Volunteer tourism, development and education in a postcolonial world: conceiving global connections beyond aid

Abstract

This paper contributes to the public and academic debate on the appropriateness of young Westerners’ participation in projects of volunteer tourism conducted in developing countries. Ethnographic research was carried out in the context of an Australian program that organizes short-term group placements for university students in countries like Vietnam, Mexico and Fiji. The results illustrate that such projects can produce similar benefits to other educational initiatives of international volunteering and service (IVS) in terms of global engagement, career development, intercultural competence and psychological support. However, for these projects to avoid public critiques and negative outcomes, they need to harmonize personal and institutional expectations with real volunteer capacities. Thus, until IVS programs in the university context distance themselves from a development aid discourse, they will potentially fall under the umbrella of “neo-colonialism”. The research provides a model of impact analysis and raises challenging questions for universities or similar organizations involved with short-term group placements of volunteer tourism.

Keywords:

• volunteer tourism
• colonialism
• tourism impacts
• community participation
• development theory
• education

Acknowledgements

This paper is a cloud of insights brought to life by the hard and admirable work of KOTO, Ana Paula Ruiz and the university volunteers who were part of the research. I would also like to thank Lisa Wynn, Rochelle Spencer, Chris Lyttleton, Chris Houston, Bernard Lane and the three referees appointed by this journal for providing crucial reflections during the writing process.

Notes

1. The term “voluntoured” refers to the host organization staff and the target population of the program. For an academic use of the term, refer to McGehee & Andereck (2008).

2. See Barkham (2006) “Are these the new colonialists?”, Brodie and Griffiths (2006) “Are gappers really the new colonialists?”, Frean (2006) “Gap years create ‘new colonialists”’, Klaushofer (2007)“‘Voluntourists’ Told not to bother” and Womack (2007) “Gap-year students ‘wasting time on projects”’, among others.

3. Smith, Ellis, and Brewis (2005), Sherraden et al. (2006) and Sherraden et al. (2008) agree that these two, development aid and international understanding, are the two principal goals of IVS.

4. Specifically, KOTO provides hospitality training with both practical and theoretical components in the fields of cookery, English language, front-of-house bar and service operations. Additionally, the trainees have the opportunity to develop their confidence and capabilities through work experience at restaurants and hotels.

5. It is important to clarify that the consent of the participants was confirmed in writing and also that, in the interest of privacy, their names in this paper were changed and the name of their university is not specified.

6. In Latin America and elsewhere, there is an ongoing debate about how a Western worldview has permeated the desires, ideas and attitudes of non-Western intellectuals, decision makers and educators, among others (c.f. Bahl & Dirlik, 2000; Quijano & Ennis, 2000). As Sardar explains, people from Asia, Africa and Latin America “use the West, almost instinctively, as the standard for judgments” (1999, p. 44). In this debate, “Eurocentrism” is the concept usually used to refer to the bias that non-Western societies maintain in their conceptions due to a Western cultural influence.

7. This information comes from my personal journal and in this case I decided not to mention the specific details of the situation as it is mixed with private information that the participants disclosed to me in a personal manner.

8. This conceptual model is adapted from Sherraden et al.'s international volunteering and service impact research model (2008). Yet, certain dimensions of the original model go beyond the scope of this paper and were not included in the model.