The Potentially Damaging Effects of Developmental Aid and Voluntourism on Cultural Capital and Well-Being

Abstract

In this perspective article, we argue that too often, foreign and developmental aid devolves into a form of imperialism and colonialism that we more fully define in the article. We believe that aided communities and community members are often expected (or required) to change their own cultural ways of living to continue receiving the aid or support they have been offered and may need. Ironically, the need for this aid is often driven by the way the aid is provided, creating potential cycles of imperialism and dependency, which can negatively impact individual and community well-being. Fortunately, better practices and ethical guidelines are available to direct the ways that both providers and receiverscommunities and individualsof aid are fully engaged in the process to ensure that all people benefit while being able to continue to live according to their own cultural worldviews. This perspective article provides our ideas about better practices and ethical guidelines for how community development professionals, psychologists, and other behavioral scientists who engage in international aid (in any of its forms) do so in ethical and appropriate ways. Keywords Ethical foreign aid. Imperialism. Neo-colonialism. Voluntourism. Cultural psychology Being generous often consists of simply extending a hand. That's hard to do if you are grasping tightly to your righteousness, your belief system, your superiority, your assumptions about others, your definition of normal.-Patti Digh

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