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The Consumer Practice of Volunteer Tourism: A Fine Line between Niche Leisure Practice and New Social Movement

Krebs, Susanne LU and Rakonjac, Aleksandra LU (2014) BUSN39 20141
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate the sociocultural discourses that are ascribed to the fairly new, yet increasingly popular consumer practice of volunteer tourism. Thereby, we aim to examine the extent to which volunteer tourism correlates with new social movements using Melucci (1989) and Touraine’s (1981) “three core representational elements” of every social movement: a common goal, common characteristics of an activists’ self-identity and a common adversary. Taking a consumer culture theory stance, this study builds on existing theories from both tourism literature and new social movement literature. Following constructionist and interpretivist research philosophies, we apply a qualitative research approach. Accordingly,... (More)
The purpose of this research is to investigate the sociocultural discourses that are ascribed to the fairly new, yet increasingly popular consumer practice of volunteer tourism. Thereby, we aim to examine the extent to which volunteer tourism correlates with new social movements using Melucci (1989) and Touraine’s (1981) “three core representational elements” of every social movement: a common goal, common characteristics of an activists’ self-identity and a common adversary. Taking a consumer culture theory stance, this study builds on existing theories from both tourism literature and new social movement literature. Following constructionist and interpretivist research philosophies, we apply a qualitative research approach. Accordingly, we conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews with former volunteer tourists to collect rich data in form of narratives on the consumer practice. Findings indicate that volunteer tourism shows correlation to new social movements in terms of respective goals and activists’ self-identity and, thus, acts within the realm of political consumerism. However, the adversaries identified appear to be multiple and fragmented and do not reflect the ‘common adversary’ element that is central in the traditional understanding of new social
movements. Such notion opens opportunities for further research in regard to shifts within the contemporary manifestation of new social movements. (Less)
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author
Krebs, Susanne LU and Rakonjac, Aleksandra LU
supervisor
organization
course
BUSN39 20141
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
political consumerism, new social movement theory, consumer culture theory, volunteer tourism
language
English
id
4499638
date added to LUP
2014-06-26 11:18:06
date last changed
2014-06-26 11:18:06
@misc{4499638,
  abstract     = {{The purpose of this research is to investigate the sociocultural discourses that are ascribed to the fairly new, yet increasingly popular consumer practice of volunteer tourism. Thereby, we aim to examine the extent to which volunteer tourism correlates with new social movements using Melucci (1989) and Touraine’s (1981) “three core representational elements” of every social movement: a common goal, common characteristics of an activists’ self-identity and a common adversary. Taking a consumer culture theory stance, this study builds on existing theories from both tourism literature and new social movement literature. Following constructionist and interpretivist research philosophies, we apply a qualitative research approach. Accordingly, we conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews with former volunteer tourists to collect rich data in form of narratives on the consumer practice. Findings indicate that volunteer tourism shows correlation to new social movements in terms of respective goals and activists’ self-identity and, thus, acts within the realm of political consumerism. However, the adversaries identified appear to be multiple and fragmented and do not reflect the ‘common adversary’ element that is central in the traditional understanding of new social
movements. Such notion opens opportunities for further research in regard to shifts within the contemporary manifestation of new social movements.}},
  author       = {{Krebs, Susanne and Rakonjac, Aleksandra}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Consumer Practice of Volunteer Tourism: A Fine Line between Niche Leisure Practice and New Social Movement}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}