Tourists, Vagabonds, Locals, and Strangers as City-Dwellers

Abstract

A scan of the literature suggests that social sciences have discussed the host–guest relation from many theoretical lenses and perspectives. Violence as well as local crime has been studied as one of the major risks concerning tourism security. Anyway, less attention was given to homeless people and their interaction with foreign or local tourists. Globalization has winners and losers, in which case, as noted, thousands of persons are excluded from the formal labor marketplace or the economic system year by year. There is an urban underclass formed by those who have been excluded from the economic system. What is more important, such an underclass situates nearby luxury hotels and tourist destinations creating serious contradictions or zones of disputes. These contradictions have been approached by different sociologists since the turn of the 20th century. In this chapter, I found four categories that explain very well the dialog between locals, vagabonds, and strangers as city-dwellers and tourists. I conclude though Augé and Bauman have notably contributed to the current understanding of urban postmodern space and marginality, their categories (as pure ideals) are marginally applied to an empirical background. I stated here Vagabonds can be divided into two niches, dreamers who are entrepreneur agents and tourism-friendly and zombies who are subject to the scourge of drug addiction and alcoholism (living only the day and the present). At the same time, there are two niches of tourists, those interested or disinterested to gaze at the “Other's pain.”

Citation

Korstanje, M.E. (2024), "Tourists, Vagabonds, Locals, and Strangers as City-Dwellers", Of Tourists and Vagabonds in the Global South (Tourism Security-Safety and Post Conflict Destinations), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 99-112. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83608-044-220241007