The spectral geographies of slavery: tourism and the hauntings of dissonant colonial heritage

11/15/24 • 21 min

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616688.2024.2328612

Abstract

The spectral geography of the colonial legacy in Bristol is marked by a series of absences from official and tourist narratives about the city. The people and practices of the Atlantic slave trade are part of the historical and contemporary fabric of the city and persist as ever-present spectres. There are significant differences of view that agree with little beyond that the city was a major port of Empire and a significant site in the triangular trade. Bristol is commonly portrayed as a multicultural city with a rebellious spirit and a strong commitment to social justice. This urban imaginary is evident in accounts of the removal of a statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader and philanthropist, during a Black Lives Matter rally in 2020. The now empty plinth of the Colston statue has become a contested, liminal space that sits between disparate interpretations and radically different points in time in terms of social relations. Individual and collective memories and stories about slavery constitute hauntings in a spectral geography of Bristol. Such stories are rarely heard, and the city is thus haunted by the absences of the voices of those enslaved and a lack of knowledge of the role of slavery in the growth and historic prosperity of the city. Little has been done to incorporate such dissonant heritage and so the histories of slavers, slavery, and slaves are not significant themes in tourism marketing, attractions or experiences in the city. This paper demonstrates that a process of coming to terms with difficult heritage and associated hauntings offers significant potential for tourism to contribute to historic and contemporary social justice.

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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616688.2024.2328612

Abstract

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Precarious labour geographies of working holiday makers: querying sustainability

https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2366488

Abstract

The boundaries between tourism and migration are blurry. This blurring has been beneficial for the governments of wealthy countries enabling them to import a large and flexible temporary workforce that can be directed toward regions and industries where there are labour shortages. Such is the case with the Australian Working Holiday Program (AWHP); a historically tourism-focused cultural exchange program that began in 1975. Since the 1990s, the Australian Government has leveraged the AWHP to support several of Australia’s critical industries. This has been achieved through the tweaking of mobility infrastructures that link Working Holiday Makers’ (WHMs) ability to stay in Australia to employment conditions. Such conditions increase precarity among WHMs, directing them towards remote regions and industries where there are evident labour shortages. While these mobility infrastructures significantly benefit Australia’s economy, they result in WHMs being highly vulnerable to exploitation. Such vulnerability is layered with WHMs from less wealthy, non-English-speaking countries facing the highest levels of vulnerability. This study investigates the way mobility infrastructures in the AWHP influence WHMs’ mobilities, as well as how such mobilities are experienced in uneven and unjust ways. There is urgency to interrogate the role that such programs play in contributing to unjust mobilities, and to query the attendant implications for sustainability.

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Significance of biocultural heritage, cultural landscape and islandness for responsible tourism: a Knoydart case study

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616688.2024.2325943

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, environmental crisis and increasing growth in tourism prompted interest in more responsible tourism. So called responsible tourism (RT) entails diverse ingredients and an aim of this research is to understand if residents of community owned nature-rich land believe they have responsibility to share with visitors, or if their focus is shifting toward prioritising environmental conservation and or personal wellbeing. In this case study a unique perception of RT emerges in Knoydart Scotland, born from a pronounced awareness of biocultural heritage and a self-directed understanding of landscape as cultural. A distinctive feature in this case study is an expression of abundant generosity evolving from participants’ embodied understanding of the integration of culture and nature. This commitment to a cultural landscape is particularly noteworthy since it is set within a location presented to tourists as ‘wilderness’. Findings suggest that it is meaningful to explore historically evolved cultural understandings of ‘islandness’ and biocultural heritage, before promoting exogenous RT strategies. This research revitalizes frequently discredited notions about what responsible and sustainable tourism involve, as well as offering a rare example of the impacts of ‘islandness’ within a mainland setting.

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