All that glitters: extraction as communication in international voluntourism practice

ABSTRACT

“Extraction” may be understood as both a metaphor and in a Marxian materialist sense, the set of material and discursive conditions through which international workers and travelers experience and understand the nation of Peru. This article examines the popularity of voluntourism programs through the lens of extraction. The politics of extraction is understood in terms of neo-colonial power relations that unite practices of humanitarian engagement and community development with contributions to the personal growth of voluntourists. These travelers anticipate personally enriching themselves through their intercultural experiences. They anticipate gaining emotional and experiential wealth that is associated with (often vague) notions of helping others. By drawing on semi-structured interviews and three months of ethnographic fieldwork at key sites in Peru, as well as by tracing a historical trajectory of extraction, I argue that within contemporary neoliberal modes of humanitarian engagement, an extractive ontology prioritizes the enrichment of foreign individuals and agencies over the wellbeing of communities in need.

KEYWORDS:

• Voluntourism
• extraction
• humanitarianism
• Peru
• development

Acknowledgments

The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the funding that supported this research from: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Media@McGill, McGill University’s Faculty of Arts and the Institute for the Study of International Development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Mining in Peru has created numerous social and environmental issues, most notably the direct impact that mining waste run off has had on the nation’s water sources, making it the most water- stressed country in South America and the third most vulnerable country to climate change (McGill Research Group Investigating Canadian Mining in Latin America, 2017). Residents of several remote Indigenous communities throughout the country have been directly impacted by contaminated water sources or disruptions to farmlands (McGill Research Group Investigating Canadian Mining in Latin America, 2017). The Peruvian ombudsman Walter Gutierrez has reported over 200 current conflicts between communities and mines, mostly around water usage and contamination (Vidal, 2017). Human Rights Watch (2017) reports rampant abuse by Peruvian police against protestors, including over 50 deaths of protestors during mining-related confrontations between strikers and authorities between 2011–2016.

2 The UNWTO and WYSE define “youth” as between ages of 15–29.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by McGill University: [Grant Number Faculty of Arts Graduate Student Travel Award ($2000]; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: [Grant Number Doctoral Fellowship ($40000)].