A Review of “Travel and Geographies”

The Narrative of Travels

Even though human displacement is a universal phenomenon circumscribed by much broader cultural issues, there are unexplored fields in the understanding of what represents travel for modern societies (Khatchikian 2000: 250; Getino 2002: 17; Schluter 2003: 42–6; Wallingre 2007: 155). The world has witnessed how a combination of different technical advances along with working time reductions has contributed to the creation of mass-tourism and mobility expansion. Within this context, Zusman, Lois and Castro set forward a project-book entitled Travel and Geographies containing twelve well-researched works. These chapters explore the complexity of travel from many perspectives. Beyond the quality of these articles which is, of course, unquestionable, we can select and discuss here only a sample of them because of space and time issues.

In an introductory chapter, John Urry addresses the concept of mobility, culturally applied to the field of displacement, acculturation and migration. From a post-structuralist point of view, he emphasizes that today some 600 million arrivals are recorded annually, whereas in 1950 that number was only 25 million. One might realize the latter figure is considerably less than tourist movements if we examine the evolution of the industry in the last 50 years. In addition, more than 500,000 new rooms are inaugurated every year at international hotel chains; while, at the same time, roughly 23 million refugees are stranded around the globe. The underlying problem is the prominence of aesthetic pursuit in different human scenarios. Unlike true migration, which is characterized by a displacement in quest for basic psychological or material need satisfaction, tourism seems to be related to the saturation of landscapes based in part on a necessity for visual satisfaction (curiosity). In fact, Urry is convinced mobility is often based on the dominance of the aesthetic over the rest of human needs. This not only explains why people turn to mass-transport as a mechanism of evasion but also the growing importance of travel photography in recent decades. In a globalized society characterized by the predominance of spectacle, culturalism encourages the displacement as a vehicle towards happiness, development and emotional commitment. From this angle, nation-states are reinventing their boundaries and identities constantly in the interchange of tourists, migrants and workers. These new forms of movements are part of social memory and broader acculturation processes which researchers should inspect.

In the second chapter, by Carla Lois, we come across an examination of the beliefs held by Europeans about the Atlantic Ocean as well as of America in the sixteenth century AD. In as much as the geographical imaginary was related to the drawing of maps and cartography, Lois suggests that this unexplored sea played a pivotal role connecting the commerce between Europe and India. Known as Mare Occidentale, as well as Oceanus Occidentalis, the Atlantic Ocean stimulated the desire for visiting unexplored lands in order to gain prestige and fame. Whatever the case may be, seas of this nature gave rise more to doubts than to certainties. Under this perspective, two elements characterized the old European imaginary with respect to the Atlantic Ocean: the abundance of islands and the belief that monsters lived at the bottom of sea. Medieval literature reminds us that whilst islands encouraged explorers to cross the unknown seas in search of glory, the monsters morphologically represented the contingency of danger. On the other hand, Lois argues that monsters were circumscribed in the cartography as a mechanism to create moral symmetries constituting an image of a world congruent with other more complex schemes enrooted in religion or politics. Taking her cue from Michel Foucault, Lois introduces the notion of the mirror by combining the idea of Utopia with heterotopy. To put this in terms of Foucault, whereas Utopia refers to spatial sites as an imaginary construct that generates attractiveness, heterotopy materializes political practices associated with the control of population. In the work of Lois, the Atlantic Ocean meets the criteria of Utopia since it gives to the Americas the condition of the unreal, thus promoting specific practices of hegemony and territorial appropriation (heterotrophy).

The third paper in importance is presented by Perla Zusman, entitled ‘landscapes of civilization and progress’. This work focuses on experiences, emotions, fears and stereotypes of Domingo. F Sarmiento in his travel in the United States of America in 1847. Most likely, the USA at the time of Sarmiento's trip was experiencing a transformation. The technological advances not only in transport but also in communication permit the integration of unpopulated or scarcely populated zones. This transformation was interrelated possibly with the idea of progress. The combination of natural and artificial landscapes plays a pivotal role in the imagination of Sarmiento who communicates this in his work on South America. With this background in mind, Zusman examines the extent to which education issues lead Sarmiento to visit nine States (New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi).

It is not surprising that the USA captivated Sarmiento because of its political organization based on democracy and autonomy. The main thesis of Zusman is that appalling imbalances and poverty observed by Sarmiento in France contrasted most notably with the spirit of equality in the USA. This moot point changed the mind of Sarmiento. Nevertheless, he ignores the critiques of Tocqueville against the troublesome mode of democracy in the USA. Throughout his sojourn in North America, Sarmiento saw in the democracy, industry and development, a perfect model to replicate in Argentina. The efficiency and rapidity were two factors which in combination gave a modern idea of development. In support of Urry's contributions, Zusman argues that trains and mobility drew the boundaries between civilization and barbarity in Sarmiento's mind as well as in the whole of Argentinean social imaginary.

The fourth chapter refers to the investigation done by M. Laura Silveira, who examines how tourism facilitated new migratory fluxes in the north of Patagonia. Patagonia is a semi-deserted area situated in the south of the country neighbouring Chile. The author describes scientifically the principal features in each period from the mass immigration in the nineteenth century until the late twentieth century. The mass consumption associated with the practices of visitors and tourists triggered the enhancement of other components in the destination-related economy, such as hotels, stores, vehicle rental and agencies improving the existing networks of healthcare and education. However, the smokeless industry has a dark side which contrasts visual attractiveness with economic imbalance. One might speculate, the privatization policies in Latin America in the 1990s paved the way for an ambiguous scenario wherein splendorous architectural reformation imagined by Sarmiento as an expression of civilization did not fit with the social conditions of the people. The appropriation of lands in the zone reminds us of the context of the first colonizers in America, while the growth of Europeanism and development contrast with the exclusion of aboriginal tribes.

In this vein, Hortensia Castro presents her investigation about the narratives of the explorers from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries in Argentina. Using the same methodology of previously published research, the author attempts to reconstruct the historical perspectives of travellers as a system aimed at representing an image of development. Centred on two books, Journeys to the Puna of Atacama by Juan Bautista Ambrosetti and Desert Trails in Atacama by Isaiah Bowman, Castro insists on three interesting goals: (a) the influence of a civilized project in the indigenous world; (b) registering the main transformation that La Puna is experiencing compared to visits by previous travellers; (c) examining the discourse of Bowman as well as Ambrosetti of the symbolic westernization of Argentina. This research is underpinned in the proposition that in the first two decades in the twentieth century, La Puna (Argentina) was visited by several migrants, travellers and cowboys. Whereas Juan B. Ambroseti puts emphasis on the National State, who has recently incorporated such a zone under its own jurisdiction, other foreign visitors, such as Bowman, embodied the type of traveller who is concerned about scientific issues camouflaged by the interests of the USA in the local resources. Here converge two kinds of influence: the Market and Science. In general, the appearance of these visitors took place in a moment of American political expansion. None the less, the description of Bowman is focused typically in the geographical features and the potentialities of economic development, while Ambrosetti aims to synthesize the needs for constructing an ethos enrooted in a common national identity.

Finally, it is important not to lose sight of the contributions of M. Piglia in the study of the Argentine Automobile Club (AAC or ACA). This is the product of her Doctoral dissertation in which she studies the historical evolution of this institution from 1926 to 1939. Piglia suggests that the process of ‘turistification’ (a term usually present to denote tourist expansion) in campaigns managed by the ACA was based on restructuration in rural and urban areas. This process has been placed in a previous logic of economic resources with the aim of optimizing the profitability of scarcely populated zones. Piglia's work acknowledges that ACA's campaigns earned many donations; this increased capital in combination with new property businesses in certain areas of the country. This improved the infrastructure of bathing beaches on the Atlantic coastline. These more aggressive strategies in 1924 multiplied the number of members from 700 to 32,652 at the end of 1931.

We have so far reviewed the preliminary issues this book contributes in geography-related studies. Even if each chapter of this book serves as stand-alone reading, a similar thematic argument can be seen throughout this project and its publication. The principle of territorial appropriation is followed by a mechanism of hegemony that reinforces previous practices of social exclusion. Under such a circumstance, the geography of migration as well as tourism plays a pivotal role in outlining how globalization and social mobility work in a world characterized by ambiguity and contradiction. This book can be highly recommended for researchers, scholars and consultants. As previously discussed, the present piece challenges the idea that tourism works as a mechanism capable of revitalizing social bondage. The book begs an important question regarding the influences and effects of mobility in a globalized and much more sophisticated world. In this insightful work potential readers will come across an original proposition, which examines to what an extent the classical western depictions enrooted in European paternalism still remain in our day-to-day life. The representation of otherness can be articulated presenting travel as a political discourse of hegemony which trivializes the difference in other cultures and traditions. The narrative of that which we understand as travel is being centred in a mythical archetype which does not correspond with historical facts. There is a propensity to transform the history in ideology. In this conjuncture, social geographers should put existing travel writing under scrutiny.

To wit, travellers open the door for describing an outsider world under the hegemony of their gaze, their prejudices, stereotypes and expectations. Unless otherwise resolved, the irruption of modern rationality as a mechanism towards knowledge and development generates a counter-effect. This means that rationality and technologies penetrate unexplored territories, dominating and subordinating other customs in a unidirectional point of view (an ethnocentric discourse justified by using the argument of the advance of technology and development) while the indigenous people gradually experience increasing vulnerability. Most certainly, this happens because the encounter with others inspires uncontrollable fright. The term hospitality seems to be inextricably intertwined with hostility. Both etymologically share similar roots.