More than Just "Volunteers"? Working Tourists as a Labour Source in Finnish Lapland
Keywords:
Lapland, precarious work, volunteer tourism, working touristsAbstract
Research in the realm of work often deals with the situations of employment or workplace conditions for employees, as well as the mechanisms and strategies by which traditional employment relationships have changed. However, such research has not addressed those whose function would be equivalent to a paid employee yet take up a “grey” area in the workplace – volunteers. This article examines the advertisements of 12 hosts in Finnish Lapland, from the work exchange website www.workaway.info, scrutinizing work exchange barters offered to international volunteers in comparison to aspects found in adverts for typical paid employment. The article demonstrates how some tourism services in Finnish Lapland potentially recruit unpaid volunteer working tourists as a seasonal labour source, circumventing the need to hire paid tourism workers, and potentially placing volunteer tourists in situations akin to precarious employment.
