Refusing to be Toured: Work, Tourism, and the Productivity of "Life" in the Colombian Amazon. Issue 3 (30th November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Craven, Caitlin E.
• Is Part Of: Antipode. Volume 48:Issue 3(2016:Jun.)
• Page Start: 544
• Page End: 562
• Publication Date: 2015-11-30
• Subjects: tourism/tourability -- Autonomous Marxism -- land and landscapes -- Colombian Amazon -- refusal -- indigenous; Geography -- Periodicals; 910.5
• DOI: 10.1111/anti.12208
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0066-4812

Abstract

Abstract: Starting from the contention that exercising a "right to tour" is predicated on the work of producing tourability, I examine how tourability itself is a contested process involving relations of land and labour. Examining the current "resource boom" of ecotourism in the Colombian Amazon, I use an analysis of work and capital accumulation to unravel a seemingly small act of refusal by the community of Nazaret that has barred tourists' entry to their land. I argue that this act of refusal opens up space for critically examining the relationships of land and labour, especially through the production of "life", in the accumulation of tourable places in contemporary global capitalism. Engaging literature on both tourism studies and land politics in the Amazon region, I contribute to the scholarship on tourism and work while examining how Indigenous landscapes are being made productive towards the ends of capitalism.