Situational analysis as a critical methodology: mapping the tourism system in post-Katrina New Orleans

Abstract

Tourism development in the United States and globally is deeply rooted in hypercapitalist strategies and influenced by neoliberal conditions which prioritize economic development often to the detriment of those living and working in tourism destinations. The tourism workforce is a major entity sustaining the day to day operations of the tourism system, yet it remains underexplored. The COVID-19 global pandemic has only strengthened the argument for the need to prioritize the social—or person—aspect of sustainable tourism. Critical qualitative methods such as situational analysis combined with theoretical perspectives like critical race theory can provide methodological tools to expose and re-envision privatized constructions of sustainable tourism. In this article, we describe possibilities for using critical situational analysis to examine a broad range of complex conditions and provide examples of situational mapping from a study focusing on disaster capitalism and the use of tourism development as a strategy in post-Katrina New Orleans. We then offer possibilities for using situational analysis as critical qualitative inquiry moving forward.

Keywords:

• Disaster capitalism
• tourism
• situational analysis
• New Orleans
• critical race
• theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Hurricane Katrina is used as the term to reflect the hurricane itself, but also encompasses the failure of the inadequately maintained levee system that resulted in flooding of the city’s poorest areas, the subsequent failure of communication (e.g. radio frequencies, cell phone base stations) and lifeline (e.g. water, transportation, sanitary sewers) systems (Comfort, 2006).

2 The primary method for generating wealth in the U.S. economy has shifted from the marketing of goods created by the conversion of physical resources to the commodification of cultural human experience (Rifkin, 2001). The economy absorbs culture, as the bonds that hold society together become entirely commercial. Further, global or ‘transnational’ corporations are no longer limited by national boundaries, laws, or local concerns as claims are made that they have grown beyond national interests (Korten, 2001).

3 The interactive “Undesign the Redline” exhibit examines redlining’s effect on New Orleans. Its timelines, maps, and placards emphasize past and present events ranging from housing segregation to Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures, which resulted in the displacement of many Black New Orleanians (Wilkinson, 2018, para 5).