Topologies of tourism enclaves

Bibliographic Data

ID5761817
AuthorsRichard Ek (0000-0003-2814-7066, Lund University, corresponding author), Mekonnen Tesfahuney (Karlstad University)
Year2019
Volume21
Issue5
Pages864-880
Publication date2019-10-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTourism Geographies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-6688 • E-ISSN: 1470-1340
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14616688.2019.1663910
OpenAlexW2974943018
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited77

Research on tourism enclaves has relied mainly on topographical understandings of the phenomenon. The focus has been on the ontic, that which is or exists instead of the relational qualities or properties of tourism enclaves. Topographical conceptions thus tend to simplify enclavic processes and attributes that are much more complex than meets the eye. In this article, we make the case for topological understandings of tourism enclaves, based on a relational ontology, as a complement. We thereby strive to offer more nuanced conceptions of tourism enclaves. We depart from Agamben’s political ontology to illustrate our claim. Seen topologically, tourism enclaves are not simply spaces marked-off from the norm, but rather constituents of the norm. Tourism enclaves need to be theorized as ‘prototypes’ or ‘laboratories’ of new subjectivities (ways of being, relating, and experiencing the world). The tourist thus emerges as a model figure of biopolitics in the contemporary, the norm rather than the exception. The tourist is not that which is abandoned by the sovereign in the manner of Agamben, but rather a free exilant, a subject that self-willingly chooses abandonment. We deploy topological concepts, like Agamben’s the ban, the camp, and state of exception. Such a conception, we argue, widens the ontological register or horizon of tourism theory

Epistemology · Norm (philosophy · Ontic · Ontology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subject (documents · Tourism · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Philosophy · Sex work and related issues