Selling Ethics: Discourses of Responsibility in Tourism

Abstract

This article explores the grammars of responsibility through a discourse analysis of selected travel guidebooks and argues that critical theory and popular media have so far failed to bridge the gap between ideologies and practices of responsibilities. As it stands, an unspoken assumption that a particular set of practices (e.g., buying goods labeled as fair trade or boycotting sweatshop-produced clothing) is perpetuated as undeniably responsible. As long as important questions on what constitutes being ethical and by whose standards this is evaluated against is neglected, however, there is a danger of pursuing practices deemed irrefutably responsible, although they are not responsible or ethical at all. Building on the postcolonial critiques on literature in geographies of responsibilities (Raghuram, Madge, and Noxolo 2009; Jazeel and McFarlane 2010; Noxolo, Raghuram, and Madge 2011), this article interrogates the discourses of responsibility circulated in popular media and, using examples from tourism, highlights the problematic nature of perpetuating a series of universalized instructions regarding one's responsibilities, while revealing the many inconsistencies advocated once one takes a closer and more critical look at what is suggested. What is needed is an effort to close the gap between practices and ideologies of responsibility, where a conscious postcolonial understanding of the variance of ideals of responsibilities across time and space is reflected in our practices and how we understand practices of responsibilities.

本文对选定的旅游导览手册进行论述分析, 以此探讨责任的语法, 并主张批判理论与大众媒体至今仍未能弥合责任的意识形态和实践之间的落差。事实上, 将一组特别的实践（例如购买公平贸易商标的产品, 抑或抵制血汗工厂生产的服饰）视为毋庸置疑的负责任行为的未明说假设持续存在。但只要有关什麽构成道德的行为, 以及由谁的标准来衡量等重要的问题被忽略, 便带有追求尽管完全无关乎责任或道德、但却仍被视为毋庸置疑的负责任行为的风险。本文建立在后殖民对于责任地理学文献的批判(Raghuram, Madge, and Noxolo 2009; Jazeel and McFarlane 2010; Noxolo, Raghuram, and Madge 2011), 探讨在公众媒体中流传的责任论述, 并运用旅游业的案例, 强调让一系列有关个人责任的普遍化指令续存的问题本质, 并揭露以更批判的视角近观建议事项时与宣传的不一致之处。我们必须致力于弥合有关责任的实践和意识形态之间的落差, 其中意识到不同时空中的理想责任之分歧的后殖民理解, 反映在我们的实践和如何理解负责任的行动之中。

Este artículo explora las gramáticas de responsabilidad por medio del análisis del discurso que contienen las guías de viaje selectas y argumenta que la teoría crítica y los medios populares hasta ahora han fallado en salvar la brecha existente entre ideologías y las prácticas de responsabilidades. En este orden de cosas, una presunción silenciosa de que un conjunto particular de prácticas (por ejemplo, la compra de cosas etiquetadas como comercio equitativo, o el boicot de prendas de vestir producidas en condiciones denigrantes) es perpetuada como innegablemente responsable. Sin embargo, en tanto preguntas importantes sobre lo que se constituya como ético y sobre los estándares contra los cuales esto se evalúa, sean soslayadas, se corre el peligro de proseguir prácticas consideradas como irrefutablemente responsables, así estas no sean en definitiva ni responsables ni éticas. Construyendo a partir de la literatura de críticas poscoloniales referidas a las geografías de las responsabilidades (Raghuram, Madge, y Noxolo 2009; Jazeel y McFarlane 2010; Noxolo, Raghuram, and Madge 2011), este artículo interroga los discursos sobre responsabilidad que circulan en los medios populares y, mediante ejemplos del turismo, destaca la naturaleza problemática de perpetuar una serie de instrucciones universalizadas en relación con las responsabilidades de uno mismo, en tanto que, tan pronto uno mira con mayor detenimiento y más críticamente lo que se ha sugerido, se revelan muchas de las inconsistencias propuestas. Lo que de veras se necesita es un esfuerzo para cerrar la brecha existente entre las prácticas y las ideologías de la responsabilidad, donde un entendimiento poscolonial, consciente de la diferencia de ideales de responsabilidad a través del tiempo y el espacio, se refleje en nuestras prácticas y en cómo entendemos las prácticas de responsabilidades.

Key Words:

• postcolonialism
• responsibility
• Thailand
• tourism

关键词：:

• 后殖民主义，责任，泰国，旅游业。

Palabras clave:

• poscolonialismo
• responsabilidad
• Tailandia
• turismo

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Claudio Minca and Katie Willis for advising the PhD thesis and research presented in this article, as well as Tim Oakes, the editors, and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. Who are we? In the first instance, we refers to consumers from the Global North. Although we may take on various roles as academics or industry professionals, we are, at the end of the day, almost always also consumers dependent on the capitalist mode of production. At the same time, if one were to walk through the retail spaces of different cities, it would be immediately obvious that messages of responsibilities can be just as prevalent whether one is in London or in Bangkok. This article thus takes this position, where who we/I are/am is constantly fluctuating between varying standpoints and where there is a pertinent need to understand matters beyond such binaries, even as this article seeks to unravel the bias in what has typically been presented as a universal understanding of responsibility.

2. For example, it could be argued that whereas a typical ethical consumer buys and consumes a good or a product, the ethical tourist consumes an experience that is often less tangible than an ethical product.

3. It should be noted, though, that responsibility can be personified as an object; for example, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has successfully used the panda as an object or symbol to signal the need to be responsible toward wildlife in general.

4. Although the usage of tourism guidebooks is now increasingly replaced by Internet-based resources like travel blogs and Web sites, the likelihood of a potential tourist searching for and reading extensively in preparation for his or her travels is very high compared to a potential consumer reading in preparation for his or her supermarket purchases. Hence, even though this article looks specifically at tourist guidebooks, it views online material in a similar light, with a similar potential of informing and instructing practices and ideas of responsibility on the ground.

5. Again, it is important to note that sentiments regarding locals' visits to commercial sex workers might have changed since research was done to support these articles' conclusions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Harng Luh Sin

HARNG LUH SIN is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at National University of Singapore, Singapore 119260. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests revolve around the mobilities of people—in the broad spectrum from tourism to migration, as well as the mobilities and fluidities of abstract ideas such as moral and social responsibilities, ethics, and care (at a distance) and how these translate through discursive platforms like social media and into real practices on the ground.