Many Earthwatch volunteers are changed by their experience in the field, becoming better global citizens prepared to meet social challenges, but that change is often hard to measure. A doctoral dissertation based on a survey of Earthwatch volunteers, effectively measuring their social transformation, recently won a distinguished international award for its scholarly findings.
Dr. Nancy McGehee, Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech, received the 2002 Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Keeling Dissertation Award for her dissertation, "Impacts of Alternative Tourism: A Social Movement Perspective." This international award is bestowed every three years for the best dissertation that focuses on the tourism industry during that period.
Based on a survey of nearly 400 Earthwatch volunteers in the summer of 1998, McGehee's dissertation is an investigation of the role of the Earthwatch experience in fostering social movements.
"Earthwatch contributes to a better world by facilitating opportunities for people with common goals and interests to meet each other and to do something that advances their beliefs about how to change the world," said McGehee.
McGehee completed her dissertation in 1999 from the Department of Sociology at Virginia Tech. She competed for the Keeling award with graduates of nearly 20 other universities, whose dissertations were judged by a review committee for the quality of research, creativity of approach, relationship to travel and tourism, usefulness and applicability, and quality of presentation.
Testing a model based on social theory, McGehee explored ways in which an alternative tourism experience like Earthwatch can mold a person's ideas about social change and participating in social movements. McGehee's results suggest that participation on an Earthwatch expedition increases a volunteer's awareness of social issues, their networks, their ability to overcome obstacles, and the likelihood that they'll take part in social movements. The Earthwatch experience apparently had little effect on activism support.
"The influence of an Earthwatch expedition on a volunteers future activity in social movements depends upon the degree of social networks established during the project," said McGehee. "If a volunteer meets others with whom they have common interests in terms of social movements, they are more likely to return home energized and excited about participating in social movement activities."
While Earthwatch is not an advocacy organization, it is founded on the principle of informing the public, and giving participants the tools to find solutions for the future, through their involvement in field research. McGehee's award-winning findings not only verify the impact of the Earthwatch experience on volunteer awareness of social and environmental issues, they highlight the importance of fellow team members in fostering future activism.
Earthwatch Institute is an international nonprofit organization which supports scientific field research worldwide by offering members of the public unique opportunities to work alongside leading field scientists and researchers. The Institute's mission is to engage people worldwide in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment.