As climate change has become an undeniable truth of the contemporary world which makes the Anthropos anxious about the future of life on earth, efforts have been made to understand how the planet has come to the edge of destruction. Now, this era that we are living in is called the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch in which humanity is widely accepted as the primary driving force of global environmental change. However, the role of tourism in making the earth a less livable place has not been paid attention that it deserves, even though tourism is also among the major drivers of anthropogenic environmental change. Moreover, tourism is not only a contributor to environmental damages but also benefits from such disasters by feeding the desire to travel vulnerable places before it is “too late”. This course has been designed to discuss these relations between tourism and the Anthropocene that have been neglected so far. In this course, we will explore the environmental impacts of tourism on human and nonhuman life worlds from a critical perspective by reflecting on what tourists leave behind as they pack their suitcases, travel, accommodate, eat and drink, urinate and excrete, and enjoy their destination. Approaching tourism as something more than changing one’s place to escape from the boredom of life for a certain period, and tracing the touristic footprints of transportation, accommodation, food consumption, waste management, etc. on the environment, we will have discussions around these three guiding questions:
The target group of this research-based course is BA and MA students from various disciplines who are interested in gaining an understanding of the relationality between the Anthropocene and tourism as well as those who are willing to conduct small-scale qualitative independent research of theirs on the relation between tourism and its environmental impacts, i.e., participant observation in touristic sites and places and in-depth interviews with, for instance, people who try to adopt zero-waste, eco-friendly traveling practices. The familiarity with the academic discussions around the Anthropocene and qualitative research methods is desired but not a prerequisite. Therefore, the course would be also quite helpful for those who want to learn qualitative research methods and/or practice them. Students will share the results of their research with (1) a short research report and (2) a class presentation on their project including their personal experiences of conducting an independent research project. These tasks will help them to practice self-reflexivity and sharpen their academic writing and presentation skills.
For inquiries, please contact me via my email address (asli.gucin@fu-berlin.de).
