Volunteer tourism is sometimes discussed as contributing to development goals in economically impoverished countries. Others argue that it contributes little if anything at all to material development, and others again claim that this is simply not its aim. Putting aside its contribution (or lack thereof), there is little doubt that volunteer tourism influences how development issues are constructed and mediated to the general public, framing the ways in which people’s desires to make a difference are realised. It is a ‘public face of development’ in this sense. This paper looks at volunteer tourism not as a form of development assistance per se, but instead examines how development claims associated with it intersect with important strands of development thinking. It reviews some important themes in development thinking in order to argue that it is changes in how development is conceived of that have made possible the unlikely association between a form of leisure and the erstwhile political and macro-economic aim of development. Further, it suggests that research in this area could usefully focus less on the actions of volunteer tourism providers and their clientele, and more on the underpinning ‘development’ assumptions reflected and reified through these actions.

中文翻译：

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发展思维背景下的志愿旅游

志愿旅游有时被认为有助于经济贫困国家的发展目标。其他人则认为，它对物质发展的贡献微乎其微，甚至根本没有贡献，而另一些人则再次声称，这根本不是它的目标。抛开其贡献（或缺乏贡献）不谈，毫无疑问，志愿旅游会影响如何向公众构建和调解发展问题，并确定人们实现改变的愿望的方式。从这个意义上说，它是“发展的公众面孔”。本文并不将志愿旅游本身视为一种发展援助形式，而是探讨与之相关的发展主张如何与重要的发展思维相交叉。它回顾了发展思维中的一些重要主题，以证明正是发展观念的变化才使得休闲形式与过去的政治和宏观经济发展目标之间看似不可能的联系成为可能。此外，它表明该领域的研究可以有效地减少对志愿旅游提供者及其客户的行为的关注，而更多地关注通过这些行动反映和具体化的基础“发展”假设。