized volunteers and three organizational leaders in Danish voluntary social welfare organizations, the analysis identifies three interrelated phases of the valorization process: (1) the discovery of informal, biographically rooted competencies, (2) the reinforcement of self-efficacy through organizational validation, and (3) the internalization of new narratives of self-worth. Rather than facilitating capital accumulation, these organizations enable recognition of informal resources often overlooked in formal institutions.