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2023-2024 Colloquium Series
An Authentic Urban Imaginary Against the Tourist Urban Imagery
Dean MacCannell, Professor Emeritus
Environmental Design and Geography
University of California, Davis
Friday, March 8th, 4PM-6PM PDT Hybrid Presentation
In Person: Gifford Room, 221 Anthropology and Art Practice Bldg.
University of California, Berkeley
On Zoom: [click here]
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Abstract
This presentation is based on my forthcoming contribution to Armando Silva’s Spanish language Imaginarios Urbanos volume. My chapter will appear under the title, “The Tourist in the Invisible City” however that gets translated. I have chosen an intentionally contentious different title for my TSWG presentation to highlight one of the main themes of my essay—the difference between the way the tourist industry imagines cities versus the potential human and democratic energy inherent in urban imaginaries free of tourist industry interests. My analysis is based on a close reading of two texts. The New York Times 36 Hours World: 150 Cities From Abu Dhabi to Zurich represents of the tourist industry imagination, and Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities represents an urban imagination free of tourist industry inflection. As in all my work, I underscore the potential for tourism that fully embraces the creative human potential (excited and empowered imagination) that exists in the tourist encounter. Here, with the help of Calvino, I argue that global tourism is the site of one of the main battles in the ongoing human struggle for a freer, more sustainable and democratic future.
Speaker Bio
Dean MacCannell’s current research examines the intimate and hidden relationship between tourism and the spirit of democracy. He will present his early results in a keynote address to the International Conference on Tourism Sciences in Kanazawa, Japan in March.
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