Research Project: Processes of representation in indigenous tourism development. Cases from reindeer husbandry areas in northern Sweden and northwest Russia
Tourism is often put forward as a useful instrument for development in rural areas, and in particular to supplement income in reindeer husbandry. However, tourism may also result in drawing upon traditionalizing features that do not correctly represent the way reindeer husbandry is undertaken today, and may also exotify what are often little known lifestyles outside their areas of practice. Large differences between different reindeer husbandry areas also exist. This study reviews the prerequisites within reindeer husbandry communities for an active participation in tourism destination development in Sweden and Russia. Case studies will focus on populations where a major focus with regard to tourism development has been placed on reindeer husbandry as a culturally rooted way of life: Sami communities in Idre and Kiruna, and Nenets communities in Russia. Main questions are: What are the institutional structures and planning discourses that shape the preconditions for participating in tourism in different regions? What role does tourism development play in the different cases, and what representations are drawn upon in order to develop tourism? To what extent are representations in tourism perceived as accurate representations
of daily life in terms of representations of groups, places and practices? The study aims to support an understanding of the relation between different local groups, and to problematise and nuance common representations of reindeer husbandry communities.
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