Browsing by Author "Renkonen, Taina"

How is geopolitical knowledge produced though guided tours? This Master's thesis examines this question by comparing guided walking tours conducted in the Old City of Jerusalem. The theoretical framework of the study combines critical geopolitics, multidisciplinary tourism research, and landscape studies. From this perspective tourism is approached not as a mere industry but as a potentially efficient identity-political tool. The data, which was collected through ethnographic participant observation, included both 'traditional' tours recommended by the Official Tourism Office as well as 'alternative tours' connected to the wider anti-Occupation movement within the Israeli civil society. These tours were compared in the light of the following research questions: (1) What kind of geopolitical visions the tours produced about the city and the wider conflict? (2) How landscape was utilized in order to articulate these viewpoints? (3) How did the answers of the previous questions relate to the wider social and political context? Iconographical framework structured the analysis of these tours and attention was paid to visual landscape texts, verbal narratives as well as corporeal choreographies. The analysis revealed two contrasting narratives of the city. Tours representing the official tourism sector promoted geographical imagination in which Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel. This stance was supported by three discursive landscapes. 'Biblical landscape' produced Jerusalem as a part of the Holy land shared by Jews and Christians where Islam and Muslims were presented as outsiders. 'Zionist landscape' established a continuum for it in the context of modern nation-states by focusing on the national narrative behind the State of Israel. 'Orientalist landscape' focused on the present conflict in multiple scales and justified the Israeli policy towards its adversaries. Alternative tours were based on a geographical imagination in which East Jerusalem is perceived as being Israeli-occupied territory and thus part of the larger process of colonizing the historical Palestine. The space of the Old City was divided into two discursive landscapes. 'Lost landscape' illustrated how the historical Palestine had been transformed into the State of Israel; whereas 'Occupied landscape' focused on mapping the expansion of the ongoing occupation and highlighted the asymmetrical power relationships between the conflicting parties. The study demonstrated that guided tours can be utilized both for advocating nationalist agenda and as tools of resistance.