An Illusion of Care? : A Critical Study of the Rhetoric Used by Volunteer Tourism Organizations

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines the rhetoric of the volunteer tourism organization Volontärresor in regards to how it contributes to a normalizing discourse around global inequality. Given that rhetoric affects people’s perceptions of matters, and by extension their behaviors, the choice of words becomes political. Thus, this study aims to uncover the meaning behind the linguistic choices the organization has made. A theoretical framework is constructed based on postcolonial, marxist and poststructuralist theories, and divided into the themes of the economic system, othering and white saviorism. By employing a critical discourse analysis, the organization’s website is analyzed in detail, illustrated in the result by extensive quotes and a following discussion. Volontärresor is found to avoid any mention of root causes and complexity of global injustice in their rhetoric, thereby presenting it as naturally given. In addition, connections to an orientalist discourse and the white savior narrative are identified within the material. The study concludes that Volontärresor places its entire focus on symptoms rather than causes of global inequality, displaying an illusion of care which never actually challenges the deep unequal structures globally.