International Voluntourism as Secular Pilgrimage: A Case Study of Hosts and Guests in a Small Panamanian Town
In this paper, I discuss the social dynamics of international voluntourism' in Santa Catalina, a small town on the Pacific coast of Panama that has become a tourist mecca in the last two decades. Through my collection of documentary, interview, and ethnographic data, I contribute to on-going d...
| Published in: | The international journal of religious tourism and pilgrimage |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Dublin Institute of Technology
[2015]
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| In: |
The international journal of religious tourism and pilgrimage
Year: 2015, Volume: 3, Issue: 2, Pages: 57-64 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Santa Catalina (Panama)
/ Voluntourismus
/ Spiritual tourism
/ Interpersonal relationship
/ Native
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion KBR Latin America ZB Sociology |
| Further subjects: | B
Panama
B tourism impacts B voluntourism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In this paper, I discuss the social dynamics of international voluntourism' in Santa Catalina, a small town on the Pacific coast of Panama that has become a tourist mecca in the last two decades. Through my collection of documentary, interview, and ethnographic data, I contribute to on-going debates about the appropriateness and impact of volunteer tourism in developing countries (McGehee 2009, 2012; Palacios 2010; Tomazos and Butler 2012). While existing research tends to focus on the volunteers, here I focus on the complex relations between the volunteers and the voluntoured' (local Panamanians). My preliminary research shows significant parallels between secular international volunteers and short-term missionaries (often disparaged as partaking in Christian tourism' rather than genuine religious service). Specifically, both types of volunteers tend to exude a similar missionary zeal and the dual goal of enriching (or even transforming') their own lives while helping others;' both envision themselves as embarking on sacred journeys (Cohen 1979; Graburn 1989). In addition to empirically addressing questions about privilege and power, and whether (or how) international volunteering inadvertently perpetuates global inequalities, this research illuminates the difficulties in negotiating respect across unequal social positions and in interactions between seemingly agnostic local hosts and foreign guests on sacred journeys. |
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| ISSN: | 2009-7379 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The international journal of religious tourism and pilgrimage
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.21427/D7C42R |