CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland
Consumption and Construction of Tourist Landscapes
Organisers: Jarkko Saarinen and Soile Veijola
Consumption and Construction of Tourist Landscapes I: Places and Spaces
Allon, Fiona (University of Western Sydney, Australia) ON THE BEATEN TRACK:
BACKPACKER CULTURES AND COMMUNITIES IN SYDNEY
This paper will explore the
changing cultural dynamics of tourism and touristic landscapes in Sydney,
focusing on the specific group of young budget-travellers known as
'backpackers'. Sydney is one of the favoured destinations for young travellers,
especially 'backpackers'. But despite the considerable economic benefits that
these travellers bring to the city, many Sydney-siders regard the growing
numbers of backpackers as a 'problem', citing inadequate budget-accommodation,
general disruption and 'cultural differences'. Many local communties are forced
to promote their areas as highly desirable tourist destinations with distinctive
cultural profiles, while at the same time confronting the defamiliarisation
created by increasing numbers of 'non-locals'. Through a focus on the production
of place and locality specifically for consumption by 'others', the paper will
explore the ways in which specific modes of travelling and leisure, as well as
discourses of authenticity and identity, become deployed in the shifting spatial
dynamics of deterritorialisaation and reterritorialisation characteristic
of international tourism.
Spierings, Bas (University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands) MAKING DOWNTOWN
FUNSHOPPING CENTRES
City centres in the Netherlands currently are redeveloped to
become more attractive to both domestic and
foreign consumers that supposedly behave in accordance with new patterns of
leisure, travel and culture ("funshoppers"). This paper focuses on the
way the funshopping concept has been translated into a downtown ransformation
strategy. After a brief investigation of both the origin and meaning ascribed
to the funshopping concept, three dimensions of downtown transformation are
discussed in relation to the concept. The coherent dimensions are described by
"urban function", representing a mix of consumer services; "urban
form", representing urban morphology and architecture; and "inter
urban competition", representing rivalry for travelling spending power.
Initial fieldwork on the redevelopment of downtown Enschede and Nijmegen is used
to illustrate the dimensions. It reveals a redevelopment discourse by local
policy makers, property developers and retailers that is highly
funshopping-minded.
Vikman, Noora (University of Tampere, Finland) 'QUIETNESS' AS A COMMODITY
'Quietness' is one of the appreciated qualities and common assets in North
Italian village Cembra. No doubt Cembra could be promoted and marketed as a
'quiet place' without major difficulties. But how is
this image of quietness constructed as part of the commodifying process? Because
the 'environment' exists both in and outside our cultural constructions it is
interesting to compare the 'quiteness' as a physical phenomenon and as a created
image. Interestingly, participating in the common tourism project appeals also
to emotions. 'Soundtalk' lightens these small scale nature-culture paradoxes and
'possible dreams' and reveals continuous 'adaptation processes' towards
ecologically irreversible impacts of tourism. This soundscape study stresses the
importance of subjective listening experiences as outlooks and a tool to
approach the people's relationship with their environment. The insider's voice
concerning village
everyday life is still polyphonic.
Bieder, Robert E. (Indiana University,
USA) THE BUYING AND SELLING OF NIAGARA FALLS
The paper will focus on the contested commodification and construction of
Niagara Falls and the lessons it posed for the development of national parks in
the American West. I begin in the early nineteenth century when Europeans
castigated Americans for their speculative abasement of the falls. In 1885, New
York State made Niagara Falls a state park thus eliminating much of the
commericalism that impeded appreciation of the falls but, in so doing,
frustrated hydroelectric power interests seeking to use the falls. In
retaliation, such companies diverted one half of the water from above the falls
to power their generators. I conclude by showing how, despite Niagara Falls
being ranked third in the United States after the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone
in public appeal, Niagara Falls continues to be compromised by industrial
developments.
Consumption and Construction of Tourist Landscapes II: Texts and Textures
Taleghani, Shareah (New York University, USA) TRAVELING THE TEXT OF TANGIER:
LITERARY TOURISM, PAUL BOWLES, AND THE COSMOPOLITAN IMAGINARY
For the
English-speaking traveler journeying to Morocco, the first city on the itinerary
is Tangier-at least according to the Lonely Planet travel guide. But the tourist
does not travel to Tangier to soak up an "authentic" Moroccan
atmosphere; instead she/he is invited to observe the sites of "Literary
Tangier." At the center of "Literary Tangier", the late Paul
Bowles stands as an icon of another era-that is linked to a faded
cosmopolitanism. This paper will offer a critical exploration of the
relationship between the notion of literary tourism of Tangier, the iconography
of Paul Bowles, and the limitations of the cosmopolitan
ideal. Through an examination of the intersection of these themes and through a
reading of various texts around Bowles, the conclusions drawn here will
demonstrate that the literary text of Tangier in the western imagination lies in
the mythology of a particular author rather than in his texts.
Burch, Stuart (Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom) STOCKHOLM AT 750:
TEXTURES OF MEMORY IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
This paper identifies what 'realms of
memory' will be exploited during this summer's celebrations marking the 750th
anniversary of Stockholm. 'Lieux de mémoire' was coined by Pierre Nora to refer
to the 'symbolic element[s] in the memorial heritage of any community'. Public
spaces, museums and heritage sites compose a 'texture of memory': an essential
requisite of any tourist landscape. Henri Lefebvre defines 'texture' as
'networks or webs; monuments constitute the strong points, nexuses or anchors of
such webs.' He stresses that they are 'not read' like a text but rather they are
'acted': 'A monumental work, like a musical one has a horizon of meaning: a
shifting hierarchy in which now one, now another meaning comes momentarily to
the fore'. In light of this I will imaginatively interpret the changing
landscape of Stockholm during this commemorative period in order to uncover
traces of memory and sources of identity formation.
Veijola, Soile (University of Lapland, Finland) TRUST IN TOURISM: HOSTS AND
GUESTS REVISITED IN EXPERIENCE ECONOMY
This paper provides a critical reading of
the discourse of experience economy (Pine & Gilmore 1999) in tourism from
the sociological perspective of trust. It argues that the innocence of mass
tourism and suspicion of anti-tourism have now been largely replaced by
"swift trust" (Meyerson et al. 1996) of tourist drama. The elementary
juxtapositions in tourism, of culture/tourism, host/guest, friend/enemy,
authentic/fake, suspicion/trust, are analysed through the discourse of theatre
(as in Pine and Gilmore), but developed further into a fundamental critique of
the notions of guests, hospitality and amenities, which constitute both the
theoretical discourse and the empirical world of tourism marketing and industry.
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