Embodied experiences in international volunteering

Power-Body Relations and Performative Ontologies

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3977453
AutoresMark Griffiths (0000-0002-2284-4533, University of Oulu, autor de correspondencia), M A Griffiths (0000-0003-3070-1804, University of Oulu), E Brown (0000-0003-4987-801X, University of York), Eleanor J Brown (University of York)
Año2017
Volumen18
Número5
Páginas665-682
Fecha de publicación2017-07-04
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649365.2016.1210670
OpenAlexW2480417558
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas19
Referencias citadas45

In this paper we debate the interpretation of embodied experience on international volunteering placements. Drawing on six in-depth interviews with volunteers recently returned from Northern Thailand, we document the affects and emotions that play a key role in the formation of volunteer–host relations. We then present two interpretations of the data, conceptualising power-body relations in two different ways: from power's affective and emotional literacy, to the body's autonomous capacities. With these two interpretations at hand we then consider the performative nature of academic labour and make the case, following the work of feminist geographers J.K. Gibson-Graham, for a research praxis that does not set limits on subjectivity but rather excavates – and writes into being – the possible. We therefore argue for a conceptualisation and interpretation of embodied experience in volunteering as a site of potential transformation and transcendence of the inequalities that otherwise set the conditions of the volunteer–host encounter

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Ethnography · Habitus · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Performative utterance · Performativity · Power (physics · Praxis · Social science · Sociology · Subjectivity · Transcendence (philosophy · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Philosophy · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development