Globalization, Tourism and the Commodification of Imagination: an Ethnography of Backpacking
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GLOBALIZATION, TOURISM AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF IMAGINATION: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF BACKPACKING by Adrian Nieoczym B.A., McMaster University, 1997 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the Department of Sociology and Anthropology O Adrian Nieoczym 2003 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY September 2003 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. 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Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay Globalization, Tourism and the Commodification of Imagination: An Ethnography of Backpacking Author: \ jv (dgdature) Adrian Nieoczym (name) 17 September 2003 (date) Approval Name: Adrian Nieoczym Degree: Master of Arts Title of Thesis: Globalization, Tourism and the Commodification of Imagination: An Ethnography of Backpacking Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Stacy Pigg V Dr. Marilyn Gates Senior Supervisor Associate Professor of Anthropology Simon Fraser University - - - - Dr. Michael Kenny Member Professor of Anthropology Simon Fraser University Dr. Robert Anderson External Examiner Professor of Communication Simon Fraser University Date Approved: 17 September 2003 Abstract Globalization is the ongoing expansion and development of the capitalist world system, and entails the spread as well as the deepening of commodity relations. People experience globalization differently and play different roles in directing its historical trajectory, depending on the positions they occupy in the landscapes that make up the world system. This thesis ethnographically examines the trips of backpackers visiting British Columbia and how, even though their national identities remain strong, the imaginations that backpackers have of the world and of their positions in it, are increasingly the result of their participation in markets, rather than of their participation in nations. How backpackers imagine the world and their place in it influences the decisions they make about how to live their lives and so influences how they experience and participate in the world system's development. Backpackers are mostly middle-class young people who find themselves at a crossroads on their life-paths and who make use of products and services sold by the tourism industry in order to engage in a style of independent travel imbued with an anti- touristic aura. While backpackers come from an array of nation-states, they are also part of the world system's core and share imagined worlds culturally shaped by their common consumption of trans-national media. Going backpacking provides the people who do it with cultural capital that is useful for having a successful life in the core, where being a successful person is becoming culturally equated with attaining a kind of complex consumerhood. This work critically draws on Arjun Appadurai's (1996) theory of Global Cultural Economy and Scott Lash and John Urry's (1994) analysis of global capitalism to illustrate globalization's intertwined political, economic and cultural dimensions. Data generated from participant observation, semi-structured interviews and the analysis of texts and images is used to illustrate how backpackers come to B.C. on self-directed journeys. Their movements through the landscapes they visit are coordinated as backpackers' individual paths are channelled collectively into a specialized tourist flow through the business and marketing efforts of people working in the backpacker industry who want to capture backpackers' spending power. Acknowledgements I would like to thank John Hopkins and the Hostelling International - Canada - B.C. Region staff for their invaluable generosity in facilitating my research. This work would not have been possible without the participation of the backpackers who happily took time out from their travels to share their thoughts and experiences with me. I hope that some of us will one day cross paths again. I am very thankful to my senior supervisor Marilyn Gates for her encouragement and feedback, and for providing me with the latitude to pursue this project. Thank you to Michael Kenny for his help with editing as well as for being an incredible boss. I learned so much about anthropology by being a TA in his introduction to anthropology classes and it has been a highlight of my time as a graduate student. I also want to thank Ann Travers, John Bogardus, Heribert Adam, Dany Lacombe, Stacy Pigg, Karl Froshauer and the late Ellen Gee from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Simon Fraser University. They provided me with wonderful support and inspiration during my time there. I am extremely grateful to the office staff of Mickey Naisby, Karen Payne, Joan Byron and Jeanne Persoon, who keep the department functioning and who made my life so much easier. I would especially like to acknowledge my friend and roommate Carl Norrgard, who helped keep me sane during some tumultuous and challenging times. I am not sure I would have survived this process without his help. Thank you. Table of Contents . Approval ............................................................................................................ 11 ... Abstract .............................................................................................................. 111 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................. v Table of Contents ........................................................................................... vi Introduction .................................................................................... Globalization .......................................................................................... Backpackers are young people at the core of the world system ............ Methods .................................................................................................. Constructing my field ............................................................................ Ethnography ........................................................................................... Ethnography and globalization .............................................................. Research techniques and informed consent ........................................... Data analysis ......................................................................................... Limitations ............................................................................................. The state of backpacker research ........................................................... Organization ........................................................................................ Chapter 1: People of the Core ..................................................... Chaos Theory ......................................................................................... Configuration and dynamic nature of the world system ........................ Culture ................................................................................................... Cultural logic of capitalism ................................................................... The contemporary core .......................................................................... Imagination ............................................................................................ From imagined communities to imagined worlds ................................. Global cultural economy ...................................................................... Summary ................................................................................................ Chapter 2: From Grand Tourists to Backpackers . A History of Young Travellers at the Core of The World System ......................................................................... Tourism ................................................................................................ Tourism studies ...................................................................................... I-htorical predecessors .The Grand Tour ............................................ Tramping ................................................................................................ Youth hostel movement ......................................................................... Post World War II non-institutionalized tourists ................................... Backpackers ........................................................................................... 56 Backpacking as a form of institutionalized alternative tourism ............ 59 Backpacking commodities ..................................................................... 62 Summary ................................................................................................ 63 Chapter 3: Going Travelling ........................................................ Backpackers coming