Open AccessNorthern Lights Instead of Workers’ Rights: Volunteer Working Tourists in Finnish Lapland
Author(s) -
Christopher Brennan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
nordic journal of working life studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.322
H-Index - 15
ISSN - 2245-0157
DOI - 10.18291/njwls.v8i2.106154
Subject(s) - tourism , mindset , sociology , work (physics) , thematic analysis , inclusion (mineral) , public relations , qualitative research , political science , social science , law , mechanical engineering , philosophy , epistemology , engineering
Research on volunteers in the tourism field often deals with the motivations of such persons as well as their effects on host locales, while research on the work conditions of tourism workers often focuses solely on paid employees. However, such research has not focused on the workplace condi- tions for volunteer working tourists in the tourism arena whose motivation, among other reasons, for seeking unpaid work opportunities is a dual role of tourism consumer.As volunteers are not for- mally employed, they are not entitled to legal workplace standards.This article examines, through netnographic research methods and thematic analysis, the workplace experiences of several vol- unteer working tourists in Finnish Lapland, considering how similar to precarious employment their situation is, to some extent enabled by their tourism mindset. This raises curious questions about the use of such labor, suggesting their future inclusion within discussions of precarious work