5 Meet, greet and eat: Farmed animals as dark tourism attractions
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José-Carlos García-Rosell
Abstract
The growing popularity of the countryside as a place of consumption and recreation has contributed to the diversification of farming into tourism and the commodification of farm animals for touristic use. For example, in the UK, a number of livestock farms have opened their premises to the public, configuring and promoting them as tourism attractions whereby visitors can experience the immediacy and vitality of animal life often portrayed as unfettered and joyful. At the same time, they have also responded to concerns around the negative impact on health and sustainability of conventional farming systems by opening farm shops that offer, amongst other things, their own fresh farm reared meat direct to the consumer. Drawing upon the concept of embodied ethics in organizational studies (Hancock, 2008) and embodiment in tourism research (Baerenholdt et al., 2004, Veijola & Valtonen, 2007), we problematize this idyllic view of farming and farm animals as a curious form of dark tourism whereby non-human animal life and death become intimately entwined as objects of profoundly embodied consumption practices. Gaze, touch, and practices of embodied incorporation are all combined as the living are looked upon, petted and often internalised as anthropomorphic friends and companions, while the dead are equally evaluated by eye and hand and, ultimately, both ingested and excreted. Therefore, by paying particular attention to embodied engagement between people and farm animals, we take an ethical perspective that is sensitive to the embodied and situated nature of animal dark tourism.
Abstract
The growing popularity of the countryside as a place of consumption and recreation has contributed to the diversification of farming into tourism and the commodification of farm animals for touristic use. For example, in the UK, a number of livestock farms have opened their premises to the public, configuring and promoting them as tourism attractions whereby visitors can experience the immediacy and vitality of animal life often portrayed as unfettered and joyful. At the same time, they have also responded to concerns around the negative impact on health and sustainability of conventional farming systems by opening farm shops that offer, amongst other things, their own fresh farm reared meat direct to the consumer. Drawing upon the concept of embodied ethics in organizational studies (Hancock, 2008) and embodiment in tourism research (Baerenholdt et al., 2004, Veijola & Valtonen, 2007), we problematize this idyllic view of farming and farm animals as a curious form of dark tourism whereby non-human animal life and death become intimately entwined as objects of profoundly embodied consumption practices. Gaze, touch, and practices of embodied incorporation are all combined as the living are looked upon, petted and often internalised as anthropomorphic friends and companions, while the dead are equally evaluated by eye and hand and, ultimately, both ingested and excreted. Therefore, by paying particular attention to embodied engagement between people and farm animals, we take an ethical perspective that is sensitive to the embodied and situated nature of animal dark tourism.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Foreword 1
- 1 Dark tourism: The need for a critical approach 5
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Part I: Dark tourism, affect and emotions
- 2 Atmospheric instability in dark tourism: Spatial construction of conflicting affective atmospheres at the Titanic Museum & Attraction, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (USA) 33
- 3 Understanding the emotions of visitors to Chernobyl 53
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Part II: Dark tourism and critical animal studies
- 4 Animals as dark tourism attractions: A prototype 77
- 5 Meet, greet and eat: Farmed animals as dark tourism attractions 89
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Part III: Dark tourism and critical memory studies
- 6 Trading paradise for Palestine: Dark tourism to refugee camps in the West Bank 109
- 7 The scope of dark tourism-scapes: Exclusion zones and their creative boundedness from Chornobyl to Montserrat 129
- 8 Exploring the intersections between dark tourism and Arctic traumascapes in the Anthropocene: The case of Finnish Lapland 147
- 9 “Despicable and disgusting”: Emotional labor, and the fear of dark tourism 163
- 10 Welcome to Revachol: Disco Elysium as virtual dark tourism 181
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Part IV: Dark tourism, power and identity
- 11 Sites of (dark) consciences: Investigating dark tourism cosmologies in a postcolonial landscape 203
- 12 Towards a postcolonial museum? Experiencing legacies of colonialism in dark tourism museum exhibits 219
- 13 Exhibiting power: Dark tourism and crime in the police museum 245
- 14 Representations in UK witches tours: Walking over the roots of misogyny 261
- 15 Critical theories in dark tourism: Over the years and beyond 277
- List of contributors 285
- List of figures 291
- Index 293
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Foreword 1
- 1 Dark tourism: The need for a critical approach 5
-
Part I: Dark tourism, affect and emotions
- 2 Atmospheric instability in dark tourism: Spatial construction of conflicting affective atmospheres at the Titanic Museum & Attraction, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (USA) 33
- 3 Understanding the emotions of visitors to Chernobyl 53
-
Part II: Dark tourism and critical animal studies
- 4 Animals as dark tourism attractions: A prototype 77
- 5 Meet, greet and eat: Farmed animals as dark tourism attractions 89
-
Part III: Dark tourism and critical memory studies
- 6 Trading paradise for Palestine: Dark tourism to refugee camps in the West Bank 109
- 7 The scope of dark tourism-scapes: Exclusion zones and their creative boundedness from Chornobyl to Montserrat 129
- 8 Exploring the intersections between dark tourism and Arctic traumascapes in the Anthropocene: The case of Finnish Lapland 147
- 9 “Despicable and disgusting”: Emotional labor, and the fear of dark tourism 163
- 10 Welcome to Revachol: Disco Elysium as virtual dark tourism 181
-
Part IV: Dark tourism, power and identity
- 11 Sites of (dark) consciences: Investigating dark tourism cosmologies in a postcolonial landscape 203
- 12 Towards a postcolonial museum? Experiencing legacies of colonialism in dark tourism museum exhibits 219
- 13 Exhibiting power: Dark tourism and crime in the police museum 245
- 14 Representations in UK witches tours: Walking over the roots of misogyny 261
- 15 Critical theories in dark tourism: Over the years and beyond 277
- List of contributors 285
- List of figures 291
- Index 293
