Skip to main content

Slumming on Social Media? E-Mediated Tourist Gaze and Social Representations of Indian, South African, and Brazilian Slum Tourism Destinations.

Sarrica, M., Rega, I., Inversini, A. and Norton, L.S., 2021. Slumming on Social Media? E-Mediated Tourist Gaze and Social Representations of Indian, South African, and Brazilian Slum Tourism Destinations. Societies, 11 (3), 106.

Full text available as:

[img]
Preview
PDF (OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE)
societies-11-00106.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

323kB

DOI: 10.3390/soc11030106

Abstract

Slum tourism is a hotly debated genre of travel. While it may foster intercultural encounters with marginalised “others”, it is also accused of reinforcing stereotypes and exploitation. Both aspects are amplified by the communication through social media of the slum tourism experience, that contribute to challenge or confirm stigmatizing representations of slums and their inhabitants. Based on the theoretical constructs of the tourist gaze and of social representations, this article addresses this particular type of digital contact. A lexicometric approach was used to analyse an extensive corpus of reviews on TripAdvisor (N = 8126). The findings not only confirm common themes already identified by the literature: the eye-opening component of touring poverty and the gatekeeping function of guides; but also show the emergence of context-dependent specificities, such as a hedonistic feature in the Cape Town region; or the integration of favelas within the representations of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Furthermore, the results show the tension between the “othering” and the “sameing” mechanisms, making this tourism practice a space in which shallow and deep tourist gazes interact and co-exist, and are crucially mediated by the gatekeeper of the tours: the guide.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:2075-4698
Additional Information:This article belongs to the Special Issue Acculturation Processes and Intercultural Relations: Locals and Immigrants in Analogical and Digital Societies
Uncontrolled Keywords:social media ; slum tourism ; tourism gaze ; social media gaze ; social representations
Group:Faculty of Media & Communication
ID Code:35967
Deposited By: Symplectic RT2
Deposited On:06 Sep 2021 09:15
Last Modified:14 Mar 2022 14:29

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

More statistics for this item...
Repository Staff Only -