PROPOLAR 2012-13
​PROJETO ANATOCU
​Anthropology of Antarctic Tourism Culture: Proposal for a Preliminary Study

ÁREA de INVESTIGAÇÃO: Sociologia

​
The aim of this project is to develop an anthropological study of Antarctic tourism culture.

According to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO), annual tourist arrivals in the Antarctic have passed from 6.000 in 1993 to 34.000 in 2012 (IATTO, 2012), an annual growth rate of over 25% making tourists the largest human population temporarily inhabiting this continent. While good sociological data are available on Antarctic tourist flows, touristic images and representations of Antarctica, the organizational structure of tourism operations and the politics of tourism regulations and conservation issues, little is known about the actual practices, performances and underlying myths and values of this particular tourist culture.

Like other forms of Western nature-tourism, Antarctic tourism seems predominantly a modern phenomenon finding its ideological roots in the post-Enlightenment narratives of an unconditioned, divine nature. It seems useful to approach this particular type of nature-tourism in terms of a ritual practice inscribed in modern culture. In this sense, tourism produces Antarctica as a specific ceremonial realm which allows the participating tourists to invoke, bring to life and engage their specific mythical conception of nature as an imagined departure point framing conceptions of modern time, modernity and modernist thinking. Through the encounter with pristine landscapes, wildlife and also human traces in forms of explorers and scientists, Antarctica – like other nature tourist destinations – would in this sense become a highly theatrical place to dramatize a grand historical narrative about time, nature and the human condition in general. Like other tourist destinations, it would reveal itself as a spiritual center of modern life set in the geographical margins of modern social life.

To investigate and test these hypotheses, this research proposal suggests as its two main objectives
  1. to investigate the ideological backdrop and meta-narratives driving this form of tourism practice and 
  2. to observe and analyze the actual practice of tourism itself in the way in which it unfolds on a quotidian base during the tour. 

The focus of the research will be primarily on commercial mass tourism which seems social-culturally most mainstream and quantitatively most important. The research plan is organized in two phases, the first exploratory and preparatory with a three week stay in Ushuaia in early 2013 (subject of this first research) and the second (subject of a subsequent proposal to be submitted in 2013) fieldwork based with research on board Antarctic tourist vessels and scientific stations in the South-Shetland islands.

The project is developed in collaboration with a number of international academic partners recognized in the fields of polar tourism and tourism anthropology, i.e. Daniela Liggett (Canterbury University, New Zealand and SCAR Social Science Action Group), Simone Abram (Leeds Met University, UK and specialist in the anthropology of polar tourism) and Nelson Graburn (UC Berkeley, USA and specialist in the anthropology of tourism). Without actively engaging in any particular policy approach, it will as well collaborate with the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO). Further collaboration is sought with scientific research teams able to provide maps and information on the anthropogenic impacts caused by tourism and other human activity in the Antarctic. The project will identify key areas and possible case studies for future interdisciplinary collaboration and third party funded research programs.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anatocu/185019938288808

APROJETO ANATOCU - equipa 
DESTINO: Ushuaia, Argentina, Janeiro a Fevereiro 2013.

David PICARD [homepage]
Investigador Principal

David Picard (CRIA-FCSH/UNL) is an anthropologist with longstanding research interests in tourism culture, narratives and practices. He is currently the PI of an FCT funded research program investigating the phenomenology of contact in human relations with fieldwork on hospitality culture in Madagascar, spirit possession in Cuba and travel abroad in Russia.
  • Picard, David (2012) 'Tourism, Awe and Inner Journeys', in D. Picard and M. Robinson (eds) Tourism, Affect and Transformation, Ashgate, London. 
  • Picard, David (2011) Tourism, Magic and Modernity: Cultivating the Human Garden. Oxford: Berghahn.
  • Picard, David (2010) Tourism Chapter, Coastal Livelihood Country Report for Comoros, South Africa, Johannesburg: UNDP GEF Agulhas and Somali Currents Large Marine Ecosystems Project (ASCLME).
  • Picard, David (2010) ‘Tropical Island Tourism in the South Western Indian Ocean’, in P. Gupta, I. Hofmeyr and M. Pearson (eds.) Eyes Across the Ocean. Navigating the Indian Ocean, UNISA, Pretoria, 2010.
  • Robinson, Mike and Picard, David (2006) Tourism, Culture, and Sustainable Development. Paris: UNESCO.
Dennis ZUEV [homepage]

Dennis Zuev (CIES-ISCTE) is a sociologist with a track record in research on forms of travel in the former Soviet Union and an expert for extreme travel in cold areas (one of his main fields is Siberia).
  • Zuev, Dennis (forthcoming) Couchsurfing in Siberia: hosting extraterrestrials in Krasnoyarsk, Sibirica, 2013
  • Zuev, Dennis and Nathansohn, Regev (eds.) (2012) Sociology of the Visual Sphere, Routledge Advances in Sociology Series. Taylor and Francis Group.
  • Zuev, Dennis (2012) Couchsurfing as a Spatial Practice: accessing and producing xenotopos”, Hospitality and Society. 1(3), 227-244
  • Zuev, Dennis (2008) The practice of free-traveling: young people coping with access in post-soviet Russia Young. Nordic Journal of Youth Research. 16(1), 5-26.
  1. ANATOCU
  2. CEPH 2013
  3. CONTANTARC2 
  4. FISHWARM 
  5. HISURF
  6. HOLOANTAR 
  7. MATAGRO
  8. NITROEXTEM
  9. PERMACHANGE

APROJETO ANATOCU - imagens
DESTINO: Ushuaia, Argentina, Janeiro a Fevereiro 2013.