This chapter examines the transformative potential of tourism in an Australian rural community of Eden, New South Wales, that is characterized by a historical dependence on primary industry production. Drawing on Mezirow's transformation theory and George Kelly's theory of personal constructs, the...

This chapter considers the development of the concept of 'gaze' in Western cultural and critical theory. It then examines the 'flâneur' as a gazer and introduces the concept of the choraster, as the relationship of visitor and host in the space of the 'other' and self. The notion of gaze is thus...

This chapter examines the growing phenomenon of WWOOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) farm tourism and how it functions at the human-human level outside of commoditized relations. The chapter highlights key findings from recent research that indicate the ways in which 'WWOOFing' constitutes...

This book explores the experiences of the volunteer tourist and the ensuing narratives between host and volunteer as it manifests in diverse and increasingly contested political international contexts. As such, this volume includes case studies conducted in 12 countries across six continents. The...

This introductory chapter provides some foundational discussion that opens the way for detailed exploration of volunteer tourism through the following case studies. The chapter outlines some broader debates about alternative tourism and the processes of power that underpin it. In order to elaborate ...

This chapter provides some insights into the way the self has been examined in the context of leisure studies and to a lesser degree in tourism studies. It reviews the trajectory of the self in conceptualizations of leisure and concludes by considering its implications for volunteer tourism. It is...

This chapter delves into the fuzziness of tourism categories to examine the overlaps and ambiguities of volunteer tourism. In particular, it examines diverse manifestations of the intersections between volunteering and tourism that extend beyond the definition of volunteer tourists as those who...

This chapter argues that volunteer tourism has become a global phenomenon, with market predictions indicating growth in both size and value and with this growth has come the inevitable controversies that surround new trends or phenomena. It explains that in examining this phenomenon there is a need ...

The Youth Challenge International (YCI) is examined to provide a comprehensive theoretical analysis of volunteering as a form of tourism experience. A discussion is presented of the three elements considered important to this type of tourism, that of ecotourism, volunteerism and serious leisure. In ...

This chapter argues that the alternative tourism experience should not be reduced to a dialogic model of impossible realities related to dialectal materialism. Instead, its understanding should be grounded in human interactions and the concrete social reality in which it takes place. The SERR...