Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
kinds of tourism have proved to be potentially benefi cial and detrimental for local communi-
ties and the environment, and therefore the 'moral authority' of ecotourism and other forms
of alternative tourism must be questioned (Butcher, 2005). Tourism, beyond its rhetoric or
label, needs to be scrutinised and reformed to make a positive contribution, and careful atten-
tion is needed to ensure that it is not just a matter of giving a new name to the same old
practices of mainstream tourism (Scheyvens, 2002).
The links between tourism and sustainability have also been questioned for being more a
concern of 'ego-tourists' seeking to confi rm their cultural and environmental sensibilities
than a truly different activity (Munt, 1994). Sustainability, and particularly ecotourism, are
seen by some as the expression and imposition of Western values and ideas about nature and
peoples, so they need to be placed within the broader political-economic context of hegem-
onic neoliberalism (West and Carrier, 2004). They are charged with power that in less
obvious ways can still reproduce colonialism, dependency and domination (Mowforth
and Munt, 1998). Furthermore, the search for 'untouched' places has meant that social and
environmental degradation has spread further (Pleumaron, 1994).
Poststructural approaches
Poststructural ideas, and in particular their concern with discourse and the relation between
knowledge and power, have deeply infl uenced development studies since the 1990s (see also
Gale,
Chapter 4)
. Postcolonialism and post-development have contributed to understand
development as a culturally and historically specifi c production that is highly contested and
political and that both refl ects and reinforces existing power relations (Keen and Tucker,
Chapter 12
; Lawson, 2007). Together they have provided theoretical grounds for engaged
and progressive approaches to development, but their connection could still be made stronger
(Simon, 2006).
Postcolonialism questions the material and discursive legacies of colonialism that still
infl uence the relationships between the West and the Third World, and acknowledges the
power relations involved in the production of knowledge, where just some voices are included
(Radcliffe, 2005). Development, rooted in colonial discourses, is considered to be an ethno-
centric concept that rejects or even destroys non-Western knowledges and practices.
Postcolonialism calls for the inclusion of alternative, subjugated voices for its decolonisation,
acknowledging a diversity of perspectives and possibilities of development (McEwan, 2009).
Post-development, on the other hand, linked to a variety of social movements, criticises
Western notions of superiority within development discourses. It questions the construction of
hierarchies through which the Third World is presented as poor, uneducated and lacking
assistance from the West that justify its intervention (Sidaway, 2007). Arturo Escobar, whose
work is key in post-development thinking, argues that it is necessary to look at local practices
and knowledge that, instead of being erased by Western development, speak of a plurality of
visions of development and the subversion of Western development (Escobar, 2001). Therefore,
post-development pushes for new ways to think and act that do not reproduce the centrality of
the West, but that are grounded on the everyday lives, cultures, places and struggles of people,
allowing people to construct their own stories of development (Power, 2003).
Post-structural approaches have brought new issues to the study of tourism, including
'questions about representation of peoples and places . . . the production of tourist landscapes
. . . social relations between tourists and those living in destination areas . . . commodifi cation
of culture and authenticity . . . and cultural identity and cultural politics' (Scheyvens, 2002:
36). Urry's infl uential 'Tourist Gaze' was key in drawing attention to relations of power in
