Ours to Explore : Privilege, Power, and the Paradox of Voluntourism.

ISBN:

9781640124783

Title:

Author:

Biddle, Pippa.

Personal Author:

Biddle, Pippa.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 pages)

Contents:

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. 1866: A Woman in India -- 2. A Certain Kind of Tourism -- 3. Cars, Planes, and Resorts -- 4. The Alternative Tourism Boomerang -- 5. The Age of Voluntourism -- 6. Colonial Pathologies -- 7. Faith, Purpose, and Mission -- 8. The Development Conundrum -- 9. Playing Doctor -- 10. Teaching Children -- 11. Orphanages -- 12. An Indictment -- 13. Turning Tide -- 14. The Future of Voluntourism -- 15. On to an End -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Local Note:

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2021. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.

Subject Term:

Volunteer tourism.

Tourism-Moral and ethical aspects.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view book

Publication Date:

2021

Publication Information:

Lincoln :

Potomac Books,

2021.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
361.37	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ON-DEMAND	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In a 2014 essay that went viral, Pippa Biddle revealed the inequities and absurdities baked into voluntourism--the pairing of short-term, unskilled volunteer work with tourism. In the years since, Biddle has devoted herself to understanding the origins, intentions, and outcomes of a multibillion-dollar industry built on the premise of doing good, and she tracks that investigation in Ours to Explore .

The flaws of voluntourism have included xenophobia, racism, paternalism, and a "West knows best" mentality. From exploitative orphanages that keep children in squalid conditions to attract donors to undertrained medical volunteers practicing their skills on patients in developing regions and to those looking for an inspiring selfie, Biddle reveals the hidden costs of the voluntourism complex. Along the way, readers meet inspiring activists and passionate community members, as well as thoughtful former voluntourists who still work to make a difference--just differently.

Ours to Explore offers a plan for how the service-based travel industry can break the cycle of exploitation and suggests strategies for travelers who want to improve the places they visit for the long haul.

Author Notes

Pippa Biddle is a writer based in the Hudson Valley. Her work has been published by numerous publications, including the Atlantic , Guernica , AMC Outdoors , Maine Magazine , and Wired .