No Good Deed Goes Unrewarded: The Values/Virtues of Transnational Volunteerism in Neoliberal Capital

Abstract

This article focuses on the value of volunteering in producing, sustaining and legitimising forms of subjectivity and social relations congruent with the ethos of neoliberal capital. Rather than treat it as a spontaneous act of virtue, we insist that volunteerism is a carefully designed technology of government the purpose of which is to align individual conduct with neoliberal capital's double injunction of market rationality and social responsibility. To this end we investigate two complementary case studies of transnational volunteerism, one dealing with Chinese international students volunteering in Vancouver seeking to obtain Canadian citizenship, the other looking at Western university students and graduates volunteering in Ghana to gather relevant professional skills and experience. In both cases we find that transnational volunteerism helps participating individuals assume cultural skills, affective competencies and citizenship prerogatives they could otherwise not have claimed through nationality or employment.

About the Authors

Wanda Vrasti is Lecturer at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Her book Volunteer Tourism in the Global South: Giving Back in Neoliberal Times was published by Routledge in 2012. Other pieces have been published in Millennium: Journal of International Relations, Review of International Studies and Theory & Event.

Jean Michel Montsion is Assistant Professor of International Studies at Glendon College, York University in Toronto. His research focuses on the implications of community-based politics in the development of neoliberal strategies for gateway cities. His work has notably been published in Citizenship Studies, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space and Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Notes

1. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Commonwealth (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), p. ix.

2. David Cameron, “Big Society Speech”, 19 July 2010, available: <http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2010/07/big-society-speech-53572> (accessed 11 January 2011).

3. Ibid.

4. This is not to suggest that the neo-conservative Right has single-handedly invented and implemented the neoliberal doctrine. As David Harvey explains, the Reagan and Thatcher regimes, along with their Washington Consensus adepts, more or less “stumbled” towards neoliberalisation rather than following a predetermined policy path. See David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 13. We do not want to perpetuate a history-less view of neoliberalism that locates the origins of this model of governance in the turmoil of the 1970s or attribute it solely to the policy decisions of a handful of political leaders and opinion makers. Rather, we acknowledge that neoliberalism is in fact the latest phase of a longue durée of capitalist accumulation that goes back to feudal land enclosures, the inquisition, 18th-century industrialisation and urbanisation, 19th-century institutions of liberal democracy, and 500 years of colonial and imperial subjugation. All of these things persist, in some form or another, under the banner of neoliberalism. Hence, we use the term neoliberalism less to suggest a rupture with the past than to point out capital's inexhaustible malleability and adaptability to changing historical conditions.

5. Eva Illouz, Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007).

6. Jamie Peck, “Zombie Neoliberalism and the Ambidextruous State”, Theoretical Criminology, Vol. 14, No. 1 (2010), p. 106.

7. Ibid.

8. Stephan Lessernich, Die Neuerfindung des Sozialen: Der Sozialstaat im flexiblen Kapitalusmus (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2008).

9. Throughout this text we use the term government to refer not necessarily to the sum of state institutions and apparatuses, but rather to Foucault's concept of “governmentality” which describes a proliferation of governing bodies, strategies and techniques that go above and beyond the bureaucratic carcass of the state. This is not just a conceptual difference, but a historical shift from the centralised, bureaucratically organised Fordist government to the dispersed network of rules, norms and tactics of post-Fordism. See Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose (eds.), Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-Liberalism and Rationalities of Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) and Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds.), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).

10. Jason Read, “A Fugitive Thread: The Production of Subjectivity in Marx”, Pli, Vol. 13 (2002), pp. 125–146.

11. David Graeber, “The Sadness of Postworkerism”, in David Graeber, Revolutions in Reverse: Essays on Politics, Violence, Art, and Imagination (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2011), pp. 79–106.

12. See Barry et al., op. cit.; Burchell et al., op. cit.; Thomas Lemke, “An Indigestible Meal? Foucault, Governmentality and State Theory”, Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 15 (2007), pp. 43–64; Aihwa Ong, Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006).

13. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. 1 (New York: Penguin Classics, 2003).

14. S. Amit Rai, Rule of Sympathy: Sentiment, Race, and Power, 1750–1850 (New York: Palgrave, 2002).

15. A. Gabriel Almond and Sydney Verba, The Civic Culture. Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963).

16. Suzan Ilcan and Tanya Basok, “Community Government: Voluntary Agencies, Social Justice, and the Responsibilization of Citizens”, Citizenship Studies, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2004), pp. 129–144.

17. Michael Edwards, “Why Philantrocapitalism Is Not the Answer: Private Initiatives and International Development”, in Monique Kremer, Peter van Lieshout and Robert Went (eds.), Doing Good or Doing Better: Development Policies in a Globalized World (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009), pp. 237–249, p. 237.

18. Jo Littler, “The New Victorians? Celebrity Charity and the Demise of the Welfare State”, p. 1, Paper presented at the Capitalism, Democracy and Celebrity Advocacy Symposium, Manchester, 19–20 June 2012, available: <http://capitalismdemocracycelebrity.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/littler-the-new-victorians1.pdf> (accessed 18 January 2013).

19. Ilan Kapoor, Celebrity Humanitarianism: The Ideology of Global Charity (New York: Routledge, 2012).

20. Slavoj Zizek, Violence (New York: Picador, 2008), p. 16.

21. Nikolas Rose, “Community, Citizenship, and the Third Way”, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 43, No. 9 (2000), pp. 1385–1411.

22. Ibid., p. 1400.

23. Lemke, op. cit.

24. Anne-Marie Fortier, “Proximity by Design? Affective Citizenship and the Management of Unease”, Citizenship Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1 (2010), p. 22.

25. Didier Fassin, “Humanitarianism as a Politics of Life”, Public Culture, Vol. 19, No. 3 (2007), pp. 499–520, p. 519.

26. Andrew Neal, “Goodbye War on Terror? Foucault and Butler on Discourses of Law, War, and Exceptionalism”, in M. Dillon and A.W. Neal (eds.), Foucault on Politics, Security and War (London: Palgrave, 2008), p. 51.

27. Achille Mbembe, On the Postcolony (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

28. Kathryn Mathers, Travel, Humanitarianism and Becoming American in Africa (New York: Palgrave, 2010), p. 4.

29. Rose, op. cit., p. 1409.

30. Ilcan and Basok, op. cit.

31. To qualify for permanent residency status under the Canadian Experience Class, international students must accumulate the equivalent of one year full-time work experience in Canada, a requirement that can also be fulfilled through volunteer work. As with any other work experience, this has to be documented and certified by the employer or, in this case, voluntary association. See Citizenship and Immigration Canada, “Canadian Experience Class”, January 2010, available: <http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/cec/apply-who.asp> (accessed 27 January 2010).

32. British Council, “Visa and Immigration Requirements”, 2009, available: <http://www.britishcouncil.org/usa-education-visas-entry-clearance.htm> (accessed 24 July 2009); Citizenship and Immigration Canada, “Q&A: Volunteer Experience”, CIC Newsletter, March 1999, available: <http://www.cicnews.com/1999/03/volunteer-experience-03480.html> (accessed 24 July 2009).

33. Bruce [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a person involved in SUCCESS everyday operations, notebook of Montsion, Vancouver, 9 May 2008.

34. Collective interview with four international Chinese students, notebook of Montsion, Vancouver, 24 April 2008.

35. Ibid.

36. Vince [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a Vancouver City social planner, notebook of Montsion, Vancouver, 12 June 2008.

37. Carl [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a local Chinese news director in the Greater Vancouver area, notebook of Montsion, Richmond, 3 November 2008.

38. Collective interview, op. cit.

39. Frank [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a person involved with SUCCESS everyday operations, notebook of Montsion, Vancouver, 22 May 2008.

40. Ibid.

41. Philip [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a Chinese international graduate student at the University of British Columbia, notebook of Montsion, Vancouver, 5 May 2008.

42. Rose, op. cit., p. 1408.

43. Although not an unprecedented form of travel, never before has volunteer tourism been so popular and so vocal. In the United States over a quarter of the population is interested in signing up. Meanwhile, in the UK there are about 800 organisations offering volunteer services abroad. Tourism is the largest growth industry and volunteer tourism is its fastest growing sector. Over the past couple of years commercial travel agencies, such as Travelocity, Cheaptickets, GAP Adventures, Travel Cuts and First Choice Holidays, have jumped on board, crowding out or joining forces with not-for-profit organisations, such as Habitat for Humanity and United Way. See Aaron Dalton, “Voluntourism Trips for Do-Gooders: When Sipping Margaritas, Sunburning Yourself Poolside Loses its Luster”, MSNBC.com, 4 February 2008, available: <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19314446/> (accessed 18 May 2008) and Lucy Ward, “You're Better off Backpacking—VSO Warns about Perils of ‘Voluntourism’”, The Guardian, 14 August 2007, available: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/aug/14/students.charitablegiving> (accessed 13 March 2008).

44. Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello, The New Spirit of Capitalism (New York: Verso, 2005).

45. Debbie Lisle, “Joyless Cosmopolitans: The Moral Economy of Ethical Tourism”, in J. Best and M. Paterson (eds.), Cultural Political Economy (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 139–158.

46. Daniel Guttentag, “The Possible Negative Impacts of Volunteer Tourism”, International Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 11, No. 6 (2009), p. 537; Nancy McGehee and C.A. Santos, “Social Change, Discourse and Volunteer Tourism”, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 32 (2005), pp. 760–779; Stephen Wearing, Volunteer Tourism: Experiences that Make a Difference (Oxon, UK: CABI Publishing, 2001); Stephen Wearing, “Re-Centering the Self in Volunteer Tourism”, in G.M. S. Dan (ed.), The Tourist as a Metaphor of the Social World (Oxon, UK: CABI Publishing, 2002), pp. 237–261; Stephen Wearing, Adrian Deville and Kevin Lyons, “The Volunteer's Journey Through Leisure into the Self”, in K. Lyon and S. Wearing (eds.), Journeys of Discovery in Volunteer Tourism (Cambridge, MA: CABI Publishing, 2008), pp. 63–71.

47. Rosaleen Duffy, Trip Too Far: Ecotourism, Politics, and Exploitation (London: Earthscan, 2002); Rosaleen Duffy, “Neoliberalising Nature: Global Networks and Ecotourism Development in Madagascar”, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Vol. 16, No. 3 (2008), pp. 327–344; Rosaleen Duffy, Nature Crime: How We're Getting Conservation Wrong (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010); Rosaleen Duffy and Lorraine Moore, “Neoliberalising Nature? Elephant-Back Tourism in Thailand and Botswana”, Antipode, Vol. 42, No. 3 (2010), pp. 742–766; Bruce Erickson, “Recreational Activism: Politics, Nature, and the Rise of Neoliberalism”, Leisure Studies, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2011), pp. 477–494; Robert Fletcher, “Sustaining Tourism, Sustaining Capitalism? The Tourism Industry's Role in Global Capitalist Expansion”, Tourism Geographies, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2011), pp. 443–461.

48. Projects Abroad, “Ghana Handbook”, 2008, pp. 45–47, available: <http://www.projects-abroad.org/destinations/ghana/projects-abroad-in-ghana/> (accessed 13 March 2008).

49. Patricia [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a volunteer tourist in Ho, notebook of Vrasti, Ghana, 6 April 2009.

50. Certainly, Projects Abroad was partly to blame for these disappointments. From a strictly logistical point of view, Projects Abroad was not actively involved in managing work placements, communicating with the local staff or following up with volunteers. Often placements were poorly chosen, according to some cliché fantasies of humanitarian assistance, rather than organised around actual local needs and desires. On the other hand, however, the roots of volunteer apathy lie much deeper. For volunteers to feel “needed” the work must be continuous, it must be satisfying, challenging and rewarding, it must address local deficiencies and it must show quick results. This is not an easy task to accomplish for any organisation, especially considering that volunteers stay for a relatively short time, they lack appropriate skills and training and also expect to have enough free time to travel and relax.

51. Charles [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a volunteer tourist in Ho, notebook of Vrasti, Ghana, 18 April 2009.

52. Marion [pseudonym]. Personal interview with a volunteer tourist in Ho, notebook of Vrasti, Ghana, 17 April 2009.

53. Edward M. Bruner, “Tourism in Ghana: The Representation of Slavery and the Return of the Black Diaspora”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 98 (1996), pp. 290–304.

54. Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), p. 132.

55. Illouz, op. cit.; Engin Isin, “Governing Cities without Government”, in E. Isin (ed.), Democracy, Citizenship and the Global City (New York: Routledge, 2000), pp. 148–168.

56. Ward, op. cit.; J.B. McKinnon, “The Dark Side of Voluntourism”, UTNE Reader 2009, available: <http://www.utne.com/Politics/The-Dark-Side-of-Volunteer-Tourism-Voluntourism.aspx> (accessed 18 January 2013); Ian Birrell, “Before You Pay to Volunteer Abroad, Think of the Harm You Might Do”, The Guardian, 14 November 2010, available: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/orphans-cambodia-aids-holidays-madonna> (accessed 18 January 2013).

57. Lois McNay, “Self as Enterprise: Dilemmas of Control and Resistance in Foucault's Birth of Biopolitics”, Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 26, No. 6 (2009), p. 63.

58. Ong, Neoliberalism as Exception, op. cit., p. 148.

59. Hardt and Negri, op. cit.

60. Aihwa Ong, Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999).

61. Hannah Arendt was quite explicit that forms of sociality based on emotion (whether it is pity or pride, collective suffering or communal empowerment) tend to encourage non-public, non-political forms of association that function only through the voluntary disposition of like-minded individuals. The importance of strong affective bonds aside, Arendt warns us that these attachments can never translate into universalistic ideals or broad-based political movements, but are bound to remain tied to exclusionary, even disciplinary, face-to-face interactions. See Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (New York: Penguin Classics, 1991).

62. Ong, Flexible Citizenship, op. cit., p. 2.

63. Rose, op. cit., p. 1408.