Page 36 - Dark Shades of Istria
P. 36
k Tourism Theory and Discourse
Higher political influence and ideology Lower political influence and ideology
‘Sites of death and suffering’ ‘Sites associated with death and suffering’
Darkest Darker Dark Light Lighter Lightest
Education orientation Entertainment orientation
History centric (cons./comm.) Heritage centric
Perceived authentic product interpret. Perceived inauthentic product interpret.
Location authenticity Non-location authenticity
Shorter time scale to the event Longer time scale to the event
Supply (non purposefulness) Supply (purposefulness)
Lower tourism infrastructure Higher tourism infrastructure
Figure 2.2 Stone’s Dark Tourism Spectrum (adapted from Stone, 2006, p. 151)
various binaries. Although this typology importantly clarifies the nature
of dark tourism supply, there have been stimulating reactions and debates
of scholars in the field of heritage tourism (Light, 2017, p. 281), e.g. Yoshida
et al. (2016) problematised its Western focus, which cannot be applied
in Asia. In addition, many other scholars criticised dark tourism typolo-
gies in general: the subjectivity and missing description of methodologies
(Robinson & Dale, 2011), epistemological questions, the questionable ap-
proach and objectivity (Ashworth & Isaac, 2015; Jamal & Lelo, 2010), and
a very individual perception (Walby & Piché, 2011). At the academic level,
these discussions can be linked and equated with dilemmas, doubts and
issues that we have seen in defining the research area. All of this is a clear
reflection of the underdevelopment of the new research area, which pro-
vides researchers with many research challenges in the future.
2.3 Dark Tourism and the Death System
In modern society, death is not a purely biological or medical issue, but
also a social/sociological one. It can be investigated within the theoretical
stream called ‘structure-functionalism’ (Doka, n.d.; Kastenbaum, 2007),
which clearly shows that death is not only a matter of an individual, but
of a wider social system. Although the dead body and death itself were
36
Higher political influence and ideology Lower political influence and ideology
‘Sites of death and suffering’ ‘Sites associated with death and suffering’
Darkest Darker Dark Light Lighter Lightest
Education orientation Entertainment orientation
History centric (cons./comm.) Heritage centric
Perceived authentic product interpret. Perceived inauthentic product interpret.
Location authenticity Non-location authenticity
Shorter time scale to the event Longer time scale to the event
Supply (non purposefulness) Supply (purposefulness)
Lower tourism infrastructure Higher tourism infrastructure
Figure 2.2 Stone’s Dark Tourism Spectrum (adapted from Stone, 2006, p. 151)
various binaries. Although this typology importantly clarifies the nature
of dark tourism supply, there have been stimulating reactions and debates
of scholars in the field of heritage tourism (Light, 2017, p. 281), e.g. Yoshida
et al. (2016) problematised its Western focus, which cannot be applied
in Asia. In addition, many other scholars criticised dark tourism typolo-
gies in general: the subjectivity and missing description of methodologies
(Robinson & Dale, 2011), epistemological questions, the questionable ap-
proach and objectivity (Ashworth & Isaac, 2015; Jamal & Lelo, 2010), and
a very individual perception (Walby & Piché, 2011). At the academic level,
these discussions can be linked and equated with dilemmas, doubts and
issues that we have seen in defining the research area. All of this is a clear
reflection of the underdevelopment of the new research area, which pro-
vides researchers with many research challenges in the future.
2.3 Dark Tourism and the Death System
In modern society, death is not a purely biological or medical issue, but
also a social/sociological one. It can be investigated within the theoretical
stream called ‘structure-functionalism’ (Doka, n.d.; Kastenbaum, 2007),
which clearly shows that death is not only a matter of an individual, but
of a wider social system. Although the dead body and death itself were
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