Tourism as memory-making: heritage and memory wars in post-Soviet cities

在一个全球化、通讯技术和大众流动性发达的时代，文化记忆越来越超出地方社区和民族国家的范围，创造了表达新的世界性记忆的可能性，也产生了对过去解释的冲突。跨国记忆动力学已经在国际关系、电影、纪念碑和新媒体方面进行了探索，但国际旅游业作为跨国接触的一个关键领域只得到了有限的关注。该项目研究了跨国旅游遭遇中文化记忆的构建和重建，重点是俄罗斯旅游业对三个后苏联城市的例子。每年都有成千上万的俄罗斯人前往沙皇和苏联时期曾经是自己国家一部分的城市，在苏联解体后成为新独立的民族国家的一部分。这些旅游流动性为交流文化记忆和地方遗产提供了机会，因为导游向游客讲述他们所访问目的地的故事，而游客到达时对这些地方及其过去有着特别的期望和看法。这些人际接触是在地缘政治关系不断变化和俄罗斯与邻国之间持续紧张的背景下进行的，特别是在对共同过去的解释方面。该项目关注游客和导游的视角和互动动态，将阐明在不同国家背景下的旅游业中可以找到与有争议的过去有关的记忆和身份。该项目解决了四个研究问题：RQ1：游客和导游之间的跨国相遇产生了什么样的文化记忆？RQ2：导游与游客合作的方法和经验是什么？RQ3：游客如何通过记忆实践与地方建立联系并确定身份？RQ4：不同的国家背景和权力关系如何塑造旅游业的记忆？该项目采用了创新的方法设计，在三个有目的地选择的城市，塔林，爱沙尼亚，基辅，乌克兰和阿拉木图，哈萨克斯坦，有相当数量的俄罗斯游客，并在其历史和目前的关系与俄罗斯明显不同的比较民族志研究。研究是基于参与观察导游图尔斯和半结构化的采访导游和游客，这将是一个“厚比较”的三个案例研究。方法论的方法利用了民族志方法的传统开放性，同时选择了关键地点和记忆制作的做法，从而可以对不同案例进行系统的比较。该项目将通过提请注意旅游业对记忆的生产力，对记忆研究进行重要的干预。它还将有助于旅游研究和后苏联空间的理解，通过扩大旅游研究，超越西方游客，并通过扩大对俄罗斯及其邻国之间持续紧张局势背景下的后苏联空间的记忆和身份建设的理解。为了使非学术用户受益，该项目将提供对现有遗产传播的深入了解，这将有助于为未来的指导实践制定以实践为导向的课程。

In an age of advanced globalisation, communication technologies and mass mobility, cultural memory increasingly exceeds the confines of local communities and the nation-state, creating the potential for the articulation of new cosmopolitan memories as well as conflicts over the interpretation of the past. Transnational mnemonic dynamics have been explored in relation to international relations, films, monuments and new media, however international tourism as a key field for transnational contacts has received only limited attention. The project examines the construction and contestation of cultural memory in transnational touristic encounters, focusing on the example of Russian tourism to three post-Soviet cities. Every year thousands of Russians travel to cities that used to be part of their own state during the Tsarist and Soviet periods and became part of newly independent nation-states after the break-up of the Soviet Union. These tourist mobilities provide opportunities for the negotiation of cultural memories and local heritage sites as tour guides tell tourists stories about the destinations they are visiting and tourists arrive with particular expectations and perceptions of places and their pasts. These interpersonal encounters are situated in a context of shifting geopolitical relations and on-going tensions between Russia and its neighbours, particularly in relation to the interpretation of the shared past. Focusing on the perspectives and interactional dynamics of tourists and tour guides, the project will illuminate what memories and identities in relation to the contested past can be found in tourism across different national contexts. The project addresses four research questions: RQ1: What cultural memories are produced in transnational encounters between tourists and tour guides? RQ2: What are tour guides' approaches to and experiences of working with tourists? RQ3: How do tourists relate to places and enact identities through memory practices? RQ4: How is memory-making in tourism shaped by different national contexts and power relations? The project uses the innovative methodological design of a comparative ethnographic study of tourism in three purposefully selected cities, Tallinn, Estonia, Kyiv, Ukraine, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, which have significant numbers of Russian tourists and differ distinctly in their historical and present relations to Russia. The research is based on participant observations of guided tours and semi-structured interviews with tour guides and tourists, which will be brought together in a "thick comparison" of the three case studies. The methodological approach makes use of the traditional openness of the ethnographic method while at the same time the selection of key sites and practices of memory-making allows for systematic comparisons across cases. ContributionsThe project will make an important intervention in memory studies by drawing attention to the productivity of tourism for memory making. It will also contribute to tourism studies and the understanding of the post-Soviet space by expanding the study of tourism beyond tourists from the West and by broadening understanding of memory and identity constructions in the post-Soviet space against the background of on-going tensions between Russia and its neighbours. To benefit non-academic users, the project will provide insights into existing heritage communication, which will facilitate the development of practice-oriented lessons for future guiding practice.