C ONTRIBUTIONS

Overall, it is evident that this dissertation does not reconstruct a big theory like the postcolonial theory nor does it create new concepts. However, this work consolidates these theories/concepts by constructing a dialogue between them.

For example, in articles one and two, the combination of post-development theory and the theory of the society of individuals allows to broaden the angle of analysis and to have a new understanding of the actors' narratives and attitudes.

For instance, I showed how the archetype of the hero dreamed by young people and sold by the agencies is the resultant of the rise of the culture of performance and at the same time of the mediatisation of the suffering and humanitarian interventions. Thus, theories are crucial to understand the context of the determination of micro situations as suggested by the Extended Case Method.

Burawoy (2009, p.55) argues:

“Theory is essential to each dimension of the extended case method. It guides interventions, it constitutes situated knowledge into social processes, and it locates those social process in their wider context of determination”

Besides, this dissertation gives a new context, through the case of volunteer tourism in Nepal and hence moves from situational knowledge to theory. In the extended case method, the way to reconstruct arguments is usually the fieldwork because it provides new and particular cases. According to Burawoy (2009, p.47):

“Theorizing is compiling situational knowledge into an account of social process…situations involve relations of copresence, providing the conditions that reproduce relations”

One interesting example is the conversation I had with Alison when she started dating the Nepalese guy. Her attitude toward him comparing to other white men, have intrigued me. I start seeing more clearly other cases with other volunteers.

Chapitre7. Conclusion

148

By connecting this to orientalism literature I outlined the sexuality dimension and contributed to the volunteer tourism literature. Hence the dialectic between situational knowledge (field work) and global forces and theories allows challenging the existing knowledge on volunteer tourism and expending it.

Moreover, I believe that the most significant contribution was developed in paper three and four. I tried to challenge the pre-established power relationship between host and guest. First, by hearing their voice. Also, by seeing them as equal, at least as active actors, instead of victims. Of course, this is where – within the extended case method - reflexivity matters and helps. The fact that I am from a country of the south helped me a lot to understand some hidden scripts. It was relatively natural for me to catch those hidden scripts, even with the limit of language, because people in my country do the same. However, to avoid naive presumptions, the concept of infrapolitics elucidates local's narratives. Thus, in paper 3, I showed how locals still have agency beyond global forces, at least on the local level.

I also challenged the power relationship order by bringing on the stage a present but forgotten actor. Actor-Network Theory was very useful to understand the critical role of non-human actors through the character of head lice. I showed how small incidents (having lice) could destabilize the order of things and create a new dynamic.

Hence, a unique and stable reality does not exist. The knowledge is co-constructed through actor’s interaction as well as for the power relationship.

Even in the most unjust world, the most oppressive and the most racist, the power relationship is an ongoing process. It could not last forever.

I elaborate this last idea of actor’s interaction and co-creation in the next section using the theatre metaphor. I try to bring together the concepts and theories I used in this dissertation namely the post development theory, the individual

Chapitre7. Conclusion 149

society, ANT, the hero journey, the global citizenship and finally infrapolitics. The metaphor of theatre helps to reach this goal using the story telling approach.

7.2.1.Paradoxes in volunteer tourism: Reality or a Stage?

The four papers highlight a central idea that constitutes the original contribution of this work. I argue in this dissertation that volunteer tourism marketplace is a stage. Ervin Goffman (1959) shows that our life is a stage where individuals play different roles according to situations and the part of their personality they want to present to others.

On the other hand, if the market as a whole presents, in my opinion, a theater of the paradoxes of the individual society as well as that of the postcolonial world, the experience lived by each actor is still genuine and authentic. By theater, I mean the public narrative, or how the story is told to the public. Moreover, it is for this reason that the participant observation is necessary for the study of these experiences. It is the only way to discover the hidden descript and the internal dynamics of the actors.

Therefore, the volunteer tourism is a stage with, as leading actors, volunteers, hosts, and organizations. Each actor plays a role in her/his interaction with others. Although these three actors have different, sometimes contradictory, realities, ambitions, and objectives, this play seems to work wonderfully. In fact, through the four papers, I showed how the principles actors of volunteer tourism have all incorporated a capitalist set of mind, even when they try to escape it.

That is why this market works so well besides all its drawbacks.

The sending organizations use the icon of the poor child to attract potential volunteers in search of glory and fame or the one who are in a quest of authentic experience. A tremendous amount of money is spent every year in this business. In the case of Nepal, realities are filtered to fit in with a romantic and peaceful image of the country. For example, the country has been ravaged by a long war between the Maoist rebels - now in the government - and the royal power. It seems that between the hippies of Kathmandu of the 1960s and now,

Chapitre7. Conclusion

150

the media and even the Nepalese themselves, have hidden this terrible episode of the country's history. In the same vein, material poverty is romanticised. For instance, paper four, on head lice encounter, showed that while the experience of volunteering is about encountering poverty, sending organizations tailored the image of poverty to the volunteer's expectations. For this reason, the actual encounter, through the everyday life in the orphanage, usually constitutes a breaking point in the volunteer's journey. It is not anymore a play, it becomes a real life that they have to deal with, and thus they need the knowledge of the locals.

It is noteworthy to precise that most volunteers have good intentions. They want to change the world, or only discover it. They try to be different and indeed want to be good global citizens. This attitude is one of the significant characteristics of the society of individuals. People express their opinion and political engagement individually, and consumption is a way to show oneself (Ehrenberg, 1991). In the case of the volunteer tourism, volunteers consume poverty just like they consume organic food in the supermarket. Most of them try to choose the right product to be in harmony with an image of a responsible lifestyle. However few question the real contribution of their actions. It was particularly interesting to see that even when volunteers discover the real orphanage life and their real role in this orphanage, they keep posting in their social media accounts pictures and stories of a hero journey. Hence, the volunteer tourism became a kind of campaign of seduction for self-promotion.

Finally, the local people involved in these projects. They play the central role in this piece of theatre. They did probably not choose to be on the stage, at least not playing the role of the victims and poor. Though, they are not naïf and passive as too often depicted. They are somewhat selective and opportunistic.

They learned to play the game because they need those incomes.

Consequently, they embedded the capitalist mindset. In fact, they use their poverty to have some outcomes because they understand the needs of the young western people. However, they also take the lead on this journey at some

Chapitre7. Conclusion 151

point. For instance, in paper three, I explained how locals set rules and control what is allowed and what is not. They also take advantage of volunteers and ask for money directly or indirectly. The genius of Prakash, the president of the orphanage, is impressing. He is running the orphanage upon the money of volunteers. He always keeps a sustainable relationship with volunteers and tries to engage them in future projects. He is also very professional; he gives proof and financial report to people who help with money. Isn’t this a proof that he does not only understand the system, but he is playing with its rules?

At the end of the story, no one has saved the world. Things stay like they were.

The poor are still poor and the rich richer. For some individuals however, it has been the experience of their life, for others just an experience among others. For Charlotte, the French volunteer, this experience was a life changing. While she was taking care of one of the children in the hospital, she met another volunteer from America, they fall in love and they get married. She is now pregnant with a girl and will move to the USA with her husband. Regarding, Alison, she moved definitively to Nepal one month ago, and she opened a start-up on permaculture to help Nepalese farming. For his part, John never talked again about Nepal, but one year after his journey, he went to China, met a girl and married her; now he is a father of a small girl, and he is traveling the world and sharing on YouTube videos about how to travel with a baby. The kids in the orphanage are growing up. The judo champion got a scholarship from a US university and moved there.

And Prakash is still dreaming of his school.

To conclude, I think that beyond the boundaries of the tourism industry, volunteer tourism is an excellent example of the changes and paradoxes of the contemporary western society, as much as the social and economic global inequalities and injustice. In the intersection of the global and the individual, volunteer tourism is a theatre of our contemporary postcolonial and capitalist world. Poverty is no longer a plague to be irradiated; it becomes instead a product to be consumed.

Chapitre7. Conclusion

152

This dissertation sheds light on the co-created aspect of the volunteer tourism mystification. While most of the studies blamed organizations, I showed that there is no unique victim of this market. It works because there is an implicit agreement between the main actors. Hence instead of criticizing the commercial organizations, I argue that the concept of volunteer tourism itself must be challenged because its very foundation is based on a development agenda, itself a matter of critics (Escobar, 1995 et al.).