Table 3 - uploaded by Stephen Leslie Wearing
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This paper considers Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOFing) as a form of sustainable tourism with particular focus on its social and cultural dimensions and the means by which deep engagement in these appear to lead participants to a better awareness or understanding of ecological sustainability issues. It draws upon a grounded theory-based ex...
Context in source publication
Citations
... In tourism, Couch Surfing (www.couchsurfing.com) is designed as a market for bartering couch spaces between strangers (and potential new friends) (Germann Molz, 2013). Similarly, Willing Workers on Organic Farms or WWOOF uses the bartering market to attract tourist-workers to further the organic farming movement (Deville et al., 2016). WWOOF is a work exchange network, and participants spend their so-called holidays helping out in organic farming work in exchange for board and lodging. ...
Despite its entanglements with society, tourism is still an industry that uses the market for economic exchange, so as to price tourism goods, services and experiences. The market serves important functions in society but there are two moral limits. The first is on how market exchange may transform some products, services and experiences in ways that denigrate and even destroy their intrinsic values. The second is on the failure of the market in distributing benefits from economic exchange more equitably, and to those who need them more. This does not mean that the market is immoral, it just means that there are inherent limitations to how the market maximises or enhances the welfare of society. This chapter looks at four common sustainable tourism approaches, and argues that they all address the moral limits of the market, from local perspectives. And subsequently, can lessons be learned from the Asian experience in doing sustainable tourism? The answer is yes but with caveats.
... WWOOFing research in the southern hemisphere has been conducted in New Zealand (Kosnik, 2014;McIntosh & Bonnemann, 2006;McIntosh & Campbell, 2001;Wengel et al., 2018); Australia (Deville et al., 2016b;Nakagawa, 2017;Stehlik, 2002); and Argentina (Miller & Mair, 2014, 2015. Research on WWOOFing in the northern hemisphere has occurred in Hawaii (Mostafanezhad, 2016;Mostafanezhad et al., 2015;Mostafanezhad et al., 2016); Nepal (Wengel, 2018); Taiwan (Lai et al., 2020), the USA (Maycock, 2008;Terry, 2014;Yamamoto & Engelsted, 2014); Canada (Lans, 2016); and Japan (Burns, 2015;Burns & Kondo, 2015). ...
... During the period of 2005-2008, Deville et al. (2016b) studied motivations with questionnaires to 188 WWOOFers in Australia. The top ten reasons for joining WWOOF included a desire to meet local people (34 per cent), experience Australian life/culture (31 per cent), cheap travel (24 per cent), life experience (11 per cent), learn organic growing (11 per cent), improve English language (10 per cent), alternative way of travelling (9 per cent), experience farm life and work (9 per cent), live with people/family (9 per cent), and experience Australian landscapes/places (7 per cent). ...
... Travel to a specific destination is an important pull motivation for volunteer tourists, but so far, this has been found only for going to the global South (Grimm & Needham, 2012;Tomazos & Butler, 2012). McIntosh and Bonnemann (2006) reported living and interacting with locals as motivations for WWOOFers in New Zealand, as did Deville et al. (2016b) for WWOOFers in Australia. The choice of Norway may mirror an expectation that this destination would fulfil the WWOOFers' needs (Güzel et al., 2020) and serve their self-interest (Knollenberg et al., 2014;Smith et al., 2014) through, for instance, personal development and learning (Grimm & Needham, 2012;Han et al., 2019), cultural immersion (Brown, 2005), or other psychological rewards (Wilson, 2012). ...
Why do some tourists leave the beaten track and spend time and energy working in remote farms for food and accommodation through the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) network? WWOOF now celebrates its 50th anniversary. This study draws on a Norwegian survey of 1184 WWOOF respondents from 92 countries. It is the first large-scale quantitative study to establish a motivation profile for volunteer tourists, who are members of the WWOOF. The analyses revealed seven primary motivations: Immigration, Escapism, Genuine Norwegian Interest, Sustainable Lifestyle, Cheap Travel, Constraints, and Secondary Image. Pull motivations were stronger than push motivations. The former represents an urge to take on a journey while the latter represents the attraction to a certain goal. Two motivation factors combined push and pull motivations. Six of the factors were interpreted as self-interest and one as altruistic motivation. The results both support some and challenge other studies on this subject.
... WWOOFers) seek "a tourist experience that is mutually beneficial, that will contribute not only to their personal development, but also positively and directly to the social, natural, and economic context in which they are involved" (Wearing, 2001, p. 1). Resonant with the alternative economy discourse of SE, WWOOF experiences have been portrayed as ones that are motivated by participants' resistance to the neoliberal economic practices that dominates agriculture and tourism sectors (Deville et al., 2015;Mostafanezhad, 2015). ...
... WWOOF exchanges are viewed here as a niche area of non-profit SE because they demonstrate SE's three foundational cores (Acquier et al., 2017). As an access economy, WWOOF exchanges involve farm hosts granting WWOOFers temporary access to their farms in which WWOOFers provide their labor in exchange for food, accommodation, and organic farming knowledge/skills and other experiences contingent on the nature of host-guest interactions (Deville et al., 2015). As a platform economy, sharing between WWOOF participants is facilitated by the digital platforms maintained by WWOOF organizations as intermediaries that allow access to WWOOF opportunities in more than 50 countries. ...
... Similar to findings reported elsewhere (e.g. Deville et al., 2015;Mostafanezhad, 2015), the online content showed that a travel model different from mass tourism was the main driver for some WWOOFers. The opportunity to experience farm living and explore authentic local cultures by visiting traditional markets in rural Taiwan, and interacting with local residents and farmers was highlighted by many WWOOFers. ...
The non-profit form of the Sharing Economy (SE) is arguably better positioned to manifest the alternative nature of SE that supports sustainable production and consumption than its for-profit counterpart. However, interactions in non-profit SE are imbued with uncertainties that can discourage participants’ continuing engagement. Social exchange theory was adopted to explore the dynamism of non-profit SE exchange in the context of WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) as a niche area. The study was conducted primarily through semi-structured interviews with eighteen WWOOF farm hosts in Taiwan. The findings revealed that most hosts opened their farms to share their organic farming knowledge with WWOOF guests as a measure to attain social/environmental, cultural, and economic values that motivated their participation in WWOOF. Depending on the value(s) salient in driving WWOOF hosts’ participation, the exchange rules of reciprocity, rationality, and altruism were variously applied to manage uncertainties and limited resource capacities, and address issues arising from demands for emotional labor and social dilemmas. Positive exchange outcomes were experienced when exchange rules lead to reduced uncertainties, and enhanced equality, fairness, and joint responsibility. Implications of how the findings can be applied to promote sustainable production and consumption through non-profit SE are discussed.
... Most of the volunteer tourism occurs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Knollenberg et al., 2014;Mintel, 2014) while WWOOFing stands out by occurring in developed countries and across the northern hemisphere. Extant research on WWOOFing have been conducted in New Zealand (Kosnik, 2014;McIntosh & Bonnemann, 2006;McIntosh & Campbell, 2001), Australia (Deville et al., 2016a(Deville et al., , 2016b, Argentina (Miller & Mair, 2014;, Hawaii (Mostafanezhad, 2016), South Korea (Choo & Jamal, 2009), U.S.A. (Maycock, 2008;Terry, 2014;Yamamoto & Engelsted, 2014), Canada (Lans, 2016), and Japan (Burns & Kondo, 2015). However, to the best of our knowledge, there is only one peer-reviewed research article published on WWOOFers in a European context (Kosnik, 2014); it deals with Austria and relies on qualitative approaches. ...
... The acronym WWOOF has stayed unchanged, while its meaning has been modified twice, reflecting organisational expansion, critical issues related to work and immigration, and the renegotiation of its aims, values, and ambitions. The name was changed to "Willing Workers on Organic Farms" (Deville et al., 2016b;McIntosh & Bonnemann, 2006), and changed again to "Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms", to avoid being associated with migrant workers (Börjars, 2012;Terry, 2014), 1 which caused misunderstandings of its purpose and practice. ...
... The academic research on WWOOFing is still in its infancy, fragmented, dominated by "grey literature", and a few published scientific articles and studies (Miller & Mair, 2014;. Several approaches have been used, such as triangulation (Deville et al., 2016a(Deville et al., , 2016bMcIntosh & Bonnemann, 2006;Yamamoto & Engelsted, 2014) and inductive and grounded theory approaches (Deville et al., 2016a(Deville et al., , 2016bKosnik, 2014;Mostafanezhad, 2016). Studies of WWOOF hosts have been published by McIntosh and Campbell (2001), Yamamoto and Engelsted (2014), Kosnik (2014), Mostafanezhad (2016), Terry (2014), and Deville et al. (2016aDeville et al. ( , 2016b. ...
Some travellers “want to make a difference” and develop themselves while exploring the world through programmes offered by international volunteer organisations, such as the WWOOF initiative (WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms). This international network promotes organic farming and sustainable lifestyles by connecting hosts and volunteers who are willing to work for hosts in exchange for food, accommodation, and insight into organic farming. However, who are these WWOOFers? While researched mainly by qualitative studies in other countries (e.g. Australia, Hawaii, Japan, U.S.A.), this is the first cross-sectional study of WWOOFers in Europe. Data was collected by online questionnaires to WWOOFers registered at WWOOF Norway (n = 1184; response rate = 85%). These WWOOFers come from 77 countries, among which U.S.A., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands dominates. They are mainly young, well-educated, well-travelled, urban people wanting to explore rural living. Some, but not all report lifestyles and behavioural intentions in line with the WWOOF philosophy. Age and gender differences apply. Through factor analyses, the study identified seven personal characteristics, including, in descending order Empathy, Goal-orientation, Outgoing, Reserved, Recognition seeking, Child-oriented, and Egoistic-materialistic. The study expands the current insights and partly contradicting previous research.
... As such, this paper is focusing on new, qualitative and creative method -LEGO V R Serious Play V R . This paper discusses method's origins, its benefits and challenges and is using examples of empirical material from a qualitative multi-method study aiming to understand host-guest experiences in World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) programme which connects farmers and volunteers interested in organic farming, social interactions and mutual learning (McIntosh and Campbell, 2001;Wengel et al., 2018;Deville et al., 2016). ...
Purpose
In the past decade, scholars across social sciences shifted their attention towards creative and dynamic research methods. Despite the growing popularity of LEGO ® Serious Play ® method across social sciences, few studies applied the method in tourism and hospitality research. This method represents a powerful tool which uses a toy to solve problems, explore ideas and achieve objectives in business, research and community work. This paper aims to provide insights into qualitative multi-method approach incorporating LEGO ® Serious Play ® to gain a deeper understanding of hosts-guest experiences in volunteer tourism exchange programme.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical material mentioned in the paper is based on an interpretive study investigating hosts-guest experiences on organic farms. The study used a multi-method approach, and the data were collected through unstructured interviews, observation, reflexive notes and LEGO ® Serious Play ® workshops with 32 participants in total.
Findings
The paper highlights the benefits and limitations of the qualitative multi-method study, specifically focusing on LEGO ® Serious Play ® as a novel approach for tourism and hospitality research.
Originality/value
This study contributes to making the current body of knowledge on qualitative multi-method methodologies and creative visual methodologies in the field of tourism and hospitality. As such, the paper provides an overview of the LEGO ® Serious Play ® method. Specifically, this exploratory paper brings attention to how and to what end existing LEGO ® Serious Play ® has been modified and adopted in this multi-method study. Furthermore, the paper highlights the future use to benefit the tourism and hospitality academics and industry professionals.
... Central to the idea of a decommodified tourism is a peer-to-peer exchange that maintains its insulation from the market, examples of which include Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) (Deville, Wearing, & McDonald, 2016) and eco-agritourism (Lantitsou, 2017). We suggest that the social value of a tourism destination is a process dependent on there being a dynamic relationship between the place, host community, and tourists. ...
... More recent research aligned to these areas has occurred in volunteer tourism, WWOOFing and understanding the experiences shaping the relations and tensions between hosts and guests in this non-profit exchange programme (Deville, Wearing, & McDonald, 2016;Wengel, McIntosh, & Cockburn-Wootten, 2018), how it can take a more competitive tone with a strong propensity to define and distinguish oneself from others and so illuminate the criteria and values upon which young volunteers evaluated their experiences overseas (Schwarz, 2018). The likelihood of a returning volunteer tourist making contributions to their home communities (Ong, King, Lockstone-Binney, & Junek, 2018), organisational liquidity and the responsibility of volunteer tourism organisations to host communities also need attention (Steele & Dredge, 2017). ...
https://www.amazon.com/Tourist-Behaviour-Essential-Philip-Pearce/dp/1786438569/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Tourist+Behaviour+The+Essential+Companion&qid=1561590402&s=books&sr=1-1
... Rural tourism has served as a vital alternative to the concurrent issues of rural impoverishment and the need to provide new tourism possibilities beyond the sun, sea, and sand resorts that have dominated post-world war two tourism. 1 Scholars and advocates have promoted rural tourism as a means to diversify the rural economy and address the issues of declining small farm incomes and erosion of rural cultures brought about by agricultural modernization (Brown, 1996;Deville, Wearing, & McDonald, 2016;McGehee, 2007;Sharpley, 2007;Verbole, 2000). As a form of rural tourism, agritourism 2 -"rural enterprises which incorporate both a working farm environment and a commercial tourism component" (Weaver & Fennell, 1997, p. 357)is believed to be capable of providing rural sector gains that include, among others, income diversification, rural infrastructure development, enhanced rural production, training and skilling of rural populations, keeping of farmers on the land, protection of rural landscapes, promotion of sustainable food production, public education, increased opportunities for women and other under-represented groups, and other sociocultural benefits (Busby & Rendle, 2000;Kline, Barbieri, & LaPan, 2016;McGehee, 2007;Nickerson, Black, & McCool, 2001;Tew & Barbieri, 2012). ...
... Although the links between sustainability and agritourism have been challenged in subsequent works including that of Barbieri (2013), agritourism's perceived value and potential to contribute to the sustainable development of tourism, as reflected in more recent scholarly works, remain largely positive (e.g. Deville et al., 2016;Kline et al., 2016;Lupi, Giaccio, Mastronardi, Giannelli, & Scardera, 2017). ...
Agritourism, particularly in the West, is imagined to be an organic assembly of family farms driven by urban middle class demand for new rural tourism experiences. In the developing world, it is increasingly advocated as a rural development tool with the promise of uplifting the lives of small farmers in sustainable ways. We challenge the assumption of the farm family at the helm of agritourism development, advocating instead for a more complex understanding of agritourism governance. We argue that agritourism involves multisectoral governance networks that are subject to the political economic realities of where these networks are situated. Thus, agritourism may endure the same social inequalities one would find in other rural development initiatives in the Global South. Agritourism in the Philippines is a case in point. Based on qualitative research, our findings show that agritourism in the Philippines is driven by a complex elite network involving state and private entities that are engaged in patronage politics. The uneven power dynamics associated with this governance arrangement create conditions that favor old and new landed elites and exclude marginalized small farmers, contradicting any official statement that promises inclusive rural development.
... Nowadays, many WWOOF volunteers are long-term international travellers with limited financial means, who do not see themselves as commercial tourists and see the WWOOF programme as a way to avoid the popular tourist track (Ateljevic & Doorne, 2001;Deville & Wearing, 2013). Hence, WWOOFers tend to stay longer at host farms, but their motivations are not always driven by an interest in organic farming (Deville, Wearing, & McDonald, 2016b;McIntosh & Bonnemann, 2006). Thus, as a form of alternative tourism as well as an alternative to tourism (Deville, 2011), the WWOOF programme tries to connect hosts and guests while avoiding the commercialism of tourism. ...
Tourism research on host-guest relations in non-profit exchange programmes remains scant. Using a case study of WWOOF farms in New Zealand, this paper examines the experiences of farmers and volunteers (‘WWOOFers’) in the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) programme. Using qualitative methods that privileged participants' voices, the research aimed to uncover the nature of the host-guest relationship in non-for-profit tourism. The key theme of ‘dirt’ is explored in this paper to illustrate both the physical nature of the voluntary farm work and the perceived exploitation of volunteers that are reported to characterise this experience. Overall, the findings challenge the idealistic aims of this type of volunteer tourism exchange programme that is usually reported in tourism literature. Specifically, the findings indicate the tensions of economic and ethical accountability within the WWOOF network and its community. The paper contributes to tourism studies research by providing a further understanding of the experiences shaping the relations and tensions between hosts and guests in this non-profit exchange programme.
... In the case of short stays, preparation for the experience and guided reflection on the experience, both of which are important components of study abroad programs, provide opportunities for transformative learning ( Behnke, Seo, & Miller, 2014;Rowan-Kenyon & Niehaus, 2011). That students go home "at least with some seeds of change in their minds" ( Deville, Wearing, & McDonald, 2015, p. 12), which then sprout into subsequent venturesome travel and the inclination for lifelong (intercultural) learning, makes short-term culture-based study abroad an important formative experience in their travel careers. Given the relationship between travel and study abroad, we hypothesize that students are likely to seek out more venturesome travel as a consequence of the benefits of study abroad, since such travel reinforces opportunities for the development of self-esteem and independence, and allows them to explore and learn culture as "participant observers, interacting sojourners, and travelers" ( Langley & Breese, 2005). ...
This research examines the impact of short-term study abroad on a travel-specific psychographic manifestation of intercultural competence, Plog's concept of venturesomeness. It also assesses the moderating effect of cultural distance on students' development of venturesomeness. Using a pre-post longitudinal design, research found that the intercultural and personal development benefits acquired during study abroad had a significant mediating effect on student venturesomeness; i.e., students became more likely to pursue travel that facilitates immersion in and reflection on the host culture's way of life. Consistent with social distance and expectancy value theory, this effect was found for students who traveled to culturally proximate countries and not for those who traveled to countries with a higher cultural distance from the U.S. Given that this was the first study abroad experience for a majority of the sample, we suggest the need for a phase-based program of study abroad experientiation to optimize study abroad effects and facilitate more holistic student development. The intricacies of study abroad as a specific form of facilitated travel have certain implications for study abroad program administrators and the travel and tourism industry.
