close
test_template

Tourism, Hybridity, and Ambiguity: The Relevance of Bhabha's ‘third Space’ Cultures

download print

About this sample

About this sample

close

Words: 508 |

Page: 1|

3 min read

Published: Jul 30, 2019

Words: 508|Page: 1|3 min read

Published: Jul 30, 2019

This paper critiques the contribution which Dr.Homi Bhabha has recently made to cultural theoretical thought on historical and temporal forms of ethnicity under the post-colonial moment. Since tourism is frequently dubbed the business of ‘difference’ and ‘the other’, par excellence, it synthesizes not only what tourism researchers can learn from Bhabha’s powerful contemporary analyses of identity and alterity, but also how Bhabha could fruitfully explore tourism as an important ‘location’ for cultural production and emergent belonging. In interpreting Bhabha’s highly problematic notions (such as ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’, and ‘interstitial culture’), the paper challenges the field of tourism studies to develop more vigorous interrogations of the everday performative activities which tend, ethnocentrically, to essentialise people, places, and pasts through tourism.

'Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned'?

Much had indeed changed in the way that social scientists have viewed ‘culture’ in the past three decades, and Bhabha’s thinking is clearly a product of such revised understanding. During this time, previously dominant views of culture as an all-powerful 1 supra-individual ‘system’ have tended to be rejected as an illusory conceptual abstraction, and instead of viewing culture as a collective prime mover acting on individuals contained within a given society, attention has been switched “towards investigation of the real phenomena of individuals interacting with one another and with their natural environments” Thus, increasing numbers of social scientists have come to reject the idea of culture as something concrete, in and of itself, over the last three decades, and nowadays have come to understand culture as a looser realm of communal thought which people of a given society participate in. Today, to symbolic anthropologists like Geertz, what counts is not so much culture as ‘system’, but culture as ‘context’, where all acts and events are potentially meaningful but also always inherently ambiguous. Culture is not a cause to which happenings or actions may be attributed, but it is a realm of contextual or situational meaning in or through which these events or behaviors may be made intelligible at a given point in time, and for a given setting.

Bhabha’s research agenda — or, rather, his critical program — on the sense of disorientation and the disturbed discriminations of post-colonial life is a huge contribution to the emergent trans-cultural inquiry within postmodern scholarship: tourism studies theorists of culture production simply cannot afford to overlook Bhabha’s fresh insights into hybridity—for, to repeat, tourism is very much the, or a, imaginary business of ‘difference’-making.

The real worth in Bhabha’s ongoing work, thereby, is that it emancipates awareness about vital matters of difference and critical issues of macro-social affiliation, enriching our outlooks on the cultural orientations and the geopolitical bearings of the cluttered, the subject, and the mixed populations of the world. In revealing something of complex ways in which communities artfully “become”, it questions not only the fixity of the boundaries of places and nations, but it assails those who seek singular and within-discipline explanations of or for such macro-social bonds.

Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.

It is time for Bhabha’s ideas to be connected to the world of tourism and be influentially located within the realm of tourism and leisure research.

Image of Dr. Oliver Johnson
This essay was reviewed by
Dr. Oliver Johnson

Cite this Essay

Tourism, Hybridity, And Ambiguity: The Relevance Of Bhabha’s ‘Third Space’ Cultures. (2019, July 10). GradesFixer. Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/tourism-hybridity-and-ambiguity-the-relevance-of-bhabhas-third-space-cultures/
“Tourism, Hybridity, And Ambiguity: The Relevance Of Bhabha’s ‘Third Space’ Cultures.” GradesFixer, 10 Jul. 2019, gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/tourism-hybridity-and-ambiguity-the-relevance-of-bhabhas-third-space-cultures/
Tourism, Hybridity, And Ambiguity: The Relevance Of Bhabha’s ‘Third Space’ Cultures. [online]. Available at: <https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/tourism-hybridity-and-ambiguity-the-relevance-of-bhabhas-third-space-cultures/> [Accessed 29 Mar. 2024].
Tourism, Hybridity, And Ambiguity: The Relevance Of Bhabha’s ‘Third Space’ Cultures [Internet]. GradesFixer. 2019 Jul 10 [cited 2024 Mar 29]. Available from: https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/tourism-hybridity-and-ambiguity-the-relevance-of-bhabhas-third-space-cultures/
copy
Keep in mind: This sample was shared by another student.
  • 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
  • Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours
Write my essay

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

close

Where do you want us to send this sample?

    By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

    close

    Be careful. This essay is not unique

    This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

    Download this Sample

    Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

    close

    Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

    close

    Thanks!

    Please check your inbox.

    We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

    clock-banner-side

    Get Your
    Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

    exit-popup-close
    We can help you get a better grade and deliver your task on time!
    • Instructions Followed To The Letter
    • Deadlines Met At Every Stage
    • Unique And Plagiarism Free
    Order your paper now