An Analysis of Queen’s University Students’ Participation in Student-Run Development Projects

Abstract

Young Canadians have access to a wealth of opportunities to participate in short-term development projects within developing regions in Canada and around the world. These projects include voluntourism, ecotourism, academic exchanges at educational institutions abroad, research projects, religious missions, internships, and short-term development initiatives organized by student-run campus organizations. Although there are numerous studies that examine gap year projects or short-term development projects, there are currently no studies of young Canadian university students’ involvement in short-term development projects through student-run organizations. This study seeks to explore young Canadian adults’ motivations to participate in short-term development projects, how participants in short-term development projects imagine themselves as agents of development, and what short-term development projects are teaching participants. Individual interviews were conducted with young Canadian adults between 18 and 24 years old who participated in a short-term development project between 2008 and 2011. Participants were recruited from two student-run development organizations at Queen’s and all projects lasted between six weeks and three months. This study draws on development theorists such as Edward Said, Barbara Heron, Kate Simpson, and Rebecca Tiessen, to frame and examine participants’ responses. This study finds that young Canadian development workers draw motivation, justification, and imagined identities as agents of development from a complex interface between whiteness, gender, colonialism, Orientalism, and morality. This study concludes that a short-term development work is dominated by a simplistic narrative that depoliticizes development and identifies concepts produced and reinforced by this narrative. Further, this study identifies needs and recommends opportunities for future research.