Framing the Other: cosmopolitanism and the representation of difference in overseas gap year narratives

Abstract

This paper engages with debates surrounding contemporary cosmopolitanism and the outcomes of cultural encounters. It considers if overseas gap years, often put forward in the UK as a way of becoming a global citizen, enable young Britons to 'broaden their mind'. I explore representations of the people and places encountered during these periods of time out through an analysis of young people's travel blogs. Four key themes are highlighted in these narratives: the exotic place; feeling 'out of place'; the importance and outcomes of local interaction; and the historical legacies that are implicated in constructing places as 'different'. Gappers display a willingness to interact with and gain knowledge about their host communities. Yet as gap years are designed to be distinct from the normal course of things, they also demonstrate the 'difference' of places. This can often result in the reproduction of established ways of representing the Other in order to frame them as meaningful. There is a tension in the narratives between 'globally reflexive' and 'globally reproductive' representations of difference, and I suggest that we might question the development of cosmopolitan attitudes and competencies through undertaking a gap year.

Cosmopolitan empathy in volunteer tourism: a psychosocial perspective

“…Equally, the potential for fantasy structuring expectations and relationships within the volunteer tourism experience to be disrupted by the spatial transition from empathy at a distance to proximate care demonstrates fragility within the volunteer tourism encounter. This disruption has the potential to shed light on empirical research suggesting that volunteer tourism can actually reinforce cultural stereotypes and 'Othering' rather than engendering cross-cultural understanding and greater global interconnectedness (Palacios, 2010;Simpson, 2004;Snee, 2013;Wearing & Wearing, 2006). …”

“…Further critiques of volunteer tourism suggest that rather than engendering cross-cultural understanding and global interconnectedness, the practice can actually reinforce cultural stereotypes and 'Othering' (Simpson, 2004;Snee, 2013;Wearing & Wearing, 2006) and encourage Eurocentric attitudes (Palacios, 2010). Raymond and Hall (2008) report that volunteer tourists can perceive positive interactions with visited others as being an 'exception to the rule' and treat these encounters as providing fond memories rather than instigating lasting friendships.…”

The Reality of Encounters with Local Life in Other Cultures

“…Visitors' involvement in the lives of local people have been examined in the specific tourism context such as volunteer tourism [22,23]. Urry [24] proposed the concept of the "tourist gaze", which refers to the way tourists see the surroundings and the locals in the destination.…”

Class and global citizenship: perspectives from non-elite young people’s participation in volunteer tourism

“…Broadly, youth travel and volunteering in the global south have been analysed as a practice of middle-class symbolic distinction in the global north, as travel experiences are collected as markers of taste and distinction (Desforges, 1998;Snee, 2013): a mode of gaining cultural capital that fits into a classed 'economy of experience' in the UK where a 'personality package' (a combination of credentials, 'soft skills', and charisma) becomes a marker of employability (Heath, 2007), and the way that a loosely defined 'global consciousness' is valued by contemporary employers (Baillie Smith & Laurie, 2011;Jones, 2011). So we could say that the initiatives under study widen participation in volunteer tourism as a phenomenon in which spatial mobility is central to social mobility.…”