Volunteer Tourism 2.0

DECOLONISING VOLUNTOURISM

Alisha Saiyed | 101901201 | DDD40001 | Methods for Design Research | Swinburne University of Technology

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introduction to voluntourism

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services are often volunteercentric, non sustainable, and are potentially neo-colonialist in nature.

Volunteer tourism, or voluntourism, has been the subject of much debate, academic and otherwise. Voluntourism refers to the amalgamation of volunteering and tourism, “typically in social and economic development or conservationoriented projects” (Luh Sin, Oakes and Mostafanezhad, 2015), Voluntourism is often facilitated through the tourism and non-profit industries, as well as educational institutions. Whether they are positioned as service learning trips or as tourism opportunities, they are problematic in that these services are often volunteer-centric, non sustainable, and are potentially neocolonialist in nature. (Pastran, 2014).

With the proliferation of volunteer tourism programmes, critique of voluntourism are no longer limited to academia. An article, aptly titled “The Reductive Seduction of Other People’s Problems” by author and activist Courtney Martin, was widely circulated on the internet in 2016. In it, Martin talks about the reductive attitude

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barbie savior, a satirical instagram account with which many, especially youth, in the West, approach problems of the Global South; “there is real fallout when well-intentioned people attempt to solve problems without acknowledging the underlying complexity.” (Martin, 2016).

She argues for a more participatory approach in development, one that works with rather than for, and an attitude that is more realistic in acknowledging the complexities of global issues like poverty.

In more mainstream discourse, an Instagram account titled Barbie Savior is a satirical critique of the volunteer tourism industry, specifically that of the ‘white saviour complex’, which has been

described as a modern adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “White Man’s Burden”. The account highlights the growing trend of young, unqualified students, spending a ‘gap year’ or summer before college volunteering in the Global South (in the example of this account, it is somewhere in Africa).

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Within the development and aid industry, the acronym ‘SWEDOW’ (Stuff We Don’t Want) was colloquially coined in the blogosphere after an entrepreneur set up a project to send one million t-shirts to Africa.

The resulting critique, backlash, and debate led to the creation of a SWEDOW flowchart (see Figure 2 on page 4) that helps people looking to make in-kind donations abroad consider how effective it really is.

The furore surrounding the campaign to donate one million old t-shirts to countries in Africa resulted in a public conversation about the way the West often approaches aid projects, such as assuming there is a need for one million t-shirts in Africa, rather than considering how dumping one million t-shirts may affect the local industries and economy. This public discourse engaged development economists and aid workers, but also non-professional bloggers and expats. This shows that it is not a topic that is not limited to academia or professionals working in the sector, but the accountability of the impact our actions, however well intended, extends to anyone looking to donate or participate in philanthropy or aid or volunteering in a global context.

Have a million t-shirts and a pile of good intentions? Want to ship them to Africa but worried Bill Easterly will yell at you? This handy pocket chart will help you decide if you should send, sell, or trash the stuff we don’t want.

figure 2

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literature review Volunteer-tourism is not only a growing industry, but evidently also a topic of academic contention. This literature review covers the general critiques of voluntourism along the themes of neo-colonialism and Western centric models of volunteerism, and the role vocabulary and photography plays in perpetuating Orientalist stereotypes. The particular audience of voluntourism programmes being explored in this paper are high-school and university students, either taking a summer or a gap-year for volunteer tourism.

Despite some attempts to collect data from native speakers in host communities, there is little literature that focuses on host communities’ experiences in the same way Western participants are studied. Even then, the literature and discourse still comes from the West. The lack of literature authored by host communities or scholars from the contexts where voluntourism takes place is

an indication in itself of the neo-colonialist and Western-centric nature of voluntourism as a practice. (Zahra and Mcgehee, 2013).

One of the ways in which neo-colonialism manifests within the voluntourism industry is that it is often more beneficial for the participants than it is for the host communities. (Palacios, 2010). This is especially true in the case of students and gap-year participants for whom there is benefit in terms of personal development and growth, but also in a more tangible way in the form of a resume filler and improved career/college prospects. (Foller-Carroll and Charlebois, 2016). Participants go through brief trainings prior to their trips, and are afforded the opportunity to reflect on their experiences through group discussions and trip leaders, are enriched with interaction from different cultures (Bailey and Russell, 2012). None of these opportunities seem to be reciprocated to the host communities.

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When organisations, especially those that are primarily tourism organisations, offer voluntouring programmes, it is rare for them to vet or choose participants based on the skillsets they might be able to offer on projects being carried out. It is seldom experts who go into communities to work with local experts of the same field, and more often students or a mix of well-meaning volunteers whose expertise are not utilised. Such is often the case with programmes for students taking gap years. (Simpson, 2004). Another tangible step to add into the process of selection of participants, then, is to not only pick participants who are are predisposed to leadership and gaining experience and take an interest in personal growth, but to market these programmes towards such individuals. (Bailey and Russell, 2012). Furthermore, Bailey and Russell propose putting in place educational or

preparatory programmes for participants more likely to be traveling for reasons other than those mentioned earlier. The authors seem to take a stance that supports voluntourism and propose measures that will help mitigate some of the negative implications of voluntourism on part of the participants. While this is not a solution, and the problematic nature of voluntourism remains, it is a small step that can be implemented in existing procedures. This could be taken a step further by recruiting volunteers based on skillsets needed within host communities, rather than Volunteer tourism organisations and programmes (even those affiliated with universities or NGOs) often use language in their marketing that is indicative of doing good, ‘giving back’, ‘making a difference’, which gives the impression that the Western organisation is helping the (helpless) underprivileged, which

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not only may be inaccurate but also risks reinforcing the othering of host communities. (Palacios, 2010; Simpson, 2004). Language that disadvantages the Global South as a whole is damaging and disempowering. It strips host communities of the power and control to form their own representation, a concept often discussed in post-colonial theory. “From the beginning of Western speculation about the Orient, the one thing the orient could not do was to represent itself. Evidence of the Orient was credible only after it had passed through and been made firm by the refining fire of the Orientalist’s work.” (Said, 1978).

Through my literature review, I have found repeated themes of neo-colonialism and Western-centric volunteering are an underlying concern in the discourse on voluntourism. Studies that look into the relationship between the neo-colonialist understanding of voluntourism and the way voluntarism is marketed would be an indication of whether changing the way voluntourism is marketed can change the way voluntourism is understood, especially in the West.

Many of the authors and scholars agree upon the Western-centric paradigm that exists in the realm of voluntourism.

Similarly, photography has long had the power and culpability in the othering of a group of people, with a long history of being used as a tool for “imperial stereotyping” (Ranger, 2001). This is especially true in the case of the volunteer tourism industry and the way host communities are represented and disseminated through social media, and it is becoming more and more a mainstream issue (as is apparent from the Barbie Savior instagram account). Stereotypical images of Western volunteers surrounded by locals, often children, are not uncommon and perpetuate the narrative of the altruistic Western saviour aiding the underprivileged.

Additionally, there is a lack of literature that proposes plausible solutions to the identified issues, or evaluates the future of voluntourism as a whole. There is some literature to be found on the future of voluntourism, a discourse that goes hand in hand with that of finding solutions to, or bringing about systemic change in the field of voluntourism. As such, while voluntourism may not manifest in aid or philanthropy, it presents an opportunity to facilitate a cultural exchange between Western participants and host community locals. (Palacios, 2010).

The “recurrent images, narratives and stories around these kinds of North– South relations resist introspection and historicization” (Mostafanezad, 2014), hindering participants’ ability to reflect on the impact and the efficacy of their contributions.

A systemic change would require more studies and literature that includes the voices and the insights of host communities, as well as reports and literature that originates from what is called the “Global South” itself.

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Stock Image that has been used on multiple voluntourism websites.

“...photography has long had the power and culpability in the othering of a group of people, with a long history of being used as a tool for “imperial stereotyping” (Ranger, 2001).”

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A screenshot of Google Images reveals a pattern of a type of imagery that is used in the volunteer tourism industry and the kinds of narratives being sold.

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Google images screenshot

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Research Design and methods

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lunteer does activities at a monastery in thailand (Gordon, 2017).

To build on these findings and concepts from my literature review, I intend to investigate if, and how, elements of imperialism manifest in the marketing of volunteer-tourism programmes, specifically one aimed at pre-university students taking a gap year. The collateral and marketing material of an organisation is usually in line with its vision, and mission, and would therefore would be reflective of the organisation’s values and aim.

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voluntourists SMDM

host com

interv I will be using two methods of data collection, the first being an audit of the marketing and promotional material of a volunteer tourism programme. Through this audit, I hope to collect data on and analyse whether the marketing material of a volunteer-tourism company exhibits notions of imperialism. I am interested in the terminology as well as the visuals used to represent and market volunteer-tourism programmes. Photography has historically been a tool that perpetuates imperialism, and I would like to explore whether this stands true with the imagery used in a well-reputed voluntourism programme.

My second method will be semi-structured interviews with two to three participants who have been on volunteer-tourism trips.

The chosen participants also volunteer in their countries of origin/residence but have also experienced volunteering abroad. My interviews will be limited to two to three participants, due to the time constraints of the study.

By auditing the promotional material, I will have information that comes from the perspective of the organisation providing volunteer-tourism services, and through my

organisations

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audit

mmunity

views interviews of participants I hope to gain insights on whether, and how, elements of imperialism manifested in their experiences. I hope to achieve triangulation by attempting to gather data from both an organisation and participants using two different methods. The data collected from both these methods will be analysed.

In addition to providing participants of my interview with consent forms that outline the research I am undertaking, their anonymity will be maintained in writing the research paper.

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research findings and Recommendations In an attempt to investigate the neo-colonialist and imperialist nature of volunteer tourism programmes that came up in my literature review, and the gap being a lack of voices from host communities, I have conducted interviews with a local working in what would be considered the global south to gain their perspectives and insights into volunteers from abroad.

The organisation I am looking at is Global Citizen Year, which came up multiple times as I looked for some of the most popular organisations for volunteer tourism. I have used social media data mining to examine eight randomly selected blogs from participants of the organisation that outline their daily routines and experiences. The organisation refers to the high school graduate participants as ‘fellows’, and is a term I will be adopting for the purposes of describing participants of Global Citizen Year in this paper.

In addition to this, I wanted to examine the imagery and words used in the promotional material that the organisation puts out, and what they may connote.

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Global Citizen Year Fellow and high school graduate assisting in “birthing rooms� at a hospital in Otavalo. Ecuador.

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Some of the themes that have emerged through my research findings have reemphasised the general themes of neo-colonialism and imperialism, but have also led me to question what the purpose or value of the year long programmes is. What the organisation seems to offer, as inferred from the blogs of the ‘fellows’ that partook in a Global Citizen Year programme is a cultural exchange at best. Fellows take language classes to learn the local language, they live with host families and become familiar with the local culture and routines.

Some of the tasks that are assigned to fellows warrant questioning of whether they are best suited in terms of skillsets for the work they are tasked with. One such example is a fellow from Maryland, USA spending his year in Ecuador. His apprenticeship involves him working in a hospital, assisting “an obstetrician, some gynecologists, a midwife, and nurses.”.

The purpose or learning objective of this task is unclear at best, and the ethics and appropriateness of placing an unskilled high school graduate in “birthing rooms” questionable at worst.

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The purpose or learning objective of this task is unclear at best, and the ethics and appropriateness of placing an unskilled high school graduate in “birthing rooms” questionable at worst.

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Another testimony from a Norwegian fellow claims that “At the high school, I co-teach a 9th, 10th and 11th grade class with my supervisor, and have sole responsibility for teaching English to a 7th grade class in which there are over 80 students.” It is hard to imagine that a recent high school graduate would be put in charge of teaching a 7th grade class in Norway, or anywhere else in the “global north” for that matter, yet it is an acceptable service to offer in Senegal. Although subtle, these findings reflect the concerns of imperialism outlined in my literature review.

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Global Citizen Year website

It is hard to imagine that a recent high school graduate would be put in charge of teaching a 7th grade class in Norway, or anywhere else in the ‘Global North’ for that matter, yet it is an acceptable service to offer in Senegal.

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Global Citizen Year Recruitment Postcard An issue that emerged through my findings in examining the promotional material for the organisation is photography’s power and culpability in the othering of a group of people. This is not an uncommon concept, as stated in the book Colonislist Photography; that there is “emphasis on singular iconographic types, for example, the labourer’s shack, at the expense of the ‘particulars of the where, who, and how of the photographs’ origins, function, and circulation’.” (Hight and Sampson, 2013).

This rings somewhat true in the kind of imagery that is used not only in the featured blogs of fellows, but in a promotional recruitment postcard the organisation disseminates. (See postcard).

Similarly the website is peppered with such imagery, the with blogs filled with tropes of the single (often Western) foreigner surrounded by locals that is common in the volunteer tourism industry.

(See Image 2). Images of this nature are problematic not only because they play into stereotypes, but because photography has often been “inextricably implicated in the colonial project of expansion and domination at every level: commercial, administrative, scientific, ethnographic and aesthetic” and that the camera is “a descriptive, classificatory tool used to establish racial difference” (Adamson, 2004).

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This concept of racial difference came up again in my research in the interview I conducted with a Nepali local and an Indian local, both of whom have experience working with foreign volunteers as well as being involved as volunteers in their own communities. In the interest of maintaining their anonymity, I will refer to my interviewees as Gopal and Hana.

Through the interview , Gopal used the term “white skin” to describe volunteers/ tourists from abroad and the same term was used (in Hindi) by Hana. Gopal described situations in which locals seemed to look at foreigners, in particular “white skins”, as a novelty.

“When “white skins” are here… little kids chase them and ask for candy. There’s a perception that they have a lot of money so [in restaurants] there are different menus for foreigners with double or triple the prices for the same thing”.

Tied to this concept was the tension between (often long term) local volunteers and short term volunteers from abroad; “something a “white skin” does is more valuable” and “whatever they do is so good... even if it’s less than what a local is doing for them!” On the flip side, Hana expressed that a sort of acceptance of this value placed on “white skin” was perpetuated by locals: “people are basically…[crazy for white skin]…This is their psyche and it’s time people change and talk of it.”

Hana’s family also hosts kids who come to

the small town she is a local of, Bharuch, in exchange programmes similar in nature to that of Global Citizen Year, but the emphasis is placed on cultural exploration, rather than volunteering or aid. Regardless, there are certain volunteering activities that the exchange students do take part of or assist local volunteers with. She describes the typical experience the exchange students often go through and their general behaviour: “First they have never seen such slums in their life…so [they are] busy taking pictures of it all...garbage, gutters; people; animals; kids… everything amuses them.

Second stage; finally begin[] to feel empathy. [They] like being involved and tell us they want to do more such projects…”

Hana says her family enjoy hosting exchange students and will continue to do so, because the learning that comes from this cultural exchange is invaluable, even if it is not always positive. She shares an experience of one student, who came from an affluent family in Italy, but had issues adjusting to the local customs and norms.

When asked about impact, both interviewees emphasised the fact that volunteers are often involved in short term interventions, even when they are dealing with long term problems. They both value the impact local volunteers make far more than volunteers from abroad, and view foreigners more as tourists than aids. Gopal mentioned that he would not want to stop

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foreigners coming in, especially when they “as tourists they come and buy things and eat out… so it’s good for the local economy and revenue”. Yet when it comes to making an impact, he believes in his tightly knit community, unfamiliarity with the local language, culture, and even contacts limits volunteers from making the same kind of impact locals do, and believes that the work volunteers from abroad do is not possible without local support.

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While these concepts do not directly relate to neo-colonialism and imperialism, as described in much of my literature review, I have uncovered the complexity and nuances that point towards an imperialist attitude on part of the participants/volunteers/fellows and the organisations that facilitate these trips/ projects. While Global Citizen year claims their programme is “for the adventurous, the curious, and those driven to make an impact…” (Global Citizen Year, 2014), what it really seems to be marketing is a cultural experience that benefits the fellow, rather than a programme built to empower or aid a host community. Furthermore, perhaps the communities fellows go into do not need volunteers. The global south is no longer, and it never was, an underprivileged region or society as a whole, and “functions as more than a metaphor for underdevelopment”, it is a loaded and complex term that carries with it not only concepts of colonialism and neo-imperialism but “differential economic and social change through which large inequalities in living standards, life expectancy, and access to resources are maintained.” (Dados and Connell, 2012). As one fellow wrote in her blog about her misconceptions and environment: “My home in Ecuador is far from the rural environment I used to picture when I thought of Ecuador. I listened to past fellows and imagined myself in a simple home, surrounded by farmland, with bucket showers and laundry washed in

the river. Instead, I live in Otavalo, a ten minute walk to my favorite cafe, in a house with a washing machine and a hot shower and TVs in every room.”

Through my limited research, I see the gap in giving a platform to host communities and locals as an opportunity to reframe the purpose of these programmes, and what they are “selling”. Especially true in the case of Global Citizen Year, there is more transparency in its marketing than there is in the voluntourism industry in general– despite some of the problematic aspects that I have analysed. The programme does not claim to be aiding the host community (although through use of terms like “impact” and “change” it is something that can be inferred), and frames the programme as an opportunity for the participants of the programme to be exposed to a new culture.

One way to empower the host communities by allowing them to take charge of the narratives that are told about them through the words and images that are used by organisations.

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My home in Ecuador is far from the rural environment I used to picture when I thought of Ecuador. I listened to past fellows and imagined myself in a simple home, surrounded by farmland, with bucket showers and laundry washed in the river. Instead, I live in Otavalo, a ten minute walk to my favorite cafe, in a house with a washing machine and a hot shower and TVs in every room.

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Design

brief

overview Designing a set of tools which focus on an exchange between participants and locals in host communities and can be adopted by existing voluntourism organisations involving students.

This includes guides for appropriate marketing material and collateral (akin to a visual style guide and a tone of voice guide) which can be used as a toolkit for appropriate lexicon and imagery used in the promotional material and brand touchpoints of the organisation.

Another outcome is a (possibly digital) platform that facilitates a dialogue between hosting families/communities and fellows/ participants that can be used a resource to bridge the gap between host communities and participants. The platform could be used to “crowdsource� projects, information, build a community. This platform also gives participants invaluable access to the insights of local communities.

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Drivers: What are the goals for the project?

This toolkit is meant to be a resource not only for individuals looking to learn more about the complexity and discourse surrounding voluntourism (before participating in it), but also as a catalyst for a bigger change in the industry through small interventions that can be applied to existing organisations. It also addresses the main concern of host communities not having a voice, especially when it comes to representing themselves through marketing material and social media.

Audience Primary audience Host communities/locals and volunteers in cities that receive an influx of voluntourists, volunteer tourists, volunteer tourism organisations, high school and college students, existing voluntourism programmes (especially those facilitated by schools and universities).

Secondary audience Tourism industry, academics, aid and development workers.

Implementation Alongside a digital platform, the toolkit can be promoted through printed collateral, and also by implementing it in service learning trips within schools and universities, community centres, and promoted using social media.

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a reflection This research has limitations, and a significant limitation I wish to bring to light is that this is as research and paper written by someone with a Western education, residing in the West, at a Western institution. While one of my methods involved interviewing locals of host communities to gain insight into their experiences, the design brief was developed independently of any input from the host communities it may affect, and even the target audience of voluntoruism participants. Ideally, I see this as an opportunity for a long term project between designers, as well as locals and communities, from both sides, (the Orient and the Occident, so to speak), with a shared ownership of the objectives and goals and outcomes of the project.

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