Informalisation of international volunteering: A new analytical framework explaining differential impacts of the 'orphanage tourism' debate in the Netherlands

Abstract

Over the past years, there has been increasing public criticism of international volunteering. Yet, the academic literature has so far given limited insight into the diversity of this complex and 'liquid' field. To fill this gap, this article develops a taxonomy of volunteering providers with different goals and behaviours. The value of this new taxonomy is illustrated by applying the analytical framework to 'orphanage tourism' in the Netherlands. The study highlights the differential impact of public criticism on orphanage tourism, with a catalysing effect on the trend of informalisation towards increasing prominence of smaller nonspecialist development-oriented providers in this field.