Working towards sincere encounters in volunteer tourism: an ethnographic examination of key management issues at a Nordic eco-village

ABSTRACT

This article explores host–guest dynamics at Sólheimar eco-village, Iceland to contribute to the conceptualization of transformative learning in volunteer tourism. At the eco-village, the host and volunteers come together to share similar goals and meaningful experiences. This interaction gets complicated, however: the eco-village exists within the global capitalist system and must operate using market norms. The idealist and educational expectations of the volunteers often clash with the practical short-term goals of the community: there are also cultural and experiential differences between the parties. This clash is used to discuss the importance of sincerity in volunteer tourism at the eco-village. Data were collected through fieldwork, primarily including participant observations and interviews, to help interpret the patterns of behaviors and perceptions of both parties in relation to the aim. Ultimately, the experience that binds host and guests cannot solely be about learning to do things alternatively and sustainably; it requires sincerity, using Taylor's 2001 sincerity concept, to tackle the difficulties in working alternatively and sustainably to attain this experience. It is argued that transformative learning during the volunteer experience in alternative spaces should be conceptualized to include the promotion of sincere encounters, and adjusted to concern both the host and its guests.

KEYWORDS:

• Volunteer tourism
• eco-village
• Iceland
• transformative learning
• focused ethnography

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge my two supervisors at Mid-Sweden University, Dimitri Ioannides and Sandra Wall-Reinius, for their comments on this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All names are pseudonyms.

2. Sólheimar is located within the Grímsnes- og Grafningshreppur municipality. In Iceland, an elected council governs and administers the provision of a number of services such as waste management and schooling in municipalities. Sólheimar nonetheless mostly administers itself independently of the latter, due to its special status.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Solène Prince

Solène Prince is a PhD student at Mid-Sweden University researching the complexities and tensions found in alternative tourism within rural and idealist spaces. Her research has taken her to Iceland and Denmark and touches upon subjects related to volunteer tourism, rural tourism and non-representational landscape theory.