Disputation i turismvetenskap med Jack Shepherd

Anmälan senast 2 december

Abstract (in English)

Grounded in an understanding of tourism as a political phenomenon that has consequential impacts on how we understand people and space, and in an understanding of peacebuilding as a participatory process that must involve ordinary citizens, this thesis explores the relationship between tourism and peace.

Taking inspiration from the confidence of global organisations and tourism scholars that tourism has a role in peacebuilding, I explore how tourism could serve to challenge conflicts that are deemed intractable - conflicts that are particularly hard to solve. In choosing one of the most intractable conflicts of all, and a popular tourism destination, my thesis focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian context. This is a context where tourism has more often than not been a force for cementing sectarian narratives that fuel the conflict and in aggravating the asymmetrical division between Israelis and Palestinians. However, with new alternative forms of tourism and tourists arriving in the region, there is hope still for tourism in a process of regional peace.

Using the results of four published articles, I demonstrate how there are several approaches to challenging the intractability of this conflict. Articles I and II look at two Palestinian accommodation providers that have curated provocative and artful tourism spaces that tackle the conflict head on. In these cases, tourism is envisioned as a source of education about the conflict and a forum for dialogue with the Other. Article III compares and contrasts an Israeli youth hostel chain and a Palestinian hiking trail that both use the biblical figure of Abraham as an inspiration for rising above the conflict and materialising a vision of cross-cultural harmony. Here, tourism is an exercise in highlighting commonalities and forwarding fruitful visions of viii regional peace. In Article IV, a radically different approach is taken where non-tourism, in the form of a tourism boycott of an Israeli mega-event, is forwarded as the best way to challenge the conflict’s asymmetry.

Illuminating these cases through a variety of mostly qualitative methods, I debate the strengths and weaknesses of these differing approaches and suggest that while tourism demonstrates a remarkable ability to challenge the conflict’s nefarious master narratives, it simultaneously struggles to tackle the entrenched structural injustices in the Israeli/tourist-Palestinian relationship. Instead of supporting one approach over another, I use my findings to highlight that how peace is approached through tourism is entirely a reflection of how a certain group understands the concept of peace. With different visions of peace being enacted through tourism, challenging intractable conflicts through tourism must be seen as an ongoing process of negotiating differing visions of peace in tourism contexts.

Taken in its entirety, the thesis makes several contributions to the ongoing discussion about tourism’s role in peacebuilding. These include highlighting the value of peace and conflict studies literature to tourism studies, and the need for creative methodologies that tackle the emotional and messy dimensions of tourism in conflict settings.

Handledare

Daniel Laven och Sandra Wall-Reinius

Opponent

Professor Dorina-Maria Buda vid Nottingham Trent University i Storbritannien