Page 218 - Dark Shades of Istria
P. 218
Concluding Remarks
Dark tourism studies focus on the relationships between the contem-
porary generations of visitors and the dead at sites of traumatic/violent
death where dark commemorative events occur today. Consequently,
according to research purposes (see sub-chapter 1.2 ‘Research Purpose
and Objectives’), memory and dark tourism are initially clarified as con-
cepts and research areas, after which history-centric dark commemo-
rative events in Istria are identified, classified, clustered, described and
located/mapped. On the basis of three basic platforms – dark tourism,
memory and the traumatic Istrian 20th century history – four objectives
(see sub-chapter 1.2 ‘Research Purpose and Objectives’) and three re-
search questions for the qualitative analyses (rq1–rq3) and three for the
quantitative one (rq 4–rq 6) were consequently developed. Ten indica-
tors – theoretically as well as historically grounded – served as robust di-
rections for the fieldwork within qualitative investigation. Table 8.3 sum-
marises the main findings and shows that contemporary history-centric
dark commemorative events do not completely follow past memorial
practices on the peninsula. Ideological topics thus cannot be directly at-
tributed to Istrian events. However, interpreting the related symbols is
highly sensitive due to the delicate nature of this social topic within post-
socialist/post-Yugoslav society. It should be considered that the Istrian
anti-fascist movement as a winning force was nationally, and to some
extent also ideologically, heterogeneous – see sub-chapter ‘w w i i, Lib-
eration and the Cold War in Istria’ (p. 90). Various hostile forces that
anti-fascists had fought against should also be taken into account (for
academic research purposes). Consequently, anti-fascist symbols used in
that period can still be perceived today and discussed multidimension-
ally, although in practice this mainly means a dichotomy between ‘ours’ or
‘others.’ Nevertheless, these different possibilities are not discussed within
this study because the polysemy of such symbols goes beyond the pur-
poses of this research. In general, however, symbols are a characteristic
feature of the analysed events. Regionalism and convivenza as additional
rq 3-related indicators, do not mark the analysed dark commemorative
events, which does not apply only to w w i i-related events. Events are
visited mostly by locals who are familiar with the past traumatic events;
absence or deficiencies in the tourist infrastructure are clearly less dis-
turbing to them. Within rq 2, the events’ internationalisation was also
exposed as a relevant tourism indicator. The absence of international-
isation as well as the limited ‘attractiveness’ for different target groups
(generations of visitors) and the massiveness (rq 1) seriously limit the
218
Dark tourism studies focus on the relationships between the contem-
porary generations of visitors and the dead at sites of traumatic/violent
death where dark commemorative events occur today. Consequently,
according to research purposes (see sub-chapter 1.2 ‘Research Purpose
and Objectives’), memory and dark tourism are initially clarified as con-
cepts and research areas, after which history-centric dark commemo-
rative events in Istria are identified, classified, clustered, described and
located/mapped. On the basis of three basic platforms – dark tourism,
memory and the traumatic Istrian 20th century history – four objectives
(see sub-chapter 1.2 ‘Research Purpose and Objectives’) and three re-
search questions for the qualitative analyses (rq1–rq3) and three for the
quantitative one (rq 4–rq 6) were consequently developed. Ten indica-
tors – theoretically as well as historically grounded – served as robust di-
rections for the fieldwork within qualitative investigation. Table 8.3 sum-
marises the main findings and shows that contemporary history-centric
dark commemorative events do not completely follow past memorial
practices on the peninsula. Ideological topics thus cannot be directly at-
tributed to Istrian events. However, interpreting the related symbols is
highly sensitive due to the delicate nature of this social topic within post-
socialist/post-Yugoslav society. It should be considered that the Istrian
anti-fascist movement as a winning force was nationally, and to some
extent also ideologically, heterogeneous – see sub-chapter ‘w w i i, Lib-
eration and the Cold War in Istria’ (p. 90). Various hostile forces that
anti-fascists had fought against should also be taken into account (for
academic research purposes). Consequently, anti-fascist symbols used in
that period can still be perceived today and discussed multidimension-
ally, although in practice this mainly means a dichotomy between ‘ours’ or
‘others.’ Nevertheless, these different possibilities are not discussed within
this study because the polysemy of such symbols goes beyond the pur-
poses of this research. In general, however, symbols are a characteristic
feature of the analysed events. Regionalism and convivenza as additional
rq 3-related indicators, do not mark the analysed dark commemorative
events, which does not apply only to w w i i-related events. Events are
visited mostly by locals who are familiar with the past traumatic events;
absence or deficiencies in the tourist infrastructure are clearly less dis-
turbing to them. Within rq 2, the events’ internationalisation was also
exposed as a relevant tourism indicator. The absence of international-
isation as well as the limited ‘attractiveness’ for different target groups
(generations of visitors) and the massiveness (rq 1) seriously limit the
218
