Organic farm volunteering as a decommodified tourist experience. (August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Miller, Maggie C; Mair, Heather
• Is Part Of: Tourist studies. Volume 15:Number 2(2015:Aug.)
• Page Start: 191
• Page End: 204
• Publication Date: 2015-08
• Subjects: commodification -- decommodified experiences -- organic volunteering -- phenomenology -- volunteer tourism -- World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms; Tourism -- Periodicals; Tourisme -- Périodiques; Tourisme; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 338.4791
• DOI: 10.1177/1468797614563436
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-7976

Abstract

Volunteer tourism has been shown to foster cross-cultural understanding between participants and hosts. Providing opportunities to connect with like-minded participants, volunteer tourism experiences encourage consciousness-raising and future social and environmental actions. However, the laudable aims of volunteer tourism have been critiqued as their transformative capacities are overshadowed by industry attributes. Volunteering on organic farms, a movement associated with World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, mirrors components of volunteer tourism, although research on the nexus between the two is limited. Thus, through an exploration of volunteer experiences on organic farms in Argentina, this article advances our theoretical understanding of how volunteer tourism intersects with organic farm experiences and examines the possibilities and limitations of the "decommodification" paradigm in the volunteer tourism literature.