User:Sbhaiwala/sandbox

Article Evaluation

I chose to evaluate the article "Imagined geographies" . The article isn't in any WikiProjects and there are no ratings on it.

The beginning of the article is very clear and informative. I think the opening line is well done, as it describes the founder of the concept (Said), denounces any confusion that might arise from the topic (e.g. clarifies the use of the word "imagined") and defines the term in very concise language.

The article then makes connections to other scholars and also elaborates on Orientalism. Since imagined geographies are used by Said in his book about Orientalism, the progression of the article is natural and makes sense. The article also made important connections to how Michel Foucault's theories of power and discourse play into the perpetuation of imagined geographies.

However, I found that the article's summary of Orientalism could use some work. It seems to jump all over the place - mentioning the critique of Said's gendering of the Occident and the Orient - before fully explaining the concept of Orientalism. I am also skeptical of a couple of sources that the writer used in this section. They referred to a documentary about the Western portrayal of Middle Eastern societies. While I can understand the relevance and connection to Orientalism, I personally do not think it was the best choice when discussing imagined geographies. I think there may have been other sources and scholarly articles that would have been better suited here. I also found the discussion of Orientalism and the "othering" of the Middle East to be written in a biased manner. The information isn't necessarily false, but the wording can be changed so that it does not sound persuasive or biased. Furthermore, the description of Orientalism briefly mentions critiques of Said, but does not elaborate. Otherwise, the rest of the article is simply a reiteration of theories and concepts and does not sound biased or one-sided.

This article is also lacking in citations. While many of the terms link to other wikipedia articles, many of the sentences have no references or suggestions as to where the information came from. The parts that are cited however, do not link to any articles. The reference list does not have any sources that can be clicked on. The article also only pulls from three different pieces of work (in addition to Orientalism). That said, the references appear to be from textbooks and scholarly articles, therefore one can assume that are most likely reliable and neutral.

Since this concept is from a book, it is not really "out of date". However, recent developments and discussions could be used to improve this article. Most sources are dated from the 1990s or earlier.

The Talk page has no discussion going on behind the scenes, aside from one user that says the author made a "fundamental mistake" by not mentioning the impact of a thesis published in 1995 at Sydney University that caused Benedict Anderson to revise his own thesis. The user says that they are "betting that the author of the article is American". This points to more potential bias in this article that I may not have caught, since I am evaluating this article from a North American lens.

In all, I find the Wikipedia article informative but a little disorganized, especially in the section that talks about Orientalism. The way we discussed imaginative geographies in class was much easier to understand after discussing Edward Said's theories. In this article, potential readers would be able to follow along with more ease if that particular section is edited and revised.

Add to an Article

I added a citation to the article on the Anfal genocide. I also reworded the information, as it was plagiarism and a direct quotation from the source I found. I was able to find this source by going to Google Scholar and typing in key words from the information that needed to be cited. You can see the changes I made on point "e" under "human rights violations".

Add an image

I added an image of the welcome sign to the Fort McKay First Nation article.

Proposal

Possible topics to cover:

1) International Volunteering: This article is lacking significantly in its discussion of neo-colonialism and the drawbacks of international volunteering - the neo-colonialism section is only a few paragraphs long. The idea of "voluntourism" is one that is very popular in current debates on international development and I think it would be useful to add to this page. This may include a case study or just references to journal articles that talk about this. The entire article could also use more citing and re-phrasing. Some sources I could use would be:

Palacios, C. M. (2010). Volunteer tourism, development and education in a postcolonial world: conceiving global connections beyond aid. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(7), 861-878. doi:10.1080/09669581003782739

Ooi, N., & Laing, J. H. (2010). Backpacker tourism: sustainable and purposeful? Investigating the overlap between backpacker tourism and volunteer tourism motivations. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(2), 191-206. doi:10.1080/09669580903395030

Butcher, J., & Smith, P. (2010). ‘Making a Difference’: Volunteer Tourism and Development. Tourism Recreation Research, 35(1), 27-36. doi:10.1080/02508281.2010.11081616

2) Mining in Canada: There is ample research demonstrating the detrimental affects that mines have on indigenous populations and aboriginal reservations in Canada and around the world. This is relevant to the course as it is a new-age form of colonialism, where aboriginal people are still fighting for their land and their rights. Many of the mine pages do not acknowledge these controversies or topics - I think I could contribute to a page and detail the effects it has had.

For example, the Tsilhqot'in First Nations in British Columbia have faced multiple issues with environmental degradation due to mines opening up in their area. This is specifically relating to a Vancouver based mining company, Taseko Mines Ltd., where a controversy erupted over its "Prosperity Mine" and its pollution of Fish Lake, or Teztan Biny in the Tsilhqot'in language. The First Nations pushed back and fought back and protested for their land. Both the Tsilhqot'in and Taseko pages say nothing about this, and the Taseko Talk page suggests detailing some of these events. I propose to add a "social impact" section on the Taseko Mine page to outline the affects of their mines on the indigenous populations.

Turner, N. J. (2013). Teztan Biny and Surrounding Area of British Columbia as a Cultural Keystone Place for the Tsilhqot’in Nation. University of Victoria School of Environmental Studies , 1-23.

Cuerrier, A., Turner, N., Gomes, T., Garibaldi, A., & Downing, A. (2015). Cultural Keystone Places: Conservation and Restoration in Cultural Landscapes. Journal of Ethnobiology, 35(3), 163-173. doi:10.1079/9781845930745.0163

Graton, P. (2016). Mining and Indigenous peoples. Canadian Mining Journal.

Hoogeveen, D. (2016). Fish-hood: Environmental assessment, critical Indigenous studies, and posthumanism at Fish Lake (Teztan Biny), Tsilhqot’in territory. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 34(2), 355-370. doi:10.1177/0263775815615123

3) Kelowna Accord: The Canada Indigenous WikiProject rated this as a Start-class article with high importance. Looking at how this accord has impacted today's aboriginal populations and how it contributes to post-colonial policies would be important to improve this article. It is also very relevant to class discussions. There is especially a gap in the "aftermath" and "legacy" section.

Alcantara, C., & Spicer, Z. (2016). A new model for making Aboriginal policy? Evaluating the Kelowna Accord and the promise of multilevel governance in Canada. Canadian Public Administration, 59(2), 183-203. doi:10.1111/capa.12166

Durbin, A. (2009). Canada’s Response to the On-Reserve Housing Crisis: A Study of the Kelowna Accor. Pimatisiwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health,7(2), 181-200.

Draft / Final Article

Suggested Edits for International Volunteering:

International volunteering is when volunteers contribute their time to work for organisations or causes outside their respective home countries. In most such cases, volunteers work in developing countries on international development programmes with local volunteer organisations that conduct activities such as health promotion, education and environmental conservation. Trends show that international volunteering has become increasingly popular across many countries over the past few decades. International volunteering is a broad term which is used to capture multi-year, skilled placements as well as short term roles, recently termed voluntourism, and a range of activities in between conducted by governments, charities and travel agents.

History

Formal overseas volunteering can be traced back over one hundred years to when the British Red Cross set up the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) scheme in 1909. The VAD volunteers, as well as volunteers from many other national Red Cross organisations, worked in battlefields across Europe and the Middle East during World War I to treat soldiers and civilians regardless of the side they fought for.

Eleanor Roosevelt and President John F. Kennedy discuss the Peace Corps, 1961.

Up to the mid-20th century overseas volunteering projects were mainly undertaken by people with direct connections to a particular cause and were considered more as short term in nature. The more formal inception of international volunteering organisations can be linked to organisations such as Australian Volunteers International (formerly the Volunteer Graduate Scheme) which formed in 1951, International Voluntary Services in 1953 in the United States, and Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) in 1958 the United Kingdom. These services and that of the U.S. Peace Corps, established in 1961 during the Kennedy administration, paved the way for broader recognition of overseas volunteering in later years. During the 1960s and 1970s a movement of volunteerism and study abroad programs became popular among university students and graduates and the United Nations launched the UN Volunteers programme for young professionals to take part in a long-term (2 year plus) overseas programme.

In recent years the accessibility of international volunteering has increased significantly with many smaller charities connecting volunteers with non-governmental organisations in developing countries. Travel companies have also increasingly been offering paid-for volunteering opportunities, this growth coincided with the increasing number of young people taking gap years and has been termed volunteer tourism and voluntourism to denote shorter-term voluntary work that is not necessarily the sole purpose of the trip. However, many opportunities medium- and long-term opportunities for skilled international volunteers remain, for example, the publicised role of volunteers in addressing the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa.

Volunteer base

International volunteering appeals to a broad cross-section of society, but the majority of volunteers are in their twenties and thirties, potentially due to perceptions of volunteering abroad being a more risky activity. The average age of VSO volunteers however is 38 showing a broad range of participation across age groups. Many participants use these trips to boost their resumes, travel with friends, and as a way to gain world experience and see new countries. Recently there has also been an increase in baby boomer volunteers. One possible explanation for the increase is that baby boomers are transitioning into a new stage of life and their focus may shift toward finding activities that give their life new meaning. Shorter-term "voluntourism" is therefore appealing to some, as it is targeted at travellers who want to make a positive change in the world, while still providing a touristic experience. People generally volunteer in order to increase their international awareness, to contextualize poverty and its effects, as an educational opportunity, and to help people while having a morally rewarding experience. Many believe that the trip will change the way they think when they return home. However, others are just looking to give to others and do not believe that their experience will cause them to think twice about their lives back home. Some volunteers also use these trips as a way to build their CVs or advance their career prospects.

Critiques and challenges

See also: Volunteering § Difficulties in cross-national aid

There are noted critiques and challenges of international volunteering. Some critiques and difficulties are as follows:

Outcomes

Measuring the outcomes of international volunteering is an ongoing challenge. Sometimes the costs invested in these partnerships are high. The intangible nature of impact and outcomes is hard to measure and research has been proposed in this area. Similarly, how to measure the success of a volunteer and the supporting organisation's performance is complicated. To allow volunteers to integrate properly into the community, it is essential that volunteers have some useful skills and are reasonably well-informed and trained before the placement. Shannon O'Donnell, a vocal critic of poorly designed international programs, contends that many volunteer organizations compromise the dignity of local populations—these programs often foster a cyclical dependency international volunteers within the communities the programs are designed to serve.

Costs associated

Related to the impact of international volunteering, cost associated with having an international volunteer has been cited as another area of concern especially costs for air tickets, allowances, insurance, training and logistics. Local staff would not require such costs, and the local organisations could put these funds into more important issues; however many volunteers pay these expenses personally. Some institutions provide scholarships for international volunteering.

Volunteers are far cheaper than other forms of long-term technical assistance because they live and work under local conditions. Expatriates who work in the same capacity can be paid multiple times more than any allowances volunteers receive (if any). The cost-benefit of international volunteers is hard to quantify, though studies have highlighted improvements in well-being and inter-cultural understanding in communities and schools as a result of international exchanges and volunteers.

Integration in the workplace

A consideration is that volunteers may dominate the workplace, undermine local management and work culture especially in small organisations. This is due to volunteers often being considered more highly educated than local staff, even if they do not have direct experience. Coming from a different culture can also lead to volunteers imposing their values on organisations.

Indeed, volunteers can have a strong influence on organisations especially those who deal with governance and management. However, volunteers are often trained to respect the working culture and ethics. Also, since they report directly to local organisations, they can have their contracts terminated if they break any local regulations which further minimises the fear of domination.

Skills, experience and understanding of local context

International volunteers come from outside the host community can lack an understanding of the local context and sometimes may not have the correct skill-set to achieve their project goal. There is sometimes a vetting or selection process for volunteers before they are recruited to serve in developing countries, however, this vetting has at times been found wanting. However, according to some, international volunteers today receive significant training before and often during their placement which can address this deficit. Others counter that there are countless multinational organizations offering unskilled volunteer placements to any participant willing to pay the placement fee — in these circumstances, there is conflict about whether the fees volunteers pay justify the time spent supervising and revising their work, and if a sufficient portion of the fees make it into the local communities hosting volunteers.

A group of European Voluntary Service volunteers during training.

Motivations of volunteers

People volunteer for many reasons but seldom does anyone volunteer strictly for monetary reasons as very few organisations offer a stipend for volunteering. More compelling motives include experience of another culture, meeting new people or the advancement of one's career prospects. Such motivations are common among younger volunteers who are looking for experience or direction in their careers.

A common motivation is to "make a difference" and to "achieve something positive for others" who are less fortunate than the volunteer. Many volunteers tend to concur that there are disadvantaged people in their home countries, but the scale of disadvantage outside their home countries is felt to be greater. Volunteering at home may elicit images of helping the less fortunate, or campaigning with a local pressure group. Volunteering abroad has tended to be associated with international development and bridging the divide between the rich and poor worlds. Volunteering abroad often seems a more worthy contribution in this context to the volunteers than work in their own country. This perspective is particularly true of volunteers who are older and looking for something more value-based as they near the end of their professional careers or after their children have left home.

Neo-colonialism

There have been allegations from some quarters of neo-colonial advances disguised as an effort to tackle poverty as some volunteer organisations are connected to national governments, e.g. the Peace Corps, were set up by the American government. Despite this challenge, most volunteer organisations are non-governmental (NGOs) and are not influenced by government policies. The present structures of international volunteering are also often aimed at impacts on a local, community scale which is sharply in contrast with the macro-political government strategies of the colonial era.

However, many academic journals elaborate that volunteers often have little knowledge or expertise in the work they do when volunteering abroad. This has raised concerns of its value. Frances Brown and Derek Hall wrote that this creates a neo-colonial narrative. In other words, they say the volunteer perspective is framed around the idea that Westerners with minimal experience can effect change in the Global South, just by nature of being from the West. This perpetuates the the narrative of Western domination in a post-colonial world, and the need to "save" and "help" the global south.

Voluntourism: criticisms

Volunteer tourism, also known as "voluntourism", is a specific kind of international volunteering. Voluntourism is characterized by the age of the participants and the length of time they volunteer abroad, and they tend to be "at the committed end of a spectrum of ethical tourism." Participants are often young adults (ages 15-30), the length of the trip is under a month, and the aim is to combine adventure and travel with altruistic activities. Voluntourism has undergone intense scrutiny over the course of the 2000s. There is a ever-growing number of academic papers that question volunteer tourists' motivations and experiences.

A volunteer-sending organizations, such as Free The Children's Me to We trips, have been critiqued as furthering the aforementioned neo-colonial narrative to youth. The increased prevalence of promotional material regarding trips to "help" the Global South has "increased media exposure in the Global North to poverty in the Global South." Critics argue that the way in which these organizations advertise their trips stigmatizes and frames the developing world as helpless. This plays into Maria Eriksson Baaz's theories in the book Paternalism of Partnership: a Postcolonial Reading of Identity in Development Aid, in which she discourse that frames the volunteer as a developed, paternalistic individual and the donor as underdeveloped. The framing and "othering" of cultures outside the West and Global North can also be found in Edward Said's text, Orientalism. Said's theory is rooted in the same idea, in which he describes West's patronizing portrayals of the East.

Other criticisms of the voluntourism industry is that not only are short-term volunteers often untrained in the projects they participate in (building schools, health centres, wells), but projects can fuel conflict among communities, offer bandaid solutions, replace work locals could be doing, reinforce neoliberal policies, and children in these communities become dependent and commodified when volunteers are constantly arriving and departing every couple weeks. The rhetoric of such volunteer-sending organizations have also been argued to inform a "consumer-capitalist" culture that plays to the wants and needs of the privileged North, at the disadvantage of the Global South.