F UTURE RESEARCH

At the end of a journey, limitations can be fairly recognized because it avoids to the PhD student the hero syndrome, but also because there are foundations for the next steps. This dissertation contributes to shed light on some critical issues on volunteer tourism. It also raises further questions for new research avenues.

In this section, I suggest some promising future research that I consider noteworthy.

First, to extend knowledge on volunteer tourism, it is crucial to include other actors, human and non-human, and analyze their role in orphanage business in Nepal. In this country, the orphanage tourism is becoming a big business under the dark market. According to UNICEF, it is at a point that children are kidnaped to create new orphanages (For more information, please see the UNICEF campaign against Orphanage tourism http://unicef.org.np/media-centre/reports- and-publications/2015/05/10/orphanage-voluntourism-in-nepal-what-you-should-know). It is noteworthy to understand to whom this market is beneficiary apart from western sending organization?

Another promising future research is the power relationship between the local organization and the final beneficiary. During my fieldwork in Nepal, I have been in touch with many local projects (orphanages and school) as well as host

Chapitre7. Conclusion 155

families. I noted that the local organization that represents the intermediate between international organizations and final projects has some power over the ultimate beneficiaries. Also, the criterion to chose a project over another is not clear as in my knowledge. Unfortunately, my interviews and the length of my stays did not allow me to explore this dimension. I think this is an essential link in the volunteer tourism market, which must be studied.

Furthermore, while the intersection between sex and tourism has been studied in a different context (Staszak, 2012, 2015; Leheny, 1995 et al.), it was not addressed in the context of volunteer tourism. It is for sure necessary to explore the dimension of sexuality. And also to situated the conversation between the ethics of host/ guest sexuality and the question of emancipation. This dimension is very complex and usually taboo; that is why it needs in-depth analysis and an extended research stay.

Along with that last research proposition, I suggest also exploring the intersection of gender and volunteer tourism. Not only gender and sexuality, but also the issue of gender and care (Daly & Rake, 2003; Lewis, 1998), are important to deepen our understanding. More broadly, gender and poverty is potentially an interesting lens of analysis that could give new insights on volunteer tourism market (Shiva, 1988; Cagatay, 1998; Kabeer & Mahmud, 2004 et al.).

And finally, most importantly the local perspective needs further research and study. It is also interesting to compare different countries and to see how the market is working in each country and how the locals deal with it. The concept of infrapolitics illuminated some aspect of the local perception but there is still a lot to do. For this purpose, I conducted another field study in Morocco between September and November 2016. I choose Morocco precisely to overcome the language barrier. I interviewed twelve young men, and the preliminary results are quite impressive.

Chapitre7. Conclusion

156

*

* *

The volunteer tourism is a very vibrant and multifaceted phenomenon. There is a lot of research that needs to be investigated. With all the limitations that certainly has my dissertation, I am very proud and happy to have contributed to the critical stream of research of volunteer tourism. I hope my work will be published and diffused to feed productive debates, in academia of course, but also in the City of the citizens.

Chapitre7. Conclusion

7.5.References

Burawoy, M. (1991). Ethnography Unbound: Power And Resistance In The Modern Metropolis. California, United States of America University of California Press.

Burawoy, M. (1998). The extended case method. Sociological Theory, 16(1), 4-33.

Burawoy, M. (2009). The Extended Case Method: Four Countries, Four Decades, Four Great Transformations, And One Theoretical Tradition.

California, United States of America, University of California Press.

Butcher, J., & Smith, P. (2015). Volunteer tourism: The lifestyle politics of international development. Oxon & New York: Routledge.

Cagatay, N. (1998). Gender and poverty. UNDP, Social Development and Poverty Elimination Division.

Daly, M., & Rake, K. (2003). Gender And The Welfare State: Care, Work And Welfare In Europe And The USA. John Wiley & Sons.

Ehrenberg, A. (1994). Le culte de la performance.Paris, Calmann-Lévy.

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York.

Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (2007). Ethnography: Principles in practice.

Routledge.

Kabeer, N., & Mahmud, S. (2004). Globalization, gender and poverty:

Bangladeshi women workers in export and local markets. Journal of International Development, 16(1), 93-109.

Leheny, D. (1995). A political economy of Asian sex tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 22(2), 367-384.

Lewis, J. E. (1998). Gender, Social Care, And Welfare State Restructuring In Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate Pub Ltd.

Chapitre7. Conclusion

Mostafanezhad, M. (2013). The geography of compassion in volunteer tourism. Tourism Geographies, 15(2), 318-337.

Norman K. Denzin, & Yvonna S. Lincoln. (2005). The Sage handbook of qualitative research. United States of America: Sage.

Shiva, V. (1988). Staying alive: Women, ecology, and survival in India (p. 56).

New Delhi: Kali for Women.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1994). Grounded theory methodology. Handbook of qualitative research, 17, 273-85.

Staszak, J. F. (2012). L'imaginaire géographique du tourisme sexuel. L'Information géographique, 76(2), 16-39.

Staszak, J. F. (2015). Colonial tourism and prostitution: the visit to Bousbir in Casablanca (1924-1955). Via. Tourism Review, (8).

Van Velsen, J. (1967). The Extended-case Method and Situational Analysis.

Tavist

Appendixes

Appendixes

Appendix 1: HOPAD presentation Appendix 2: ICYE application form

Appendix 3: The researcher’s contract with the sending organization Appendix 4: An excerpt from a volunteer’s interview

Appendix 5: An excerpt from a local’s interview Appendix 6: An example from a volunteer’s blog

Appendixes

Appendix 1: HOPAD presentation

Appendix 2: ICYE application form

Appendix 3: The researcher’s contract with the sending organization

Appendix 4: An excerpt from a volunteer’s interview

January 2015 in the monastery project

Researcher: Ok first present yourself? Your name? Your age? What are you doing? Your country?

The volunteer: 26 from Australia in the pool volunteering in the monastery

Researcher: For a month?

The volunteer: For a month, yes

Researcher: And what was your motivation to come here…to Nepal ? The volunteer: Oh since I was doing the trekking ! So during the trek I really enjoyed it, I just wanted to do kind of something else, so I went back, and I always was interested by Boudhism and… and I didn’t have a good understanding of it, so I thought I will be coming here and I will learn a lot about it and I give back as well

Researcher: And what do you know about volunteering like international volunteering?

The volunteer: Not a great deal…like I said it before, I was not volunteering in Australia because they have systems in place to assist in poverty and assist people who can’t assist themselves but as for international volunteering I don’t know how does it look what I did is I got online and I searched for volunteering and looked for the programs

Researcher: And you found this organization?

The volunteer: Yeah

Researcher: What is it?

The volunteer: IFRI, it s a US organization,

Researcher: And how did you contact them? You mailed them? How did you reach them?

The volunteer: Yeah I emailed them, I told them my dates, when I will be free, and this organization fits well,

Researcher: Ah but you never meet them?

The volunteer: No never Researcher: Really?

The volunteer: Like I said I have very little contact with the organization itself since all I did I emailed and I get contacted with Hom ! At the hostel and then everything was through Hom !

Researcher: Ok I see

The volunteer: That’s why I was deceived when I asked the guys how much money they receive it wasn’t anywhere as much money as I gave to the organization

Amira: How much did you paid?

The volunteer: I paid 700 US and I found that they get only 80 US which is 80 dollars, next time if I will be back I will directly go through the organization through monastery

Researcher: The organization from where you come they do not tell you anything about how they distribute the money?

The volunteer: Nothing, nothing at all

Appendix 5: An excerpt from a local’s interview

January 2015, in the interviewee home Researcher: Did they respect the culture?

Local coordinator: Yeah usually they respect the culture, they want to the tamal ? They drink, you know the people, they like the wine, but when people abuse, drink more alcohol than they should…, we never mind but he is not the one who speaks it is always alcohol who speaks, and things like these.

Researcher: What will determine a good project in your point of view?

Local coordinator: two factors will be responsible for having very nice volunteering in a very poor country an under developed country, the two factors are the agency and the volunteers, agencies are running the program at the countries, they have to be more open, they have to say to them all the information about the country, if they can not say to them everything, everything about the situation of the country and the country, at least agencies have to suggest to the volunteers before flying to countries please read this before flying to Nepal, that means it has to be some cultural thing this will be some of the behaviour of the people in Nepal, this should be more about clear about the project, you have to say that before flying to Nepal, there is no hot water in the place where you will stay, there is no very nice bed like this bed, you have to sleep on the bed or something like that, you have to discuss this, and prepare yourself, you can tell please bring some blanket, like the sleeping bags.

Researcher: Yeah, it helps, it is nothing but it changes everything, even the small things, the bread

Local coordinator: They have to read all the Agency books, they

have to read if I read it, I know about that, if I read like this

blablablablabla I will not keep that in memory, you have to keep that in their memories, when going to Nepal, in Nepal it is like this and like this and like this, and then when they come to Nepal they feel confortable.

Researcher: So for you basically it is a problem of briefing?

Local coordinator: Yeah, it is, it is! The people and the agencies, not trying to take them clearer, it’s a problem of society? People will always keep it secret about all this, it’s written on the paper not profitable organization but but they want profit and making more money, I know that the people they have to be, they have to sustain to survive, for surviving they need some standards for the food, ok no problem how much they need 30000 they can make that money for the survival but making huge money, half million dollars??!!!

Researcher: organization or projects?

Local coordinator: Organization, and what’s written on the paper,

non-profit organization. We are doing this. We are supporting the

community. But the community doesn’t get support from them it’s

been 9 years working with that, sometimes I do not want to go and

see, want to see the politics or something like that, it has been 9 years

working with orphanages, orphanages, that I ‘am working with

orphanages how was that for the 9 years, it is still there, there is no

any changes, where is all the presents, what agencies are doing,

volunteers they want to come to Nepal for teaching in the school but

they don’t even speak English, what did you want to do, where do you

want to go, what’s you project, ok you will pay these money, the

agencies are not caring agencies are not able to see how persons are

able or not, they have to put like the criteria, you have to speak

English if you want to teach in the school.

Appendix 6: An example from a volunteer’s blog Alison’s Blog talking about our lunch

“

Amira and I have fun. Yesterday we had a nice break from dal bhaat and

ate crackers with tuna and cheese and then had oranges for dessert. It was

nice to have a break from eating the same thing every day.

Dans le document Poverty business: the case of the volunteer tourism market, an ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage (Page 167-190)