Researcher profiles

Dr. Kate Simpson

I have been working (here as 'Barney the dinosaur'), and researching, the gap year for the last 5 years. Currently I am teaching in the geography department of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, doing some freelance research work and working on a variety of projects to promote ethical approaches to international volunteering. To date I have published two peer-reviewed articles in international journals and my PhD thesis (available here as a PDF)and will soon have an executive summary of my PhD avaliable.


Publications:
'Doing Development': The gap year, volunteer-tourists and a popular practice of development'
in Journal of International Development, 16 (5) pp.681-692 (2004)
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jissue/109086580

Abstract:
Over the last ten years the gap year has become a popular and publicly recognised phenomenon. One of the most visible forms of this phenomenon has been the emergence of 'third world' volunteer-tourism programmes, which seek to combine the hedonism of tourism with the altruism of development work. Such programmes make the practice of international development doable, knowable and accessible to young travellers. This paper seeks to critique the construction of this public face and geography of development, while also asking, from a pedagogical perspective, what travelling participants learn about 'the others' they encounter on, and through, such programmes.

'Dropping out or sighing up? The professionalisation of youth travel,
Antipode, Forthcoming (2005)

Abstract:
Leaving school and dropping out of employment or further education was once an act of rebellion by cohorts of young people expressing anti-establishment sentiments. Now it has become a neoliberal market place in the UK. Over the last five years the "gap year" has changed from a radical activity, dominated by charities and inspired by the travel of the hippie generation, to an institutionally accepted commercial Gap Year industry which helps form new citizens for a global age. This transformation has seen the dramatic growth in commercial Gap Year companies and in the numbers of young people in the UK taking gap years. Such growth, taking place under an increasingly engaged public gaze, has led to the professionalisation of the sector and to profound changes in its underlying values. Drawing on a range of empirical sources, this paper examines how the transformation of the Gap Year through the neoliberal market place has involved the application of corporate values and rhetoric to youth travel. Becoming "professional" has entailed a shift from collective idealism to the infinitely more saleable values of individual career development. While professional values give legitimacy to the Gap Year industry, its professional gaze is also proving to be relatively myopic. It has yet to be turned on the volunteer development projects through which many companies in the industry make their names, and money.
Key words: Gap Year, youth travel, professionalisation, experiential education, volunteer-tourism.

PhD thesis
"Broad Horizons? Geographies & pedagogies of the gap year"

Abstract:
Link to PDF of PHD
Leaving home and setting out to discover self and other is, for certain sections of British youth, a culturally embedded practice. The gap year offers both the mechanisms and legitimation for such journeys, and comes packaged with promises of adventure, discovery, exotic encounters and life changing experiences. However, it also comes situated in a specific history and geography, which, so far, have largely been ignored. This thesis draws together diverse discourses on development, travel and education, and combines this with ethnographic fieldwork with gap year participants in Peru, to offer a critical exploration of the constructed nature of the gap year, locating it both historically and geographically.

Enthusiasm for the gap year has been widespread. There has been strong and vocal support from institutions and government alike, all extolling the 'value' of a gap year. To date however, the basis and reasons for this enthusiasm remains largely unexamined. This thesis explores the inspirations for, and the institutionalisation of, the gap year 'industry'. It examines the knowledges of, and relationships with, 'others' that participants produce through international gap year experiences. A critical pedagogical perspective is used to argue that, currently, despite the educational claims made about gap years, there is a failure to engage with the processes involved in knowledge production across space and time. This failure undermines the radical educational possibilities of the gap year. In order to move debates forward, this thesis explores the potential for a pedagogy of the gap year, arguing that any meaningful social agenda or attempt to engage with global awareness necessitates a pedagogy based on social justice.