Volunteer Tourism Encounters - Perspectives from an Indigenous Host Community in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Volunteer tourism is a global trend in which travellers engage in voluntary work, often in social, environmental, or charitable projects. Stefanie Schien explores the lived experiences of a Shuar community in the Ecuadorian Amazon that hosts volunteer tourists. She challenges the view of locals as passive aid recipients and highlights how they actively navigate, negotiate, and leverage voluntourism to pursue their own strategies and motives. By emphasizing the perspectives and agency of the host community, this thought-provoking study complicates our understanding of voluntourism and shows that what is at stake for the Shuar in this global exchange is the continuation of their self-determined way of life.

About the author

Stefanie Schien ist Kuratorin der südamerikanischen Sammlungen am Ethnologischen Museum in Berlin.

Summary

Volunteer tourism is a global trend in which travellers engage in voluntary work, often in social, environmental, or charitable projects. Stefanie Schien explores the lived experiences of a Shuar community in the Ecuadorian Amazon that hosts volunteer tourists. She challenges the view of locals as passive aid recipients and highlights how they actively navigate, negotiate, and leverage voluntourism to pursue their own strategies and motives. By emphasizing the perspectives and agency of the host community, this thought-provoking study complicates our understanding of voluntourism and shows that what is at stake for the Shuar in this global exchange is the continuation of their self-determined way of life.

Product details

• Authors: Stefanie Schien
• Publisher: Transcript
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 30.09.2025
• EAN: 9783837677928
• ISBN: 978-3-8376-7792-8
• No. of pages: 320
• Series: Kultur und soziale Praxis
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, HISTORY / Latin America / South America, Tourism, Ethics & moral philosophy, auseinandersetzen, History of the Americas, Development Studies, Consumerism, Culture and institutions, Social processes, Groups of people, History of South America, Volunteer Tourism, Voluntourism, Ecuadorian Amazon