Our Future Environment

I’ve spent much time thinking about why I’m interested in ecotourism, how it relates to our program, how I might investigate it from the perspective of urban life, and why the practices and theories of ecotourism “matter” at a larger economic or social scale. I realized that I keep coming back to one essential question: How can I disrupt the assumption among potential ecotourists that ecotourism is an unequivocally worthwhile activity to engage in? I reach this question based on readings that A) ecotourism has high ideals that are never reached because it is a practice that assumes nature is a commodity, and B) actor network theory (and social constructionist thought) can be used to understand American consumers’ perceptions of their relationship (or absence of) to “nature”.
I understand I will need to consider readings on the production and commodification of nature (as well as what I mean by commodification and nature) but I am hoping to focus as much as possible on what is meant by the social construction of nature. I want to eventually tie this discussion of the construction of western concepts of nature into how those concepts play out in ecotourism. Specifically, when a tourist decides she is one who considers ecotourism to be a reflection of her relationship to nature, what can be said about the western binary of a society vs nature? And, ultimately, what kind of information would a potential ecotourist respond to in order to reconsider ecotourism?

Filed under: eco-tourism on March 13th, 2010