Embodied spaces of Ras Beirut and the inherence of tourism: A case study of mental mapping and photographic narratives

Jensen, Marie Brøndgaard

4. term

Tourism, Master

2015

2015-06-01

79

This thesis examines the role of tourism in Ras Beirut, Lebanon, through the lens of the neighborhood’s civil war history and everyday life. Using the idea of embodied space—how places are physically and emotionally experienced and made meaningful—it explores how tourism is inherent to Ras Beirut’s urban identity. The qualitative, post-disciplinary case study applies mixed ethnography, visual methods, and a reflexive analytical stance. Data were gathered through participant observation and casual interviews during the City Debates at the American University of Beirut, the collection of mental maps from residents and visitors, and a visual comparison of unpublished pre-war photographs with the same sites today. Findings indicate a strong overlap between residential life and tourism, with visitors and residents co-creating space and meaning. Experiencing Ras Beirut emerges as a journey through time, where tourism links past and present and underscores continuity. The thesis concludes that Ras Beirut is better understood as a touristic space than a conventional destination—an experiencescape shaped by multireligious interaction, a long history of foreign settlement, and the centrality of knowledge and education. Mental maps reveal both differences and commonalities between tourists and residents, highlighting tourism’s embeddedness. At the same time, official promotion appears to favor more prominent areas while overlooking living heritage and war memories, risking a form of organized amnesia. The interweaving of tourism with everyday life thus contributes to the neighborhood’s historical and urban identity.

Denne specialeundersøgelse fokuserer på, hvilken rolle turisme spiller i Ras Beirut, Libanon, set i lyset af bydelens krigshistorie og hverdagsliv. Med udgangspunkt i begrebet kropsliggjorte rum – hvordan steder opleves, bruges og gives mening gennem menneskers bevægelser og sansninger – undersøger studiet, hvordan turisme er indlejret i byens daglige liv og identitet. Metodisk bygger casestudiet på en kvalitativ, post-disciplinær tilgang med mixed etnografi, visuelle metoder og en refleksiv analyse. Datagrundlaget omfatter deltagerobservationer og uformelle interviews under City Debates på American University of Beirut, indsamling af mentale kort fra beboere og besøgende samt en visuel sammenligning af upublicerede førkrigsfotografier med nutidens lokaliteter. Resultaterne peger på en tæt overlapning mellem hverdagsliv og turisme, hvor besøgende og beboere samskaber byrum og betydning. At opleve Ras Beirut beskrives som en rejse gennem tid, hvor turisme forbinder fortid og nutid og dermed synliggør kontinuitet. Afhandlingen konkluderer, at Ras Beirut i højere grad er et turis(t)isk rum end en traditionel destination, forstået som et experiencescape præget af multireligiøs interaktion, en lang historie med tilflyttere samt viden og uddannelse som bærende identitetsmarkører. De mentale kort viser både forskelle og ligheder mellem turister og beboere og understreger turismens indlejring i stedet. Samtidig synes officiel promovering at favorisere mere fremtrædende områder og overse levende kulturarv og krigsminder, hvilket kan bidrage til en form for organiseret glemsel. Turismens sammenvævning med hverdagen i Ras Beirut vidner samlet om dens betydning for bydelens historie og urbane identitet.

[This apstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]

Tourism ; Embodied spaces ; Post-war ; Mental maps ; Visual Ethnography ; Post-disciplinary ; Ras Beirut

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