Transnational knowledge in volunteering for development – A postcolonial approach to weltwärts

Abstract

International volunteering for development programs (V4D) are on the rise. Weltwärts is by far the largest program in Germany, with thousands of participants. These programs constitute transnational arenas of knowledge production, as their networks transcend nation-states boundaries and produce rules, ideas, and knowledge that travel through these networks. V4D programs claim to contribute to knowledge production. In this article, we examine how and where knowledge is created, shaped, and contested within the weltwärts program. To do so, we analyze documents, secondary data, two qualitative case studies, and informal interviews with stakeholders. We draw on postcolonial theory and the literature on transnational knowledge in order to analyze possibilities for transnational knowledge production, as well as its challenges and barriers. We argue that unequal power relations lead to structural underrepresentation of perspectives and knowledge of stakeholders from the global South, despite the good will of numerous stakeholders in the North. However, we also note that stakeholders in the South have started to claim such opportunities for participation and even organize their own spaces of knowledge production and networking. We conclude that developing transnational understandings of concepts like development, decision-making processes in transnational settings must critically reflect upon and overcome postcolonial power structures.

Keywords:

• Volunteering for development
• weltwärts
• transnational knowledge
• postcolonial theory
• representation
• subalternity

Notes

1. For the current changes and the emergence of new actors, such as private companies, universities, etc. within the V4D sector, see Georgeou and Haas in press.

2. For the origins and history of international volunteering, see Lough, 2015.

3. Since its introduction in 2008, more than 25,000 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 28 participated in the program (https://www.weltwaerts.de/en/about-weltwaerts.html), around two thirds of them women (Engagement Global gGmbH, 2014, p. 168). We introduce further relevant information about the program throughout our contribution. For an overall introduction to the history, aims and guidelines of the program, see Haas, 2012; Kontzi, 2015; Stern & Scheller, 2012.

4. In the case of the weltwärts program, the conditions for participating are often linked to the nation-state. It is a public program financed mainly by the German government. Only nonprofit organizations registered in Germany can send volunteers abroad or receive volunteers in Germany. Several national legal frameworks shape the rules and conditions of the program, such as the federal budget code (Bundeshaushaltsordnung) or the funding legislation (Zuwendungsrecht) (Fischer & Haas, 2014, p. 11 ff.), which exclude foreign institutions from direct access to funding. The implications of this asymmetrical structure are analyzed from a postcolonial perspective in Section 4.

5. In this article, we decided to use the term “stakeholder,” which we understand in our context as synonymous to “agent.”

6. For a discussion of the categories micro, meso, and macro in the analysis of transnational societal spaces, see Pries (2008, p. 13).

7. The processuality of knowledge is also found in the perspective on translation processes of ideas between different contexts. Translation processes are always processes of change – translation changes the translator, as well as what is translated, when they travel (Czarniawska & Sevón, 2005, p. 8).

8. For the requirements to take part in the program as a volunteer, see the “Guideline for the development volunteers service ‘weltwärts’” (BMZ, 2014).

9. It is a 100% subsidiary (nonprofit) company of the ministry.

10. Given that weltwärts is situated in the field of development cooperation, many discuss the concepts of development and aid of V4D programs. Another focal point is the discussion about intended and unintended effects on the volunteer, the involved organizations, and the societies in the Global North and South.

11. Since the very beginning in 2008, weltwärts has been subject to a public discussion on its benefits and disadvantages, mainly fostered by newspaper articles.