The anthropocenic imaginary: political ecologies of tourism in a geological epoch

Abstract

The Anthropocene is fundamentally a social imaginary that is both shaped by and is reshaping tourism practice. In this article, we enroll the concept of the anthropocenic imaginary to describe how the Anthropocene is symbolically and materially produced as well as the ways in which it draws on the historical separation of Humanity and Nature. As the structural roots from which the anthropocenic imaginary has grown, this binary co-produces new and old forms of political and ecological inclusion and exclusion. We demonstrate how core themes in tourism studies have fertilized the seeds from which the theoretical branches of post-humanist, capitalist and ecological imaginaries in tourism have taken shape. These anthropocenic imaginaries, we argue, are appropriated in market-based solutions to environmental degradation that emanate from neoliberal contexts internal to the problem. Thus, we question the reconciliation of capitalist accumulation and environmental limits in sustainable tourism. This article and the papers in this issue push forward emerging approaches in the political ecology of tourism that recognize the Anthropocene as both a geological epoch and conceptual regime. In doing so, the issue contributes to emerging conversations on the relationship between politics, ecology and tourism in the so-called recent age of man.

The Evaluation Method of Low-Carbon Scenic Spots by Combining IBWM with B-DST and VIKOR in Fuzzy Environment

“…According to Equation (4), the initial value of five alternatives LSSs was defuzzied and normalized to obtain three sets of evaluation matrices, as shown in Tables 3-5. The subjective weight obtained by Equations (15)- (17) was modified by the objective weight obtained by the entropy weight method; the results were shown in Table 6.…”

“…With the rise of research on energy utilization and greenhouse gas emissions, research on low-carbon tourism has mainly focused on the relationship between tourism and global climate change, investigating their interactions, as well as low-carbon tourism services. For example, the researchers investigated and came up with a quantitative measure of carbon emissions from travel-related traffic [16,17]. Peeters and Dubois argued that international aviation and private cars are dominant factors in high-carbon tourism [2].…”

“…The entropy weight method is used to modify BWM. In order to combine the BWM and the entropy weight methods, the entropy value variable is introduced and the final weight value w * CR,j is determined by Equation (17).…”

From Sustainability to the Anthropocene: Reflections on a Pedagogy of Tourism Research for Planetary Attachment

“…I now propose the concept of the Anthropocene as this replacement. The Anthropocene conjures different imaginaries, and, in tourism, Mostafanezhad and Norum (2019) identify processes of commodification and last-chance tourism in light of the alienation and loss caused by the destruction of the planet. The authors nonetheless propose that there is always room for hope in the way we imagine reality (Mostafanezhad & Norum, 2019).…”

Differences between Women and Men in terms of Safety Measures to Prevent COVID-19 Pandemic in the Hotel Sector

“…Despite the uncertainty, it is expected to strengthen proximity tourism in response to the health crisis [30], which involves strengthening proximity travel [31]; Jeuring and Haartsen [32]. The aftermath of COVID-19 in the tourist activity anticipates the emergence of new tourist consumption habits based on greater social and environmental awareness [6,33], which will show consumer concern about sustainability and social problems, both nationally and internationally [33][34][35][36][37]. Consequently, post-covid 19 tourists will choose to travel to destinations closer to their place of residence.…”