The gaze in tourism settings: An ethnographical approach above and beyond the theory of the tourist gaze

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect on the possibilities of analysing gazes within a specific social situation, namely tourist visits to Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. The paper aims to do so outside the line initiated by John Urry’s tourist gaze. In fact, the goal here is to first describe gazes in their interactional aspects. Therefore, this paper focusses less on the idea of structured perception, which is the crux of Urry’s theory, but rather on the effect of the gaze within concrete situations. By referring to a set of rules and norms operating in the agency of what is given to see, what tourists desire to see and what is concealed from their gaze, this paper eventually follows a different approach toward understanding what structures the tourist experiences.