Encounters over Garbage: Tourists and Lifestyle Migrants in Mexico

Dürr, Eveline

doi:10.1080/14616688.2012.633217

Cited by 27 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…These inequalities are performed, negotiated and sometimes transformed in the context of the slum tourist encounter, where political economies and globally circulating representations intersect. Slum tours are situated in, and shaped by, specific local and global conditions that must be taken into consideration to comprehensively understand slum tours' distinctive features and the ways they are advertised and performed (Dürr 2012a).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theorizing Slum Tourism: Performing, Negotiating and Transforming Inequality

Dürr

Jaffe

2012

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This Exploration focuses on the emerging field of slum tourism research, which has the potential to connect Latin American and Caribbean studies on tourism and urban inequality. Slum tourism involves transforming poverty, squalor and violence into a tourism product. Drawing on both altruism and voyeurism, this form of tourism is a complex phenomenon that raises various questions concerning power, inequality and subjectivity. This essay seeks to advance the theoretical debate on slum tourism research and to stimulate comparative studies. Introducing brief examples of slum tourism in Mexico and Jamaica, this contribution moves towards an initial theorization of the performance, negotiation and transformation of inequality in a framework of tourism and global mobilities. Keywords: tourism, inequality, urban poverty, Mexico, Jamaica.Several decades worth of research have been conducted on tourism developments in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, the bulk of this research has focused on non-urban tourism. Similarly, while urban inequalities have been the focus of much work on the region's cities, limited attention has been paid to urban tourism. This Exploration seeks to draw attention to the emerging field of slum tourism research, which has the potential to connect studies on tourism and urban inequality.Slum tourism has been evolving quickly across the world, with a number of well-known cases in Latin American and Caribbean cities, and particularly in Brazil. The phenomenon has been gaining increasing attention both within the tourism industry and as a topic of scholarly research. It has also been the focus of growing debate amongst a broader public, triggering a controversy on tourism and poverty alleviation, voyeurism, ethics and exploitation. In scholarly research, approaches to slum tourism remain largely fragmented and characterized by a plethora of case studies based on different approaches and disciplines. Comparative research and theoretical contributions addressing more conceptual concerns are still scarce.The majority of recent empirical research on slum tourism, with key studies emerging in the field of geography, has focused on commercial, entrepreneurial tours offered in Brazil, South Africa and India (Freire-Medeiros 2008;Rolfes 2010). These studies tend to focus on tourism as a form of consumption, rather than asking how a broader range of actors connect in the 'slum tourist encounter ' (cf. Cohen 1984;Crouch 2007) to convert the slum into a tourism product. However, there are recent attempts to create a forum for discussion and exchange amongst researchers in this field (www.slumtourism.net), to go beyond single case studies and address more general issues. This is reflected in the first international conference on slum tourism, which took place at the University of Bristol in 2010, and resulted in an edited volume ) and a special journal edition

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These forms of tourism promise a meaningful and transformative experience that is rewarding for both tourists and local communities (Vodopivec and Jaffe 2011;Dürr 2012aDürr , 2012b. They also cater to tourists' desire to experience the 'authentic' 'created' for them.…”

Section: Situating Slum Tourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorizing Slum Tourism: Performing, Negotiating and Transforming Inequality

Dürr

Jaffe

2012

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“…At the other end of the spectrum are charity‐motivated tours aiming at involving the tourists through a hands‐on‐experience. This approach is linked into a more recent trend of volunteer tourism and pro‐poor tourism, promising a meaningful experience which is rewarding for both the tourists and the local community (Wearing, 2001; Stebbins and Graham, 2004; Dürr, 2012). This is the case in Mazatlán, Mexico, where a US‐American church conducts a tour to the city's garbage dump on a regular basis, placing less emphasis on monetary profit but on raising awareness of poverty issues by confronting tourists with urban misery.…”

Section: Slumming As Social Practice: From Industrialization To Globamentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Poverty, Spatial Representation and Mobility: Touring a Slum in Mexico

Dürr

2012

Int J Urban Regional Res

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This article draws attention to a controversial activity in poor urban neighborhoods. Slum tourism is a growing business worldwide and simultaneously it is a new form of encounter between the global South and the global North. Following the new mobilities paradigm, I investigate a particular form of slum tourism, which intertwines urban poverty and charity, representation and powerful imaginaries, tourist mobility and transnational lifestyles. This is the case in Mazatlán, Mexico, where a multidenominational church offers regular tours to the city's garbage dump. I scrutinize the various modes of (im)mobilities and their implications for peoples and places, interconnecting spheres which are conceived of as separate. In conclusion, I outline the ambiguous effects when marginalized spaces become integral parts of the urban representation. Résumé Cet article attire l’attention sur une activité discutable qui se déroule dans les quartiers urbains pauvres. Un tourisme de la misère se développe dans tous les pays et, parallèlement, constitue un type original de confrontation Nord‐Sud. Le nouveau modèle de la mobilité permet d’étudier une forme particulière de ‘tourisme des bidonvilles’, qui mêle étroitement pauvreté urbaine et charité, représentation et imaginaires profonds, mobilité des touristes et styles de vie transnationaux. C’est le cas à Mazatlán, au Mexique, où une Église multiconfessionnelle propose régulièrement des excursions à la décharge municipale. Les divers modes de mobilités et d’immobilités, ainsi que leurs implications pour les populations et les lieux, sont étudiés en interconnectant des sphères qui sont censées être séparées. La conclusion expose brièvement les effets ambigus lorsque des espaces marginalisés deviennent des parties intégrantes de la représentation urbaine.

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“…Authentizität"spielt"im"Tourismus" (vgl. "DeLyser"1999;"Backhaus"2003;"Edensor"2000;"Getz"2008;" Mahrouse"2011;"Rantala"2010)"und"besonders"bei"der"Bewertung"eines"Slumbesuchs"eine" wichtige"Rolle" (Crossley"2012;"Dovey"&"King"2012;"Dürr"2012;"Frenzel"&"Koens"2012;"Frisch" 2012;"Linke"2012;"Rolfes"et"al. "2009;"Steinbrink"2012;"Steinbrink"&"Pott"2010).…”

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“…Diziplinierte"Rituale"können"durchaus"kontrovers"beurteilt"werden,"wie"das"Beispiel"etablierter" SlumhTouren"zeigt" (Dyson"2012;"Dürr"2012;"Frisch"2012). "SlumhTouren"-"ob"etabliert"oder" improvisiert"bzw.…”

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Die Slum-Tour als touristische Aneignungspraxis: Kulturvermittlung durch eine Exkursion

Backhaus¹

2012

Zeitschrift Für Tourismuswissenschaft

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Ein Slum ist für viele Touristen ein fremder und problematischer Kontext. Der Besuch des thailän-dischen Slums Klong Toey durch Teilnehmende einer Exkursion, die diesem Artikel als Fallbeispiel dient, führt in einen physisch, sozial und kulturell fremden Raum. Die touristische Aneignung diesesnach Schatzki als site bezeichneten -fremden Raums kann nicht nach gewohnten Mus-tern erfolgen und hat ein großes Potenzial für Irritationen. Diese dürfen -gemäß dem Konzept der culture confusion von Hottola -nicht nur negativ bewertet werden, da sie auch zu neuen Erkenntnissen und Einsichten führen. Ergebnisse dieser qualitativen Studie zeigen, dass die wahrgenommene Authentizität des Slums, nicht ganz aufgelöste Konfusionen sowie die Teilnahme an Alltagspraktiken der Slumbewohner dazu führten, dass dieser Besuch in guter Erinnerung blieb und einen kulturellen Austausch ermöglichte, der von Besuchern wie Besuchten als positiv beurteilt wird.

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Encounters over Garbage: Tourists and Lifestyle Migrants in Mexico

Cited by 27 publications

References 19 publications

Theorizing Slum Tourism: Performing, Negotiating and Transforming Inequality

Theorizing Slum Tourism: Performing, Negotiating and Transforming Inequality

Urban Poverty, Spatial Representation and Mobility: Touring a Slum in Mexico

Die Slum-Tour als touristische Aneignungspraxis: Kulturvermittlung durch eine Exkursion

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