CHAPITRE 4. CONSUMING POVERTY IN THE VOLUNTEER
4.1. L ITERATURE REVIEW
4.1.2. T HE DARK SIDES OF THE VOLUNTEER TOURISM INDUSTRY
Some scholars have contested the idealistic conceptions of volunteer tourism as a moral, pro-poor, and responsible form of tourism. They attempt to shed light on
Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage
its dark facets. One of the most common debates concerns the effective contribution to the local population and its possible negative impacts. The role of volunteers, their contribution to capacity development, and the sustainability of the volunteer tourist programs have been questioned (Guttentag, 2009; Palacio, 2010; Sin, 2009; Conran, 2011). Most of this research shows that volunteering programs pretend to have a development agenda but in reality only serve to build curriculum vitae and develop multicultural skills (Devereux, 2008). In addition, Guttentag (2009) pointed out the negative impacts on local communities in terms of dependency on the volunteer tourism organizations.
Some researchers have also addressed the sentimentality and affective dimension of the volunteer tourism experience (Crossly, 2012; Mostafanezhad, 2013; Frazer & Waitt, 2016). The outcomes of sentiments such as compassion (Mostafanezhad, 2013), pain (Frazer & Waitt, 2016), and anxiety (Crossly, 2012) while facing poverty in developing countries have been questioned. This stream of research claims that these sentiments do not change anything about the reality of local populations; rather, it minimizes the importance of social and global inequality issues and romanticizes poverty. As Mostafanezhad (2013, p.
333) argues, “The answers we need are not sentimental—they are political”.
Furthermore, drawing on postcolonial and feminist theories, some critical scholars claim that volunteer tourism is a vehicle of neoliberalism’s expansion.
Through orientalist and neo-colonial imaginaries that reinforce the representation of the other as underdeveloped and uncivilized, volunteer tourism reproduces the social inequalities and legitimizes the intervention of the
“developed world” to catch modernity (Simpson, 2004; Brown, 2005; Callanan &
Thomas, 2005; Devereux, 2008; Palacios, 2010; Sin, 2009; Mostafanezhad, 2013). According to Duffy and Moore (2010, p743), “Volunteer tourism is not simply reflective of global neoliberalization, but is in fact an important constitutive element which expands and deepens processes of neoliberalization, especially in the south”.
Another disadvantage of volunteer tourism concerns the appropriation of development and humanitarian aid by the tourism industry (Lyon & Wearing, 2012; Mostafanezhad, 2013). Wearing and Lyon (2012) for example, suggest
Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage
that private tour operators and other private organizations have co-opted the concept of volunteer tourism and transformed it into a very lucrative industry.
According to them, volunteer tourism is transformed as soon as it enters the neoliberal and capitalist market logic by losing its original aim of community development and poverty alleviation. According to this line of research, volunteer tourism is situated between the corporate vision of private organizations based on profit maximization and the philosophy of NGOs founded on community development (Wearing, 2001; Wearing & McDonald, 2005).
Overall, critical research on volunteer tourism has focused on its impact on and contributions to the hosting community. However, the concept itself and its legitimacy have rarely been challenged as long as the volunteer tourism program was governed by non-lucrative organizations. The fundamental idea behind volunteer tourism has remained the same, and the assumption that the underdeveloped world needs the help and assistance of the Western world remains mostly unchallenged (Rist, 2014).
In this context, poverty is central to the volunteer tourism experience. Unlike mainstream tourism, in which poverty consumption is limited to observation and photography, or material donations, in which the donor is not directly confronted by the misery, volunteer tourism includes participation and immersion in the material and cultural contexts of the other—a double and complex confrontation.
However, little research has investigated how volunteer tourists live and consume poverty.
In this paper, I suggest considering volunteer tourism as the commoditized form of the humanitarianism and development. It allows tourists to play the role of humanitarian workers in “developing” countries during their journey. The volunteer tourist epitomizes the hero role, with the intention to live a life experience—if not the life experience—in which he/she intends to help vulnerable populations in the remotest places of the world (Tomazos & Butler, 2010). This paper is based on a case study of volunteer tourists working in a Nepalese orphanage. How does this everyday life experience reflect the postcolonial and Eurocentric attitudes appearing in the volunteers’ narratives?
Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage
How do they consume poverty? After a presentation of the methodology, the next sections will provide answers to these questions.
4.2.Methodology
I use the extended case method (Burawoy, 1998) to critically analyze the volunteer tourism phenomenon through a dialogue between three volunteers’
individual experiences and the dynamics of globalization and postcolonialism.
According to Burawoy (1998, p.5), “The extended case method deploys participant observation to locate everyday life in its extra local and historical context. The extended case method emulates a reflexive model of science that takes as premise the intersubjectivity of scientist and subject of study”.
As a part of my PhD thesis, I undertook an ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage in the district of Lalitpur. The study lasted two months over two periods, from December 2013 to January 2014 and then from January 2015 to February 2016. During my stay, I participated in the daily life of the orphanage as a volunteer. This allowed me to become immersed in the field and observe the interactions between volunteers and their host families. I informed my peer volunteers, the locals, and the organization of my research. Among 20 volunteers, I chose to focus on only three of them—namely, Alison, Charlotte, and John—to deepen the analysis and inscribe their life history within a macro-political order. Alison and Charlotte volunteered in the same orphanage as I did;
I had close relationships with both of them. John was in another orphanage;
however, we had deep conversations and permanent contact through social media. In addition, I used volunteers’ blogs to understand how they tell their stories and the way they present themselves.
The triangulation of different data sources such as interviews, blogs, and observations helped me to reach this aim and have a global view.
The next section will expose the volunteers’ narratives. First, I present the representations of the other and self and the reasons behind the decision to volunteer. Second, I exposed some narratives that illustrate the dialectical tensions between romantic and moralistic narratives. Third, the disillusionment
Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage
phase is developed, and finally, I present how the attitudes toward disenchantment are different, from paternalistic to reflexive narratives.
Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage
Figure 2: The main phases in a volunteer Tourism Journey
• Orientalist and development narrative
• Global citizen narrative
representation of The otherness before
the trip
• Romantic narrative
• Sexuality
• Moralistic narrative
Confrontation with the otherness
• The orphanage market
• The useless of volunteer
Disillusionment
• Paternalistic narrative
• Reflexive Narrative
Post disillusionment
Chapitre 4. Consuming poverty in the volunteer tourism experience: An ethnographic study in a Nepalese orphanage