Paradigm or predator? Eco- and community museums in Scotland and Costa Rica

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Recent decades have seen a rise in scholarship on the tourist imagination relating to the western gaze towards other cultures. In this essay, my theoretical standpoint is located in a nexus between museum studies, tourism studies, and anthropology, wherein the dynamic between the visitor and the heritage encountered can no longer be accepted as an innocent one. The contemporary examples I draw on from Scotland and Costa Rica – Skye Ecomuseum, and the Boruca and Rey Curré museos comunitarios – attract diverse international visitors, and tourism to both destinations is showcasing a life lived at a remove from the western world of capitalism and modernity, one experienced within, and at one with, stunning natural surroundings. However, as I will elucidate, both communities are concurrently experiencing the homogenising influences of globalisation while striving to maintain and strengthen their distinctive local identities in the response to predatory tourism.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)23-36
JournalICOFOM Study Series
Volume45
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Sept 2017

Keywords

  • Cultural heritage management
  • Ecomuseology
  • Community museology
  • Predatory tourism

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