Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Communities Based On “Sweaty Infestations Of Joy”: A Look At The Temporary Moral Communities Formed Through International Volunteering Trips., Sarah A. Knowles

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Voluntourism is a phenomenon that is both widely popular and greatly criticized. Voluntourists judge their volunteering based on the relationships formed during the experience. While critics tend to judge voluntourism in terms of long term economic and well-being indicators and statistics. To understand why volunteers judge their own actions as positive in the moment and can change their opinions after the fact, this study will look at overseas volunteer trips as forming temporary moral communities. The lifecycle of voluntourism temporary moral communities is broken down into five periods: 1) Pre-Departure; 2) Arrival; 3) Everyday; 4) De-Orientation; and 5) Return. Using …