Moral assemblages of volunteer tourism development in Cusco, Peru

Burrai, Elisa; Mostafanezhad, Mary; Hannam, Kevin

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a conceptual approach from which to examine the moral landscape of volunteer tourism development in Cusco, Peru. Drawing from recent work on assemblage theory in geography and tourism studies, we explore how assemblage thinking can facilitate new understandings of volunteer tourism development. Using assemblage as an analytical framework allows us to understand volunteer tourism as a series of relational, processual, unequal and mobile practices. These practices, we argue, are constituted through a broader aggregation of human and non-human actors that co-construct moral landscapes of place. Thus, reconsidering volunteer tourism as assemblage allows for more inclusive and nuanced understandings of how geopolitical discourses as well as historical, political, economic and cultural conjunctures mediate volunteer tourism development, planning and policy. Finally, this paper calls for further research that integrates assemblage theory and tourism planning and development.

Citation

Burrai, E., Mostafanezhad, M., & Hannam, K. (2017). Moral assemblages of volunteer tourism development in Cusco, Peru. Tourism Geographies, 19(3), 362-377. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2016.1236145

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 27, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Sep 26, 2016
• Publication Date: 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 12, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 27, 2018
• Journal: Tourism Geographies
• Print ISSN: 1461-6688
• Electronic ISSN: 1470-1340
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 362-377
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2016.1236145
• Keywords: Assemblage theory, moral landscapes, volunteer tourism, tourism planning and development, Cusco, Peru
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/403272