"Never before has man had such a great capacity to control his own environment, to end hunger, poverty, and disease, to banish illiteracy and human misery. We have the power to make the best generation of mankind in the history of the world."
J.F. Kennedy (1963)
The war on poverty has been and still is central to the global geopolitical order.
Used by various dominant ideologies, namely the US (western bloc) and the USSR (communist bloc) during the Cold War, the war against poverty, later translated into development, was the cover of negotiation between countries.
Notably after the World War II and the end of colonialism, development became the new articulation shaping the relationship between the West and the so-called
“Third World." The northern capitalist countries have self-declared that it was their duty to disseminate their technical knowledge to assist the underdeveloped countries to catch up to the western model of society (Rist, 1996).
In this context, the concept of international volunteers was born for the first time when John F Kennedy, in the early 60s, labeled as the US Peace Corps. The idea was to send young American volunteers to the “Third World” to contribute to their development. The concept gained in popularity among young people and generated enthusiasm.
Chapitre1.Introduction
Later, the mediatisation of humanitarianism through television programs, concerts as well as the use of celebrities as theatrical figures has transformed global and humanitarian work into a theatre of suffering, which can appear appealing, even sexy, especially among young people (Lilie Chouliaraki, 2012).
For example, we can cite Angelina Jolie as the UNHCR goodwill ambassador.
Thus, the global socio-economic issues are no longer only a matter of governments or a political activist fight. They became a matter of concern and action for ‘ordinary' people.
This rise of concern for social inequalities and global ecological problems drives many people to escape the capitalist system and the modern world through different forms of expressions, mainly in consumption which is the reflection and mirror of the contemporary society (Baudrillard, 1998).
Thus, this growing interest and commitment toward social issues lead to the emergence and proliferation of the alternative consumption.
The tourism industry was strongly affected by this shift. The new tourist is not anymore interested in traditional ways of traveling and mass tourism.
Today, the "post-tourist" is looking for more personalized experiences. The hedonism and hyperreality that are the characteristics of postmodern society, where the copy was more real than the real (for example Disneyland) are now replaced by a return to the search for the authentic that is consumed, this time, to make the show (charity spectacle).
The tourism industry seems increasingly fragmented between different niche’s of tourism. Many forms of alternative tourism (Smith & Eadington, 1992) appear, such as responsible tourism, (Wheeller, 1991), sustainable tourism (Wheeller, 1993; Stanford, 2000) and low-impact tourism (Wearing & Neil, 1999), etc. All these new forms of travel have considerations for the environment as well as the wellbeing of local communities to avoid the harmful effects of mass tourism (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2008).
Along with that, other types of tourism involving people who are seeking for adrenaline and thrilling experiences are also in an expansion, or even cultural exchange and softer natural activities are continually gaining in popularity. For
Chapitre1.Introduction
instance adventure Tourism (Weber, 2001; Buckley, 2006) including physical adventure like hiking and mountain climbing.
Volunteer tourism could be situated between these two forms of travel. It has a moral dimension with a wiliness to share the local life. It offers the perfect formula for a total immersion into a Hero Journey, an experience that combines tourism and volunteerism through participation in social projects in developing countries, such as orphanages, to contribute to poverty alleviation (Wearing, 1991). It allows young people without experience, sometimes also without qualification, to play the role of humanitarian workers during their holidays, reconciling their altruistic motivations (helping the poor) and their self-interest (leisure and self-realization). Volunteer tourism is interesting because it involves two kinds of exoticism. The first form of exoticism is through an encounter with an ‘other’ who is geographically situated on the other side of the earth. Usually, a ‘savage other’ associated with sexuality, romance, and wildness (Said, 1978).
The second form of exoticism is related to the encounter with poverty. While the first form of exoticism is widespread in the tourism industry, the second form is relatively new in tourism.
Mostafanezhad, 2013). The central debate is whether this new form of tourism could be beneficial for all stakeholders, namely the host, guest and sending organizations. Although the previous studies provide essential insights into volunteer tourism, they have mostly been limited to studying one single actor. So far, few studies have tried to adequately identify and cover all relevant actors
Chapitre1.Introduction
involved in volunteer tourism. Besides, while poverty is fundamental to the volunteer tourism experience, it does not receive enough attention. Even among the critical stream of research that focuses on the commoditization of development and neoliberal agenda, but rarely questioned the legitimacy of volunteer tourism as a trade of poverty (Guttentag, 2009; Sin, 2009; Palacio, 2010; Conran, 2011; Mostafanezhad, 2013).
It is important to underline that volunteer tourism is not only an emergent market, but it is also most probably one of the most intriguing and complex phenomena’s. It captures the paradoxes of our contemporary society many ways. Firstly It reflects the relationship that binds the North to the South and thus illuminates very well the ambiguity of the representations to the other and the self. Second, it demonstrates the relationship between the world and the society, the changes regarding social engagement and hence the new forms of social commitment. Third, it is an excellent example of the depoliticization of significant issues such as social justice by reducing them to a market.
Therefore, studying volunteer tourism from a single angle or by analyzing only an actor is reducing a social phenomenon to a simple consumption’s trend.
Similarly, ignoring the fact that this is a poverty business in a postcolonial world legitimizes and reinforces the neoliberal exploitation and its expansion.
I believe that our job and duty as a researcher is to shed light and understand society's phenomenon to contribute to the global emancipatory project of humanity. Therefore, this research work is inscribed within public sociology.
According to Burawoy (2005, p.7) “Public sociology brings sociology into a conversation with publics, understood as people who are themselves involved in the conversation. It entails, therefore, a double conversation ».
Hence, drawing on post-development theory (Escobar, 1995), postcolonial theory (Said, 1978) as much as on the theory of individual society (especially Ehrenberg, 1994; 1995; 2008), this dissertation aims to fill this gap. I seek to have a holistic and critical approach to analyze the interaction between the main
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actors, namely the volunteers, the host community and the sending organization through a dialogue between a macro and micro perspectives.
Therefore, paper 1 answers the question how is volunteer tourism as poverty’s business packaged to the western society? Paper 2 explores, how young western volunteers consume poverty? Paper 3, takes into consideration the local point of view and attempts to shed lights on what they think about volunteer tourism? And finally, paper 4 examines, to what extent material poverty is central to the volunteer tourist journey?
In the next section, I develop the structure of the thesis and give a small account of the purpose of each paper.