Unit 6: Nationalizing the Landscape
Tourism and Belonging
Thematic Cluster: Contested Belonging: Mobility, Nationhood, and Representation
This unit is part of the thematic cluster Contested Belonging: Mobility, Nationhood, and Representation examining the interplay between movement and return, as well as visual representations of migration. Other units in this cluster are:
Welcome to the second unit of this module, where we explore tourism as a form of non-migratory mobility and its significance within the nationalizing state.
Definition: Non-migratory Mobility
What’s at stake?
Mass tourism is part of the non-migratory mobility that has gained in popularity since the 19th century and has been institutionalized through organizations, thematic journals, and professional guidebooks.
Tourist practices offer insights into:
- the history of leisure;
- increasing mobility;
- the formation of the middle class.
At the end of the 19th and especially in the 20th century tourism became an instrument of nation-building, strengthening the sense of belonging to a particular community.
The unit is divided into three main sections:
- In the first section we’ll be reviewing the theoretical aspects of tourism as a practice, examining some of the key concepts in tourism studies.
- In the second section we’ll look at the relationship between tourism and nationalism.
- The third section will take two case studies from Polish history as illustrations of the themes in this unit. The first case examines the promotion of tourism as a vehicle for national construction; the second case deals with the emerging Jewish tourist movement.
After completing your study of this unit, you will:
- be able to identify the main concept of tourism as mobility, to connect it with the broader ideological problems;
- understand the methodological and theoretical aspects of tourism research;
- have the tools to analyze the discourse of tourism in historical and contemporary documents.
Throughout the unit you will have the opportunity – which we highly recommend you take – to explore additional sources of information through the Exercises sections. Independent analytical work will help you develop a more nuanced understanding of the core information provided in the unit.
A reading list of primary and secondary sources is provided at the end; this will guide you on how you can further explore different aspects of the topic.
