The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons and motivations behind voluntourism in reference to working with children, and how these can be understood and analyzed within the framework of voluntourism research. A qualitative approach was used, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews and then evaluated with the use of a thematic analysis. This data was then analyzed in correlation to previous voluntourism research and through the theoretical frameworks of postcolonialism and neocolonialism. Eight interviews were conducted, with six voluntourists and two representatives from voluntourist organizations. Our findings were that the respondents had well-meaning intentions, along with complex and nuanced thoughts in relation to culture shocks, reflections, relationships with the children and rules and regulations given by the voluntourism organizations they traveled with. The conclusions drawn from these findings were that while intent does not trump impact, this phenomenon should be examined in relation to power dynamics and the privatization of development work.

Waverley; or ’Tis Sixty Years Since is an historical novel written by the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott which follows the adventures of Edward Waverley through the Scottish Highlands during the 1745–1746 Jacobite rebellion. It is, as has been suggested by previous research, a novel with a clear imperialistic bias and this essay adds to that discourse by applying the modern concept of the white savior complex. The white savior complex argues that white characters, in certain works, act as and are described as intelligent and moral saviors of non-white characters, who in turn are portrayed as unintelligent and immoral. Only by the actions of the white savior can they be saved. The complex is present mainly in the novel’s protagonist who drags the seemingly backwards society of the Scottish Highlands into a modern future as part of Great Brittan. This essay argues that the move from a backwards and archaic society to a modern and prosperous one would have been possible even without using the framework the white savior.