From Stigma to Brand: Conference on Slum Tourism in 2017

From Stigma to Brand:
Commodifying and Aestheticizing Urban Poverty and Violence

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, February 16-18, 2017

Call for Papers

Convenors:

Prof. Dr. Eveline Dürr (LMU Munich, Germany)
Prof. Dr. Rivke Jaffe (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Prof. Dr. Gareth Jones (London School of Economics and Politics, UK)

This conference investigates the motives, processes and effects of the commodification and global representation of urban poverty and violence. Cities have often hidden from view those urban areas and populations stigmatized as poor, dirty and dangerous. However, a growing range of actors actively seek to highlight the existence and appeal of “ghettos”, “slums” and “no-go areas”, in attempts to attract visitors, investors, cultural producers, media and civil society organisations. In cities across the world, processes of place-making and place-marketing increasingly resignify urban poverty and violence to indicate authenticity and creativity. From “slum tourism” to “favela chic” parties and “ghetto fabulous” fashion, these economic and representational practices often approach urban deprivation as a viable brand rather than a mark of shame.

The conference explores how urban misery is transformed into a consumable product. It seeks to understand how the commodification and aestheticization of violent, impoverished urban spaces and their residents affects urban imaginaries, the built environment, local economies and social relations.

What are the consequences for cities and their residents when poverty and violence are turned into fashionable consumer experiences? How is urban space transformed by these processes and how are social relationships reconfigured in these encounters? Who actually benefits when social inequality becomes part of the city’s spatial perception and place promotion?
We welcome papers from a range of disciplinary perspectives including anthropology, geography, sociology, and urban studies.

Keynote speakers:

  • Lisa Ann Richey (Roskilde University)
  • Kevin Fox Gotham (Tulane University)

more to be confirmed.

• Please submit an abstract for a paper presentation including a title and your affiliation to: stigma2brand@ethnologie.lmu.de
Deadline for abstract submission is October 10, 2016
• Please note that limited financial support for registered PhD students is available. Please indicate in your abstract submission if you wish to apply.

 

Slumming It: The Tourist Valorisation of Urban Poverty

NEW BOOK Announcement

slumming it title page

Slumming It: The tourist Valorization of Urban Poverty
Zed Books London, June 2016
Paperback: £16.99
ISBN: 9781783604432

In the provocative Slumming It, Fabian Frenzel explores the intriguing motivations and consequences of this form of tourism with a truly accessible, open-minded approach. He examines the strange allure that slums have for wealthier visitors, and he investigates the changes this curious attraction has led to on both a small and large scale: from gentrification and urban policy reform to the organization of international development and poverty alleviation efforts. Using case studies throughout the global south—including Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok, and cities in South Africa, Kenya, and India—Frenzel provides a comprehensive study of slum tourism and a controversial take on the potentially positive impact it may have on these struggling communities in the future.

The book is based on a research project funded by the European Union Marie Curie Fellowship scheme. More publications and information can be found on the project website.

Read an extract from the book on CityMetric

Reviews:
Bianca Freire-Medeiros, author of Touring Poverty
“Based on years of embedded fieldwork, Frenzel’s book cuts through the powerful mythology surrounding the so-called slums, townships, and favelas as tourist attractions to construct a revelatory narrative of the relationship between poverty and tourism, exploitation and political activism.”

John Hutnyk, author of The Rumour of Calcutta
“The reality of the slum is much fought over in commentary. Frenzel cuts through the confusion to evaluate the valorisation of poverty in tourism. With examples ranging across India, Brazil, Europe and South Africa, Frenzel offers an analysis, both comparative and detailed, that is a theoretically-informed advance on current scholarship.”

Manfred Rolfes, University of Potsdam
“Frenzel has written a very inspiring book, that is full of ideas and also deeply political. He opens up many new perspectives on slum tourism, and highlights its local and global dimensions.”

Eveline Dürr, LMU Munich
“Rich empirical evidence, expertly interrogated by notions of place valorisation, make this a fascinating piece of cutting-edge research on a fast emerging field of study. It makes a significant contribution to the available literature and is key reading for professionals and scholars alike.”

Christian M. Rogerson, University of Johannesburg
“A bold and carefully crafted analysis of slums and slum tourism. Theoretically grounded in the concepts of tourist valorization and local value regimes, it offers a nuanced and state of the art understanding of the nexus of tourism, slums and poverty.”

Imogen Tyler, author of Revolting Subjects
“This provocative and beautifully written study of slum tourism will transform your assumptions about the politics of slumming it. Drawing on rich ethnographic data, Frenzel carefully considers the activist potential of tourism to enact a relational politics of solidarity and care.”

Township Tourism as responsible tourism? Findings from Cape Town

TheJournal of Sustainable Tourism development of small tourism businesses has been seen by policy-makers as a valuable means of alleviating poverty in South African townships.  This perspective has  also been endorsed by several “responsible” tourism businesses and academics.

After close investigation of township tourism practices and  micro-entrepreneurship in South Africa, Ko Koens and Rhodri Thomas, however, argue that this may not necessarily be the case. In their article “You know that’s a rip-off”: policies and practices surrounding micro-enterprises and poverty alleviation in South African township tourism, they identified several barriers that prevent township residents from successfully developing their businesses and sharing in the material gains available through tourism, even when visitor numbers are significant.

These findings suggests a need to critically reconsider current policies in favour of greater regulation and alternative forms of investment as well as a need to reassess the value of advocating responsible tourism to consumers who are often unable to gain full understanding of the context they visit or the implications of their choices.

For a short time you can download the article on the website of the Journal of Sustainable  Tourism for free.

Koens, K. & Thomas, R. (2016) ‘You know that’s a rip-off’: policies and practices surrounding micro-enterprises and poverty alleviation in South African township tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

 

WLO names Durban field school after Douglas Ribeiro da Silva

The World Leisure Organisation has decided to dedicate their 2016 summer school to the memory of tourism researcher Douglas Ribeiro da Silva. Douglas’ research focused on community perceptions of favela tourism in Paraisopolis, Sao Paolo and he presented his findings at the 2nd Slum tourism network conference in May 2014 in Potsdam, Germany.

Douglas died in an accident while attending the WLO Congress in 2014 in Mobile, Alabamba. In his memory the WLO has named its next congress in Durban, South Africa as ‘Douglas Ribeiro da Silva Field School’.

The WLO would like to offer a tribute to one of the students who participated in the last WLO Congress. Unfortunately, Douglas is no longer with us, but he left part of his legacy on the way he lived. In spite of all adversities in his life, he chose education and knowledge as the path to be followed in order to change society, to empower and emancipate people. His life was an inspirational example on how to overcome difficulties and discrimination with knowledge. We would like to keep his spirit alive by naming the Durban field school after him.

Many researchers in the slum tourism network have expressed their gratidute to the WLO for this tribute to Douglas’ memory.

Second Part of Themed Issue Slum Tourism Out

The second part of the themed issues of the jounral Tourism Review International has been published. It features three papers on slum tourism, considering tourism in Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro, as well as in Kibera, Nairobi and Dharavi in Mumbai.

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Ecological Slums? Initial Notes on Tourism and Ecology in Brazilian Favelas

Camila Maria Dos Santos Moraes
Tourism and Heritage Department, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
CPDOC/FGV-RJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Key words: Favela; Ecology; Tourism

“Breaking the Silence”: Local Perceptions of Slum Tourism in Dharavi
Nieck Slikker* and Ko Koens†‡
*International Tourism Management, Stenden University of Applied Sciences, Leeuwarden, Netherlands
†Academy of Hotel and Facility Management, NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, Breda, Netherlands
‡School of Tourism and Hospitality, Faculty of Management, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Key words: Slum tourism; Dharavi; Local perceptions; Resident perspective; Tourism ethics

Making Slums Into Attractions: The Role of Tour Guiding in the Slum Tourism Development in Kibera and Dharavi
Fabian Frenzel* and Stephanie Blakeman†

*School of Management, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
†Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Key words: Slum tourism; Tour guiding; Attraction making; Organizational structures; Social ties; Intimacy

The abstracts of the three paper can be found here.

The papers were originally presented at the second slum tourism network conference in Potsdam in May 2014. Together with the first part of this themed issue and an earlier special issue in Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft, they form a series of significant contributions to the field.

 

New Research Published on Slum Tourism Websites

Donatella Privitera recently published an article “Tourist Valorisation of Urban Poverty: an Empirical Study on the Web” on Urban Forum journal (Springer). The paper evaluates tour whole sales websites to analyse different types of strategic choices. The websites are evaluated using an extended Model of Internet Commerce Adoption (eMICA) methodological approach that draws on the evolutionary development of electronic commerce. Through the results of the study, it is possible to gain knowledge of the slum e-tourism.

Privitera D. (2015), Tourist Valorisation of Urban Poverty: an Empirical Study on the Web
Urban Forum, 30 June, on line, pp.1-18.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12132-015-9259-3

Slum Tourism Themed Issue 2015

After the second Slum Tourism Network conference in Potsdam in May 2014 several of the papers have now been published in a themed issue in the journal Tourism Review International Volume 18, Number 4. The second part of the themed issue will be published in summer 2015.

slum tourism special issue

Here is the table of content of Part 1. Find the abstracts here.

 

Tourism Review International

THEMED ISSUE
SLUM TOURISM—PART 1

Slum Tourism: State of the Art 237
Fabian Frenzel, Ko Koens, Malte Steinbrink, and Christian M. Rogerson

Smart Tourism Investment: Planning Pathways to Break the Poverty Cycle 253
Moustafa A. Mekawy

Reimagining the Geography of the Favelas: Pacification, Tourism, and Transformation in Complexo Do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro 269
Emily LeBaron

Touring the Demolished Slum? Slum Tourism in the Face of Delhi’s Gentrification 283
Tore Holst

“So, Child Protection, I’ll Make a Quick Point of it Now”: Broadening the Notion of Child Abuse in Volunteering Vacations in Siem Reap, Cambodia 295
P. Jane Reas

 

Prior to this themed issue a special issue in the German Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft was published in late 2014 with several papers from the conference.

Creation of slum tourism operators network

Reality Tours and Travel, a well know and large operator in Mumbai, has joined up in partnership with researchers and tourism organisations from around the world, to take the initiave and create a slum tourism operators network. The purpose of the network is to share best practices, discuss the challenges slum tour operators face and to help each other problem solve these challenges. The ultimate goal is to ensure slum tour operators maximize the positive impact on the community and their guests while operating the tours as responsibly as possible. Pooling together the collective knowledge and experience on the matter of slum tourism can help achieve this goal.

In practice, the idea is to invite as many operators as possible into a dialog over their approaches and concepts, initially via an online networking process, but with the longer term aim of getting operators together in workshops, on regional and perhaps global level. For those interested in participating in this network, to share their knowledge and learn about slum tourism around the world, an online form has been created. We would like to ask practioners and researchers, who are willing to contribute or participate in this network, to fill in the form and share their knowledge about operators across different destinations. Although the initiative to set up the network comes from Reality Tours and Travel, we like to emphasises they have done this to learn and share information. Information from the network will be shared among participants.

You can go to the form by clicking on this link:

New Academic Publication: Is Small Beautiful?

Ko Koens and Rhodri Thomas recently published an article on the contribution of small businesses in township tourism to economic development. Their discussion highlights the complexity of slum touris as they reveal tensions between different actors involved in township tourism. While the involvement of small, locally owned, businesses is beneficial, it is limited by conflicts of interest, lack of trust, limited social networks and little attachment to the township locality.

 

The article can be downloaded by clicking here:

 

Koens, K., & Thomas, R. (2015). Is small beautiful? Understanding the contribution of small businesses in township tourism to economic development. Development Southern Africa, 0(0), 1–13. http://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2015.1010715

 

 

 

Special Issue in Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft Out

We are happy to annouce that the first special issue with some papers from the slum tourism Destination Slum 2 network conference in May 2014 has come out.

The special issue Tourismus und Armut in the Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft. The special issue was edited by Norman Backhaus, Fabian Frenzel and Malte Steinbrink.

 

 

Bildschirmfoto 2014-12-02 um 11.56.37

ZfTW: Current Issue

 

The special issue is diveded in two parts. One part features papers that revisit the question how tourism can alleviate poverty, while the second part focusses in on poverty as an attraction in tourism. Papers from the conference include the contributions of Sarah Becklake, Julia Burgold and Jan-Erik Steinkrüger. In the introduction to special issue, Malte Steinbrink and Fabian Frenzel show the growing numbers of destinations and tourists in slum tourism. In 2013, an estimated one million tourists went on a slum tour globally.

 

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Most of the papers are in German and the papers are not yet available online. The print issue can be ordered via the journal webpage.