World Heritage Tourism and Cultural Dialogue: The World Heritage Site of Ambohimanga (Madagascar) as a Transdifferential Space

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An important outcome of global nomination practices is the mobilization of people interested in culture. Material and intangible cultural artifacts judged representative by UNESCO criteria should not only be themselves protected but, above all, should be made accessible to a global audience. This gives them a central place in global tourism. Intercultural dialogue is closely related to this aspect of access to cultural heritage and is central to UNESCO’s educational objective, to promote worldwide understanding. Tourism constitutes a particular area of intercultural meeting. Taking world heritage in Madagascar as an example can reveal the opportunities for and also obstacles to intercultural dialogue within heritage tourism. The interaction of tourist practices with the practices of the local stakeholders is interpreted as a process of place-making. World heritage places are formed by the insertion in the dialogue of a third culture, which is analogous to the concept of transdifference. Transdifferent spaces are liminoid spaces in which a variety of cultural texts circulate, enabling communication with the other, without a deconstruction of existing differences. As transdifferential spaces world heritage sites calls into question the culturally immanent homogenous thinking patterns of both tourists and locals and follows its own culturally transcendent rules.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTourism in the Global South : Heritages, Identities and Development
EditorsJoão Sarmento, Eduardo Brito-Henriques
Number of pages20
PublisherCentro de Estudos Geográficos, Universidade de Lisboa
Publication date01.2013
Pages45-64
ISBN (Print)978-972-636-235-7
Publication statusPublished - 01.2013
EventTourism in the Global South - 2013 - Lissabon, Portugal
Duration: 24.01.201325.01.2013