ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. In the spirit of the book not looking to say whether volunteer tourism is good or bad, or how to make it more ethical. Rather we set out to comment on what the advent of the worthy gap year project and volunteer tourism as a significant rite of passage of aspirant, socially conscious people tells us about the politics of our day. By way of conclusion, it suggests a few avenues for thinking through volunteer tourism as an expression of a diminished political subjectivity, whilst at the same time recognising the importance of volunteering, celebrating travel and affirming humanitarianism. These are not finished views, but perspectives for future thinking and research in the area of volunteer tourism, and ethical consumption in general. The book emphasises the emptying of the public sphere and the exhaustion of political ideology as context for volunteer tourism.
