The White Volunteer´s burden : a critical discourse analysis of Swedish volunteer travel agencies'descriptions of recipients and volunteers

This study critically examine what discourses are found on five websites of Swedish volunteer travel agencies and whether they reflect postcolonial and racialized structures between the global north and the global south. Thus, the study aims to focus on the relationship between whites and non-whites to shed light on potential unequal racial power relations. Furthermore, the portrayal of the volunteers and recipients has been analyzed in accordance with van Dijk's critical discourse analysis, inspired by intragroup discourse about others. The study identified three overarching discourses, discourses about the representation of the recipients, discourses about the representation of the volunteers and discourses about the representation of the countries. The result identified an unequal power relationship characterized by colonial and racial logics. A postcolonial distinction between “us and them” was demonstrated through the ways the volunteer was presented as superior to the inferior recipient. Furthermore, this study shows through analysis of the With Savior Industrial Complex, that the recipients' needs where emphasized to recruit inexperienced volunteers. Thusly, showing that the travel agencies benefit from the notion that the recipients in the global south needs “the white savior”