Konfliktin koreografiat

Maisema, tarina ja kehollinen geopolitiikka opastetuilla turistikierroksilla Jerusalemissa

Abstrakti

How are embodied experiences of geopolitical relations produced through guided walking tours? The
article examines this question by integrating critical geopolitics with the performance turn in tourism
studies. From this perspective, tours are approached as choreographed tools of social spatialization/spatial
socialization that use urban space as their stage. The case study took place in the highly contested Old City
of Jerusalem. The ethnographic data, which is analyzed with an iconographic framework, consists of both
hegemonic mainstream tours and counter-hegemonic alternative tours. By comparing the performances
the article illustrates how contrasting geopolitical imaginations are enacted corporeally on three different
stages: Western (Wailing) Wall, a security checkpoint and the Muslim Quarter. Empirical evidence illustrates
what kind of strategies the guides employ to connect different meanings and emotional registers with
certain identity categories and landscapes. The article demonstrates how touristic performances can both
reproduce and contest hegemonic understandings of the landscape.