Volunteer tourism : a path to buen vivir?
Abstract
The popularity of volunteer tourism stems from its discursive positioning as fostering
mutually beneficial relations between volunteer tourists and the host destination.
Despite extensive scholarly work, the outcomes of this activity for host communities
and volunteer tourists are still unclear. This study examines how volunteer tourism is
interpreted across a range of stakeholders in two indigenous communities in Ecuador
- one Kichwa community in the town of Chilcapamba and one Tsa'chila community
near the town of Santa Domingo. Employing qualitative research methods of
interviews, focus groups, participant observation, document analysis and diary
analysis, this study makes multiple contributions to existing literatures. Through the
inclusion of host community members, it provides new insights into a tourist practice,
predominantly understood from the perspective of volunteer tourists from the Global
North. Moreover, it provides an alternative reading of volunteer tourism by framing
this activity through a worldview and political discourse originating from the Global
South - Buen Vivir or 'good living'.
The study argues that volunteer tourism functions through and reinforces the
structures and imaginaries of an unequal and uneven global economic system.
Chapter Four contextualises the study, deducing that despite using the discourses of
Buen Vivir the Ecuadorian state employs practices typical of the neoliberal agenda.
Chapter Five illustrates how host community members adopt and negotiate
knowledge and practices from the Global North, to satisfy the demands of the
volunteer tourism industry. Following this, Chapter Six argues that marginalised
community members mobilise the discourses of Buen Vivir, to challenge neoliberal
practices, which perpetuate existing inequalities in the communities. Finally, Chapter
Seven proposes that volunteer tourists demonstrate a neoliberal subjectivity in how
they manage and narrate their experience in the host communities. The study
concludes that volunteer tourism embodies the spirit of neoliberal development
models, whilst Buen Vivir provides a critical avenue for unsettling this agenda, by
providing a framework through which alternative possibilities can be imagined.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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