The digital void of voluntourism: Here, there and new currencies of care

• Main Authors: WOODS, Orlando, SHEE, Siew Ying
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Care; voluntourism; digital void; digital arbitrage; Singapore; Asian Studies; Civic and Community Engagement
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research_all/26; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=soss_research_all
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper explores some of the ways in which “care” is being transformed in response to the mediatory role of digital technologies. Digital mediation has caused care to become an increasingly cross-border practice, and a more expansive construct, that destabilises the assumption of presence (“here”) and absence (“there”). Indeed, as the physical and digital merge into one integrated way of being in the world, they enable connectivity across geographical distance, but so too can they create emotional distance within situations of geographical proximity. These outcomes reflect the “digital void” within which caregivers, and society more generally, are implicated. Digital voids are created when individuals immerse themselves within, and become responsive to, digital net- works of connectivity, distraction and representation that can implicate the beneficiaries of care, their family and friends, and themselves as well. We illustrate these ideas through an empirical analysis of Singaporean vol- untourists, who are shown to actively reproduce digital voids when engaged in volunteer projects overseas. Specifically, we explore the space-times of the digital void, the representations of “care” in a digital world, and how (dis)connectivity can foreground the (un)doing of care.