Claiming the Right to Say No-30 Nov 09-EQUATIONS - Equitable ...

Claiming the Right to Say No
narrative construction provides space that allows a person either to follow
his/her basic orientation in life or seek temporary freedom from the chains
of daily routine of life. Thus, the tourists might affirm their selves or might
just allow themselves to glide the slope only for the period of holiday
(short biographical transition). Hence, some scholars argue that tourism
is a form of leisure imperialism.
Narrative Creation of the Hosts
The narrative provides us thematic unity of life that gives us a sense of
direction. They are important and even inescapable means of selfrepresentations
that create and sustain our identity. Our narratives shape
what we value, aspire, respect, care about, admire and identify with. This
means narratives provide context for a dialogical construction of our
identities. Our life matter to us and narratives belong to the space of
‘mattering’ or concern that we can refer to as unity of a life. My life as an
object of my concern has a narrative unity which Taylor says is a thematic
unity not mere sameness of the human organism. That is, we tend to make
sense of our life as a story which provides us a life-plot that is oriented by
the standards of excellence rooted in the centres of narrative gravity.
This means we are inclined to make sense of our life as an unfolding story
in a way that gives meaning to our past and direction to our future. Thus,
we have the centres of narratives gravity that provides us ‘moral space’
or direction in life. Moving towards or away from these standards of
excellence is an inescapable feature of self-hood. Therefore, when tourism
becomes part of the thematic unity of life, it shapes particular sites and
guides how activities become scripted in certain locations.
One can notice that tourist activities almost everywhere invade cultures
that are largely coherent and closed meaning systems and introduce
consumerist values, altering local priorities and converting the local customs
and mores into commodities to be preyed upon by the visitors. The
infrastructure built for tourism such as resorts, hotels, shopping malls, fast
food outlets produce standardized experiences for consumers reducing
the locals to servants. Tourism is thus associated with what Ritzer calls
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