This study focuses on volunteers within the non-profit organization ‘WWOOF’ World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farming, which provides individuals the opportunity to experience a sustainable organic farming through volunteering.  As sustainability needs to be more valued within society and as individuals are seen to develop similar values from their social surrounding, the study examines how being a volunteer on a WWOOF farm influences the volunteer’s personal development. The material findings of 20 semi-structured interviews from previous WWOOF volunteers were collected and indicated four main outcomes: increased environmental awareness, community awareness, a sustainable lifestyle and personal growth among the volunteers. The outcomes are discussed in relation to the following main theories and concepts: sustainable worldview theory, symbolic interactionism, social identity theory, the Third Space and narrative identity theory. The sustainable societal values achieved among the volunteers indicated that being a volunteer on a WWOOF farm, can contribute to improve the global community

This research explores the ways in which volunteer tourism is perceived by local volunteer coordinators in communities in India and Uganda. It highlights the importance of forming a more nuanced understanding of local agency, particularly in relation to community-based tourism. Participants from Indian and Ugandan NGOs speak to what they perceive is the role, value, and purpose of hosting Western volunteers and illustrate some of the benefits and challenges. Postcolonial theory and equity theory are applied to evaluate what is still a highly inequitable global tourism structure, while alerting the reader to how some individuals are exercising control over this form of alternative tourism. By drawing on the link between development and tourism, this study explores the critical issues that participants reveal and closes with three design principles for Northern sending agencies, Southern host organizations, and volunteer tourists to consider in order that volunteer tourism may best benefit receiving communities. Key words: Alternative tourism, Volunteer tourism, India, Uganda, Development, Equity Theory, Postcolonial Theory

Many actors are taking advantage of the flexible barriers to entry of the tourist industry to engage in the production of varied forms of tourism closely related to their lifestyle, professional and communal ambitions. With the increased popularity of forms of tourism bringing the guest close to the host, it becomes relevant to ask questions related to lived experiences and close encounters in tourism scholarship. This is a moral conviction that the plurality of human experiences and critical reflexivity matter in the conception of tourist spaces and their management. In this thesis, I look for new ways to conceptually embed local people in their living spaces by approaching forms of tourism displaying non-economic elements as phenomena that create new and complex relations imbued with various implications. Tourism geography highlights the negotiated and fragmented nature of tourism, and its performative and embodied character. I apply relational geography to apprehend the multiple relations that make up local spaces and identities. With its post-structural character, relational geography uncovers voices once neglected in research, and proposes new ways of being in the world. My two qualitative case studies reflect my interest in exploring the northern European context. Firstly, I investigate craft-artists on Bornholm, Denmark and their relation to the tourist season. I do this through interviews and narrative analysis. My second case study, a focused ethnography at Sólheimar eco-village, Iceland, centres on the management of host and guest interactions.  In terms of spatial formation, results show that local actors have the agency to form networks and redefine their identities in the wake of tourism development. They form a hybrid space by fulfilling goals related to their lifestyle, livelihood and professional ambitions simultaneously. Moreover, mundane practices are presented as an integral part of a tourist landscape. In terms of management, results show that the various spatial complexities faced by communities exacerbate host and guest relations. This will require a commitment from local coordinators and managers to promote a reflexive and critical exchange during these close encounters. I ultimately argue for the imagination of tourist spaces as living spaces, where I conceptualize tourism as a mundane, yet complex, material and social experience for those living in tourist spaces. I propose two new discursive anchors that reflect the metaphor of the living space: dwelling in the tourist landscape, and sincere encounters. I contend that researching living spaces finds its moral grounds in its openness to the various ways local people dwell and encounter during tourism, and to the diverse ways researchers make sense of these practices, and of their own.

This qualitative study looks at host-guest interaction facilitated by the phenomenon of tourism social entrepreneurship through the lens of emotional solidarity. Social entrepreneurship is arguably the social innovation that tourism needs and has become an alternative strategy to develop tourism in host communities with the potential to create positive community change. However, the literature on combining sharing  economy, social or community entrepreneurship and emotional solidarity is scarce. Therefore, this study analyses host-guest interactions facilitated through the socialstart-up socialbnb. Findings from this study indicate that there are at least two crucial criteria forsustainable tourism development and positive community change. First, social entrepreneurship should create and facilitate tourism structures and networks, which avoid the negative impacts of tourism to the residents and instead create social,ecological, and economic benefits for the local community. Perhaps, focusing on theneeds of the local community and creating beneficial host-guest relationships is themost effective way to promote tourism development that is supported by residents.Thus, social entrepreneurship should not only act as a facilitator between guests and the local community but also consider the residents’ attitudes towards tourism development and the actual economic need for tourism in the destination, especially in the Global South.

De globala hållbarhetsmålen, antagna år 2015, ska verka för en global satsning för ökad social, ekonomisk, och miljömässig hållbarhet. I styrdokument publicerade 2018 från FN uppmanas berörda parter på olika nivåer att inkorporera mer ideellt engagemang i form av volontärarbete. Detta för att kunna etablera en lokal förankring som ska underlätta genomdrivandet av de 17 målen, med tillhörande 169 delmål. En typ av volontärarbete som vuxit fram de senaste 20 åren är så kallade volontärresor, där ofta unga västerlänningar åker för att hjälpa till i projekt i utvecklingsländer, i kombination med nöjesresor. I denna studie undersöks hur projekt som erbjuds av svenska volontärresebyråer kan relateras till de globala hållbarhetsmålen, samt hur olika publikationer från FN om volontärarbete och hållbar turism kan förstås utifrån kommersiell volontärturism. Här har fyra svenska volontärresebyråers projektbeskrivningar synats och jämförts med delmålen för Agenda 2030. Metoden som använts är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av projektbeskrivningar från volontärresebyråernas hemsidor. Rättighetsperspektivet (Human Rights Based Approach) har använts vid analysen för att se på vilket sätt projektbeskrivningarna kan ses vara rättighetsbaserade. Resultaten visar på att volontärturism främst berör hållbarhetsmål för utbildning och biologisk mångfald, genom engelskundervisning och vård av djur och natur. I de projekt som finns kan kvalitén på de insatser som görs ofta inte garanteras, och en medvetenhet kring hållbarhetsmålen tycks heller inte finnas. Engagemanget kan därför ses adressera effekterna av strukturella problem, men inte verka för en lösning av de grundläggande orsakerna till problemen. En förbättring som föreslås för att volontärturism ska kunna bidra till en väg till utveckling är att öka kopplingen i projekten till Agenda 2030 genom kunskapsspridning. / The sustainable development goals, published in 2015, were created as a global effort to increase sustainable social, economic and environmental development. In documents published in 2018 from the UN, relevant actors are encouraged to incorporate more voluntary work on different levels of society, in order to establish a local anchoring for the 17 goals with its’ 169 sub-targets. One kind of non-profit work that has gained popularity in the last 20 years are the so-called volunteer travels, where tourists, often young Westerners, travel in order to help out in developing countries, in combination with leisure activities. In this study, descriptions of projects that are offered by Swedish volunteer- travel agencies have been examined as to how they relate to the Sustainable Development Goals, along with how different publications from the UN on how volunteerism and sustainable tourism can be understood in regard to commercial volunteer tourism. Here, four Swedish volunteer tourist agencies have been examined and compared to the sub-targets for the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as Agenda 2030. The method used is a qualitative content analysis of the project descriptions found on the web pages of the volunteer tourist agencies. The Human Rights Based Approach has been used to analyse the data in order to investigate in what way the project descriptions can be seen as rights based. The result shows that volunteer tourism primarily is related to development goals concerning education and biological diversity, through English classes and care of animals and nature. The established projects that are available often cannot guarantee the quality of the efforts being made and do not seem to incorporate an awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals. The activity can therefore be seen as addressing the effects of structural problems, rather than a solution of the underlying causes of the problems. A possible improvement that is suggested for volunteer tourism to contribute more to a road to development, is to more emphasize the connection between projects in volunteer tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals, mainly through knowledge sharing.

No description available.

Volunteer tourism is a globally, popular and well-known field in which anyone may participate. During recent years the industry has increasingly received some criticism, in contrast to the otherwise quite commonly positive view of it. Hence, this thesis is taking a closer look at the industry and the discourse surrounding it and how the public opinion has changed during the last years. It will bring into light the impact volunteer tourism has both on the local communities and the volunteer tourists themselves. This will be done with respect to the following cases; positive, critical and seeing both sides of the discourse. The data derives from secondary and tertiary sources, the majority from articles from four of the world’s biggest newspapers. Post-Development theory will be used to identify the ideas regarding the discourse, which will be done with an approach of structured, focused comparison and critical discourse analysis. Additionally it will aim to identify the pros and cons with volunteer tourism and discuss why one of the perspectives might require more attention than it has had up until now. Significantly though, it will aim to provide the reader with an overall and objective view of the field.

The roots of international voluntary work can be said to stem back to the 19:th century missionary work. It is thus nothing new with westerners wanting to spread their knowledge or help the poor in other countries. However, relatively recently the international voluntary work or, as termed in this thesis, volunteer tourism have become more like an industry. Both the older phenomenon of non-profit organizers of volunteer travels and the newer, nowadays more visible, alternative of commercial companies are to choose from. Within this relatively new landscape of volunteer travels, this study seeks to understand the volunteers’ and the volunteer experience through a comparison of non-profit and profit organizers of volunteer travels. To do this, open-ended interviews were conducted with 14 former volunteers who had travelled with various organizers. The interviews took place in Stockholm, March-April 2015. The theoretical framework is based on critical theories, social movement theory and theories about (volunteer) tourism. The study showed that the experiences of and motivations for volunteering were quite similar between the groups. However, the volunteers’ who had travelled with non-profit organizers were in retrospect less focused on the aim of “helping” and they had to a larger extend revalued the aim and concept of volunteering. The most common least satisfactory part of the travel was the working situation. For all, the in general most valuable outcome of the travel was a cultural insight (exchange) rather than making a difference or helping, which is the common image marketed by many volunteer travel organizers.

The Sumatra-Andaman tsunami, which devastated countries bordering the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, resulted in an unprecedented loss of human life and property. In Thailand, the beach resort area of Khao Lak suffered the most severe damage. The period of recovery and rebuilding following this tragedy offers ample opportunities to develop more sustainable forms of tourism, such as ecotourism. This study set out to gain an enhanced understanding of tourist markets and visitor experiences in Khao Lak one year after the tsunami. Two main tourist types, beach resort tourists and volunteer tourists, were identified after an initial period of familiarization with the site. The dominant presence of volunteer tourists in Khao Lak one year after the tsunami was a surprising finding. Motivations, trip characteristics, and demographics of tourists were collected through targeted surveys. The importance of ecotourism principles was explored in order to assess interest and potential demand for ecotourism experiences. The results show that beach resort and volunteer tourists differ significantly in several respects. Volunteers are more likely to travel to Khao Lak alone and stay for longer periods of time. Beach resort tourists tend to be older and less formally educated than volunteers. Importance-Performance Analysis was conduced on travel motivations and satisfactions. Overall, respondents were very satisfied with push and pull reasons for visiting Khao Lak, and no immediate management action is warranted. Volunteers were motivated by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Volunteers want to assist with post-tsunami recovery, but they also want to gain personal development rewards. A factor analysis was performed on the importance of 12 ecotourism principles, drawn from supporting literature. The loadings of each sample produced a 3-factor solution labeled 1) nature 2) stewardship and 3) local culture. Segmentation analysis grouped respondents into ecotourists, semi-ecotourists, and non-ecotourists. Ecotourists are respondents that relate high importance to all 3 factors. Semi-ecotourists score high in 1 or 2 factors, and non-ecotourists attach low importance to all factors. The distribution of respondents in each tourist segment does not differ between the beach resort and volunteer sample. Several motivations related to natural features and activities in the destination environment are more important to ecotourists than non-ecotourists. However, there are few differences in trip or demographic characteristics among segments. In the beach sample, non-ecotourists are less likely to have a university education than ecotourists. In the volunteer sample, ecotourists are more likely to be younger, under 35 years of age. About one third of respondents in each sample are identified as ecotourists, and just over half are semi-ecotourists. This suggests that there is strong demand for ecotourism among international visitors to Khao Lak. Established protected areas such as nearby Khao Lak-Lum Ru National Park may offer venues for future ecotourism development.

abstract: Engagement as a concept and emerging theory has been explored, but key elements have not been clearly described, and as such, work has not been comprehensive in nature. Research was needed to explore the concept and theory of engagement in general, as well its application to the study of volunteer tourism. Additional research was also needed to incorporate youth perspectives of a volunteer tourism program, along with exploration of engagement impacts on program youth. The purpose of this case study was to explore participant engagement in a volunteer tourism youth education program and impacts on program youth as perceived by program participants (volunteer tourist teachers, adult residents, and program youth). Confined within the Engagement Theoretical Framework, data were retrieved from nonprofit documents and websites, researcher observations, individual interviews, and focus groups (two focus groups used participant generated photo elicitation method). Findings suggest participant engagement in a volunteer tourism program is related to the themes of connection, communication, and hope. The primary reason participant engagement in this program is due to the Mpingo (tree), the symbolic bridge between community members and volunteer tourist teachers. This culturally relevant symbol has linkages to the study of signs (or symbols) called semiotics. Through volunteers traveling to this area to teach, this culturally relevant symbol helps to connect, aids in the communication between, and gives hope to, participants. Significant contributions of this study to literature include: volunteer tourist and community member engagement plays an important role in the planning, and the sustaining, of volunteer tourism community development programs today; program youth perspectives about program impacts may result in prospective youth leadership and future adult civic engagement; program skill matched volunteers are likely to be repeat volunteers which leads to group cohesion and program sustainability; and the major theme of hope appears to be a significant motive for program participation in a community development project. In terms of deep meaning ascribed to culturally relevant symbols, this unique finding contributes to engagement research by understanding there are multiple dimensions involved in a diverse group of participants engaged in a specific community program. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Community Resources and Development 2018