Weaving a Dense Web: A (Decolonial) Study into the Contributions of Host Organizations of Development Volunteers in Jalisco, Mexico

Abstract

Despite increasing interest in the role played by global South receiving organizations of development volunteers, their agency and efforts are rarely investigated in detail. Our qualitative study explores the involvement of receiving partners in international volunteering spaces, using the German Weltwärts programme in Mexico as an example. By applying decolonial theory, and politics and ethics of care lens to our data, we explore how these organizations are ‘weaving’ a dense assistance and safety web around the volunteers. Such assistance is usually not monetized and mainly invisible in the discussion of volunteering for development. Our findings challenge the development discourse and the positionality of northern volunteers within the development architecture.