World Heritage Tourism and Cultural Dialogue: The World Heritage Site of Ambohimanga (Madagascar) as a Transdifferential Space
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Article in conference proceedings › Research › peer-review
Authors
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 language | English |
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Title of host publication | Tourism in the Global South : Heritages, Identities and Development |
Editors | João Sarmento, Eduardo Brito-Henriques |
Number of pages | 20 |
Publisher | Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Universidade de Lisboa |
Publication date | 01.2013 |
Pages | 45-64 |
ISBN (print) | 978-972-636-235-7 |
Publication status | Published - 01.2013 |
Event | Tourism in the Global South - 2013 - Lissabon, Portugal Duration: 24.01.2013 → 25.01.2013 |
- Tourism studies