The Tourist Gaze by John Urry | Summary and Analysis

The Tourist Gaze by John Urry | Summary and Analysis Critically consider the argument that Urry’s concept of the ‘tourist gaze’ places too much emphasis on the visual. Urry’s ‘tourist gaze’ remains one of the most influential concepts in tourism research. The ideas developed by Urry are still widely quoted and relevant today but a major criticism of his work is that too much emphasis is placed on the visual aspects of being a tourist rather than the whole experience. This essay will investigate this claim before concluding whether or not this is the case. In order to do this, this essay will be broken into several parts. The first section will look at what the ‘tourist gaze’ actually is. It is important to have a definition of this term before proceeding with the rest of the assignment. The second part of this essay will draw on wider academic research to test whether or not Urry’s ideas do place too much emphasis on the visual. The final part of this essay will bring together all the arguments to form some sort of conclusion. In order to fully understand the ‘tourist gaze’ it would be useful to have a clear understanding of what a tourist is and what tourism as an activity is. Turner et al. (2005) define a tourist as, â€Å"someone who has travelled to another place for a brief sojourn, an experience that necessarily entails a distinct period of transition and discontinuity from the everyday world† (p. 11). Urry (2002) describes the act of tourism as, â€Å"a leisure activity which presupposes its opposite, namely regulated and organised work. It is one manifestation of how work and leisure are organised as separate and regulated spheres of social practice in ‘modern’ societies† (p. 2). The environments that these tourists visit are subject to what Urry (1990) has described as the ‘tourist gaze’. Urry states that tourists are, â€Å"directed to features of the landscape that, which separate them off from everyday experience. Such aspects are viewed bec ause they are taken to be in some sense out of the ordinary†. The tourist and the viewpoints are manipulated, â€Å"so that the gaze falls upon what the gazer expects to see† (Turner et al, 2005: 11). Most of the time this gaze is from a static location but if it is mobile then it is directed from an insulated environment such as from a train window or a sign-posted route. The tourist only sees what they are supposed to see. Urry (1990) states, â€Å"the typical tourist experience is†¦to see named scenes through a frame, such as the hotel window, the car windscreen or the window of the coach† (p. 100). In a sense, real life is suspended or hidden away in these places so that the tourist can gaze upon what upon they expect to see. For example, in the Lake District in England, houses can only be built to very exacting specifications with traditional methods and materials. This helps to preserve the traditional look of the area. This expectation has been built up by promotional material such as brochures and adverts on the television. Goss (1993) argues that tourism marketing provide tourists with representational images of the places they are about to visit and this helps form an imaginary construction for the tourist. Culler (1981) argues that tourists read the landscape for anything that represents these pre-established notions. In The Tourist Gaze, Urry (1990) states that when we go away and become tourists, â€Å"we look at the environment†¦we gaze at what we encounter†¦and the gaze is socially constructed† (p. 1). Perkins and Thorns (2001) state that there is no single uniform gaze, rather it is, â€Å"varied temporally and across social groups and that the concept of the gaze encapsulates tourists’ experiences and is an interpretation of the things they seek and do when on holiday† (p. 187). Perkins and Thorns (2001) go on to argue that, â€Å"the gaze is a concept which comprises a way of looking at the world which simultaneously forms what is seen and the way of seeing† (p 187). There have been numerous criticisms leveled at Urry’s concept of the ‘tourist gaze’. Perhaps the most common one and of most interest to this essay is that the gaze doesn’t fully capture the tourist experience. Perkins and Thorns (2001) argue that there needs to be more of a focus on the concept of the tourist performance because in places like New Zealand, tourists are more about ‘doing’ rather than simply ‘seeing’ or ‘gazing’ and, â€Å"thus about putting their bodies into tourism in a way that is not reflected in much of the analysis arising from a focus upon the tourist gaze† (p. 199). This criticism highlights an important change in the tourism industry. This is the search for authentic experiences and the search for experiences that invigorates all the senses. Thrift (1999) suggests that tourists want ‘contact’ with their surroundings. This contact goes beyond the visual realms as suggested by Urry. As Franklin and Crang (2001) point out that tourists, â€Å"are seeking to be doing something in the places they visit rather than being endlessly spectatorially passive† (p. 13). Franklin and Chang go on to suggest that tourists have become bored by the gaze. MacCannell (1989) states that, â€Å"touristic consciousness is motivated by its desire for authentic experiences, and the tourist may believe that he is moving in this direction, but often it is very difficult to know for sure if the experience is in fact authentic. It is always possible that what is taken to be entry into a back region is really entry into a front region that has been totally set up in advance for touristic visitation† (p. 101). Urry fails to notice the distinction between authentic experiences and inauthentic ones. MacCannell (2001) believes there is a second gaze, one that is in a way suspicious of the totally visual elements of the tourist gaze. The second gaze is where the tourist is aware that, â€Å"something is being concealed from it†¦the second gaze knows that seeing is not believing. Some things will remain hidden from it†¦The second gaze turns back onto the gazing subject an ethical responsibility for the construction of its own existen ce† (p. 36). MacCannell (2001) finds the concept of the tourist gaze as defined by Urry too narrow a concept and argues that it is, â€Å"a blueprint for the transformation of the global system of attractions into an enormous set of mirrors to serve the narcissistic needs of dull egos† (p. 26). Nicholson-Lord (2002) is in partial agreement although he also takes issue with the concept of the second gaze as well. He argues that, â€Å"tourism is a powerful cultural solvent; it takes customs and beliefs that are locally rooted and distinctive, puts them into the global blending machine and turns them into liquefied gunk to which a mass market has been primed to respond† (p. 24). Although MacCannell is arguing for the need for a wider experience than Urry suggests, they have both been criticized by those who suggest that they focus too exclusively on the tourist experience and the subjectivity of the tourist. Little mention is given to the subjectivity of the host. In a world where affluent tourists are able to seek out experiences and gaze upon sights in worlds that are just becoming open to them, little mention is given to how this affects the host cultures. Bianchi (2001) states that, â€Å"in a world of hyper-mobile capital, instant communications and the mass movement of peoples, international tourism encapsulates the contradictory forces at play in today’s world. These are mobility and freedom for the wealthy few, and immobility and impoverishment for the disenfranchised many† (p. 16). This imbalance is completely ignored in the work of Urry. It would be fair to argue that this is because he places too much emphasis on the visual for the t ourist and not enough on looking at the wider impact of tourism on the hosts. As we move into an age of more ethically aware tourism, this becomes more of an important concept. Of course, Urry would argue that there is no single gaze and that this movement to more ethical tourism is just simply a different gaze for a different type of tourist but the fact that he ignores the impact of tourism on the host cultures is evidence that his preoccupations are elsewhere. The tourist gaze as a concept is a helpful one when studying tourism. It helps us to understand how tourism has evolved and changed over the past few decades. It also helps us to understand how we as tourists act as players within a larger system that has been created to match our expectations of what we want to see on when we go on holiday with the supposed reality of what is actually there. It helps us to understand all the visual sign-posts that are created to help match up these two worlds, the reality and what we expect to see. However, this concept does have some limitations. Although it tries to be all encapsulating, trying to explain all our visual experiences by saying that people from different classes seek different things and gaze on different things when they go on holiday, it is still too narrow. It fails to really encapsulate the entire essence of tourism which is the experiences that you have that can’t be explained away as simply visual. This essay has touched on the notion of performance and contact. This is what tourism is all about. It is about the experiences that you have that come from the smells and sounds and the activities you partake in in the place you are visiting. Of course the sights play a huge part in this but they are not the whole experience. Another place that Urry’s concept falls flat is his failure to look at tourism from the point of view of the host culture. In this day and age where we are becoming more ethically aware in everything that we consume, including our tourism, this is quite a big failure of the concept. It’s preoccupation on the consumers and how they are being manipulated with no mention of how these consumers impact on the cultures that they visit. Urry’s concept is still useful but it is getting less and less relevant in today’s market. Bibliography and References Chin, C.B.N. 2008, Cruising in the Global Economy: Profits, Pleasure and Work at Sea, London: Ashgate. Franklin, A. and Chang, M. 2001, The trouble with tourism and travel theory?, Tourist Studies, 1(1), 5-22. Goss, J. 1993, Placing the Market and Marketing the Place: Tourist Advertising of the Hawaiian Islands, 1972-1992, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 11, 663-688. MacCannell, D. 1992, Empty Meeting Grounds: The Tourist Papers, London: Routledge. McGuigan, J. 2004, Rethinking Cultural Policy, London: McGraw-Hill International Perkins, H.C. and Thorns, D.C. 2001, Gazing or Performing?: Reflections on Urry’s Tourist Gaze in the Context of Contemporary Experience in the Antipodes, International Sociology, 16(2), 185-204. Thrift, N. (1999) ‘Still Life in Present Time:The Object of Nature’, conference paper  presented to Sociality/Materialism – The Status of the Object in Social Science,  Brunel University, UK 9–11 September 1999. Turner et al. 2005, The Tourist Gaze: Towards Contextualised Virtual Environments, Kluwer. Urry, J. 1990, The Tourist Gaze, London: Sage. Urry, J. 1992, The Tourist Gaze â€Å"Revisited†, American Behavioral Scientist, 36, 172-186.

Assemble & Associate :: essays research papers

Assemble and Associate The first amendment of the Constitution is one of the most fundamental and essential appendages to the C onstitution that statesmen could ever have made. It basically provides the way and means for any citizen of the United States to speak freely, worship freely, assemble with whomever they want, and complain to the government. One of the most important of those freedoms however, is the right of association. Association protects the rights of persons to enter into relationships with one another unhampered by intrusive governmental regulation. More specifically expressive association protects the right to associate with others in pursuit of a wide variety of political, social, economic, educational, religious, and cultural ends. The right to associate, being derived from the provisions of free speech and assembly, is fundamental to all private associations so that they might have the right to their own standards for membership and leadership. The Boy Scouts of America has been a private organization with the mission and chartered purpose of providing character-building experiences for young people since its founding in 1910. The organization’s Oath states, â€Å"On my honor I will do my best †¦ to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.† It is a scout’s duty to uphold this oath and live by the scout law. In April of 2000 the Boy Scouts of America’s rights to establish its own standards of membership and continue to instill the values of the Scout Oath and Law into the scouts were challenged. An individual's position as assistant scoutmaster of a New Jersey troop was revoked after a division of the Boy Scouts learned that the individual was an avowed homosexual and gay rights activist. The assistant scoutmaster filed suit in the New Jersey Superior Court, and alleged, among other matters, that the Boy Scouts had violated a state law prohibiting discrimination in places of public accommodation on the basis of sexual orientation. The Boy Scouts held that this violated their First Amendment right of expressive association. The Boy Scouts of America believe an avowed homosexual is not a role model for the values espoused in the Scout Oath and Law. The right of association is utterly the most important principle in the issue of the Boy Scouts of America and their right to be selective in their requirements of leadership. The Boy Scouts have the right to assemble with whomever they choose.

Describe How to Interact, Respond, Communicate and Deal

When we are communicating with all children and younger people we must treat them all the same. We should be clear and concise. Instructions should be clear and the same E. G. please can you tidy up. Then we should keep repeating please can you tidy up, please can you tidy up, if a child (3-6years) was asked can you put toys away, they can get confused with what they have been asked to do. We can ask the younger child to repeat what the instruction was so we are aware that they have understood what was said to them. Children of the age3-6 are using their grammar a lot more.At this age they can exaggerate very well when telling something. If they are hurt they might tell fibs. Verbalising whilst playing is very common for 3-6 yrs. whilst communicating with these small children I would get down to their level. With the 6-12yrs they tend to ask lots of question. At this age most of the children set their own goals to achieve. Fact and fantasy are distinguished by now. The 6-12 age group s will need to have boundaries in place. They might also need support if they have a falling out with friends.This is the age when they speak about transitions in life. Use language to predict and draw conclusions. Use long and complex sentences. Understand other points of view and show that they agree or disagree. Understand comparative words e. g. ‘it was earlier than yesterday’. Keep conversations going by giving reasons and explaining choices? Start conversations with adults and children they don’t know. Understand and use passive sentences e. g. â€Å"the thief is chased by the policeman†. 12-18 yrs. olds will still look for adult support even though they are striving to be an adult.As teens seek independence from family and establish their own identity, they begin thinking abstractly and become concerned with moral issues. We need to be approachable and also remind them of confidentially. Not all children will like face to face talking so it might be best to speak at side of them. Teens should be able to process texts and abstract meaning, relate word meanings and contexts, understand punctuation, and form complex syntactic structures. However, communication is more than the use and understanding of words; it also includes how teens think of themselves, their peers, and authority figures.Resolving conflict with age groups. Ask each individual what happened and why. Encourage both children to come up with ideas to resolve the problem. Do not judge either child or be negative about their suggestions. Make it clear that you want to work toward a solution that will make them both happy. Encourage the children to listen to each other, including why they believe the conflict started. This effectively forces the children to accept that there is another person with feelings involved. Children are often totally unaware of how their behavior affects other people.Help both children understand what the end goal is; this may involve being v ery clear about what would be a good end result, an answer that suits both children. Ask both children to discuss the incident and to tell you how they have decided to handle it. Be sure to praise the children for handling the problem themselves and reassure them that you know there will be no future conflict between them. When your child gets angry, give them time and space to calm down before trying to resolve the situation. Explain later that it is difficult to think of good solutions when we are angry.We help children to learn the value of positive relationships in many ways. We promote and reward positive behaviour, encourage turn taking, we ensure we are good role models; we encourage sharing and build self-esteem of the use of praise and reward, with either sticker, certificates, merits ECT. We also encourage the children to be kind to each other. As adults we must respect other peoples view even if we don’t agree as everyone is entitled to their opinion. Always show y ou’re interested in what people are saying, show concern if needed and be a listening ear.Respect can be gained by talking to a child at their level and understanding them, for example looking at children at eye level whilst talking to them increases mutual respect. Keeping calm and talking in a â€Å"normal† friendly tone also increases mutual respect. Listening to children and addressing their needs. Role models are inspirational people who encourage others to progress and work toward self-improvement. They are especially important for today’s youth and can play an important role in shaping our society.Role models can influence a young one’s values, beliefs, and attitudes, which will shape the person that one will grow to be. Role models have the ability to focus their efforts on others rather than on themselves and they are selfless. Role models inspire others not only by their words, but more so by their actions that move us to do the same. Role model s help others by offering good examples, by inspiring others realize the endless possibilities to reach their goals, and by moving others to be the best that they can be. Children will copy behaviour so I use manners the children will copy.Influenced by the people around them affects children Reinforcement is used to help increase the probability that a specific behavior will occur with the delivery of a stimulus/item immediately after a response/behavior is exhibited. Negative reinforcement is often confused with punishment. Positive reinforcement is a very powerful and effective tool to help shape and change behavior. Positive reinforcement works by presenting a motivating item to the person after the desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future.We do this with either thumb up, smiling, verbal praise. Negative reinforcement is when a certain stimulus/item is removed after a particular behavior is exhibited. We can change seat or room. The likelihood of the particular behavior occurring again in the future is increased because of removing/avoiding the negative stimuli. Communication can be hard with young people as well as children. Each difficulty has its own effect. This could be how they learn, or understand what is being said to them. They will need time and to feel less pressured when speaking.Someone with Hearing difficulties would benefit from BSL( British sign Language), difficulty with attention or following complex directions in the classroom would benefit from being near the teacher or having 1-1, difficulty retaining information could have pictures or tape recorders,, poor vocabulary achievement could have extra time, difficulties with grammar, difficulties with organization of expressive language or with narrative discourse, difficulties with academic achievement, reading, and writing, unclear speech, persistent stuttering or a lisp.Most children tent to communicate through text and emails. Sometimes we n eed to change the way we communicate with people. This will depend on the individual. We often do this without knowing we have changed. Eye contact is best for non- hearing as they can lip read. Other ways we can communicate are via letters, email, using different color paper. We might need to speak slowly and more clearly. Depending on the type of visual impairment and what adaptations are necessary, I will produce reading books and class material in large print or braille.Touch typing programmers might be introduced, using a screen reader. Visual timetables, pictures, symbols or photographs are also a good way to communicate. For younger children, a visual time line can be effective, labels for equipment and places for specific activities, pictures, symbols, photographs or written labels. Visual displays of topics or current activities can for some children can cause overload.

Johann Sebastian Bach A Comparison - 931 Words

From Bach to Green Day: A Comparison I have always enjoyed the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, so I chose to listen to Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major (BWV 1048). This piece was composed in 1721 as a part of a six piece collection (Brandenburg Concertos). The rendition that I found is â€Å"performed on original instruments by the Early Music ensemble Voices of Music (Voices of Music). I chose this rendition in large part due to the faithfulness of the performance to the original manuscript. Here is a link to the performance on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPLvBO_2Gn0 (Voices of Music). For my modern concert performance, I chose Jesus of Suburbia live by Green Day. This piece was originally recored in 2003 and released in 2005 as part of their album American Idiot (Jesus of Suburbia). I chose this recording because I enjoy Green Day as a group, and because they have been performing music for many years. Now that we these pieces are presented, the task of comparison is no small one. I have chosen to analyze several elements of music discussed in our book for each piece, and how they differ. To begin, let us look at Instrumentation. Bach s piece were written during the baroque period, so he used many of the popular instruments of the day; violins, violas, chellos, harpsichord, and violone (Voices of Music). Green Day, features the standard rock layout of today s popular bands; guitars, electric bass, drums, keyboards, and vocals. Although these two piecesShow MoreRelatedJohann Sebastian Bach Essay1454 Words   |  6 PagesJohann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expandedRead More Johann Sebastian Bach Essay2919 Words   |  12 Pagesinfluential of all composers is Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach’s effect on music history can never be over-exaggerated. Bach played a crucial role in influencing many later composers, such as Mozart and Beethoven, as well as many modern musicians, redefined polyphonic music and musical form, and created beautiful works of canonic music that still resonate with listeners today, over 250 years after his death. Born in March of 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musiciansRead More Dmitri Shostakovich and Johann Sebastian Bach Essay1486 Words   |  6 PagesDmitri Shostakovich and Johann Sebastian Bach Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was one of the greatest composers of Soviet Russia. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is regarded today as the father of Western music. They came from opposite ends of music history and lived in entirely different environments, but Shostakovich was undoubtedly influenced by Bach’s music, and their respective musical styles came from the same core tradition of Western music. But most importantly, underneath the obviousRead MoreRecital Review and Report690 Words   |  3 PagesPerformer of Piano. The pieces Ms. Joo performed were the Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971, Fantasiestà ¼cke, Op. 12, and the Suite bergamasque (1905). The first piece performed was the Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971 which was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach within the years 1685-1750. This piece has three individual movements, Allegro, Andante, and Presto. The names of the individual pieces translated to modern English are: brisk or rapid in tempo (cheerful), moderately slow and even, and quicklyRead MoreAn Analysis Of Maurice Ravel s Le Tombeau De Couperin2169 Words   |  9 Pagesde Couperin with Bach’s French Suite no. 5 in G Major, BWV 816. Le Tombeau de Couperin was written from 1914-1917 during World War I. Ravel served in World War I as a truck driver but was discharged in 1916 due to his frailness and poor health (Sebastian, 2010-2016. The war affected Ravel deeply, and it served as part of his inspiration for Le Tombeau de Couperin. Each of the six movements is dedicated to friends that Ravel lost in World War I, as listed in the Dover edition score: I. Prelude: toRead MoreThe Great Leaders Of The Civil Rights Movement1563 Words   |  7 Pagesit, she showed her first time refusing to accept injustice when it comes to the color of your skin. (Loudermilk). Nina grew up learning the piano and did not have much interest in the subject of music but once her tutor introduced her to Johann Sebastian Bach, Nina was hooked and refused to let go. Continuing her passion in becoming a classical pianist she applied to the Curtis Institute of Music, a music school in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, she was not accepted but she refused to believe itRead MoreThe Underlying Meaning and Theme in â€Å"Jonathan Livingston Seagull†4964 Words   |  20 PagesContent Introduction Chapter 1. Richard Bach and his significance in American literature 1.1. Richard Bach personality 1.2. Literary heritage of Richard Bach Conclusions Chapter 2. â€Å"Jonathan Livingston Seagull† in the context of American literature of the 20th century 2.1. Historical background and creation of â€Å"Jonathan Livingston Seagull† 2.2. The fable in novella and its peculiarity 2.3. The motives of the â€Å"Jonathan Livingston Seagull† 2.4. The main message in novella ConclusionsRead MoreOpportunities23827 Words   |  96 Pagessalespeople scooping coffee beans from bins behind a counter in a store devoted to coffee and tea. Schultz was impressed with the company’s operation, management, and product. â€Å"I felt as though I had discovered a whole new continent,† he said. â€Å"By comparison, I realized, the coffee I had been drinking was swill.†62 Schultz believed that people all over the country would have similar reactions. The product might interest the growing numbers of men and women who embraced natural foods, those that they