Serious Voluntourism?: A case study on the Children and Youth Center in Shatila Refugee Camp

Langevang, Freja Amanda

4. term

Tourism, Master

2016

2016-02-29

184 pages

This thesis is based on real life experiences and impressions of the vital impact volunteering have on the tourist, the individual and their surroundings. Based on the author’s previous fieldwork, this Master thesis sets out to investigate if volunteering in complex, politically volatile destinations is part of a deeper expression of one’s interests and life values, or if it simply is voluntourism. By utilizing previous ethnographic research, case study and participant observations, and by applying a contemporary case study, volunteer’s drawings of timelines and semi-structured interviews is analyzed. Life politics are the politics of choices, and emphasizing how individuals through self-actualizing activities are (re-)positioning themselves culturally. Voluntourism (volunteer tourism) is considered a self-actualizing activity. The assumption is that voluntourists (volunteer tourists) are directed by life politics. The multi-motivational nature of voluntourism allows for an abundant number of motivations, those being of both personal and academic nature. It is argued that voluntourists are not only volunteering in the need for adventures and fun, they are also eager to learn, gain knowledge, experiences as well as treating other people well; the altruism is at all times influenced by, and blurred within egoism. The serious aspect of voluntourism is emphasized by the Serious Leisure Perspective, which provides some more profound insight into why voluntourists are engaging themselves in self-actualizing voluntourism activities. The shared characteristics allow for a merge of the two theories, opening up for the Serious Leisure Voluntourism Perspective (SLV). Utilizing the Travel Career Ladder (TCL) enables the data collection to be put into a framework in order to bring insight for the act of SLV in CYC. These insights allow for a more profound understanding of the motivations and development of the serious leisure voluntourists. Serious voluntourists are not just volunteering because it is fun. Volunteering is a vital importance in their self-actualization, their search for identity and framing of the self.

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