Urbanities,
Vol. 4
·
No 2
·
November 2014
© 2014
Urbanities
99
Tourism and urban change are two phenomena which are often interrelated, since the
first tends to shape up the ways in which an environment is signified, as well as the modalities
in which its inhabitants (and tourists) do interact with it, with all the consequent social and
cultural implications.
Since tourism became a mass phenomenon that interests more or less every area of the
world, to consider its impact on the studied reality on the basis of urban anthropology could
help to understand processes of social and spatial stratification better, as well as the impact on
economic practices, that is, those which originate or are influenced by the existence of a
tourism market in a spatially restricted area. On the other hand, researches like the study by
McKean (1989) on how tourism in Bali has changed power relations, access to wealth and
social stratification on the island, clearly show that urban and urbanized environments are
often the result of transnational and transcultural forces which cannot, and should not, be
considered as independent from the area in which they operate.
A study of urban contexts based on the dialogue with other disciplines, as well as with
other fields within the anthropological research, with their methodologies and approaches,
shall definitely help individuating what makes changes possible in urban environments and
how do they affect people’s lives. Prato and Pardo provided us with an excellent account of
the developments and current achievements of the discipline, which will surely stimulate
further discussions and serve as an indispensable tool for anyone approaching Urban
Anthropology in the future.
References
McKean, Ph. F. (1989). Towards a Theoretical Analysis of Tourism: Economic Dualism and
Cultural Involution in Bali. In V. Smith (ed.).
Prato, G. B. and Pardo, I. (2013).
‘Urban anthropology.’
Urbanities
, 3 (2): 80-110. Available
fro
Pezzi M. G. (2013), We don’t need to copy anyone: César Manrique and the Creation of a
Development Model for Lanzarote.
Urbanities
, 3 (2): pp. 19-32. Available
at:
Smith V. (ed) (1989).
Hosts and Guests: the Anthropology of Tourism
. Oxford: Blackwell.
