Commodified Altruism: International Clinical Volunteering from Advertising to Practice

Drawing on ethnographic research in medical settings in Tanzania, coupled with online research of volunteer companies’ advertising practices, this paper reveals incentives and practices making up international volunteering in clinical settings, from prominent advertising discourses that set expectations for prospective volunteers, to the considerable ambiguities and conundrums that make up international volunteering from the perspectives of hosting health professionals and foreign volunteers.