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Strangers in New York: Ethnic tourism as commodity, spectacle, and urban leisure in three Manhattan neighborhoods

Posted on:1998-07-05Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:New York UniversityCandidate:Gates, Jennifer AFull Text:PDF
GTID:1466390014978127Subject:Anthropology
Abstract/Summary:
This dissertation analyzes the historical and contemporary dynamics of the commodification of cultural difference and urban space as seen in three New York City neighborhoods: Chinatown, The Lower East Side and Harlem. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, curious urban tourists have flocked to the poor and ethnic neighborhoods of large American cities. Such urban ethnic tourism, and the interest in an ethnic "Other" which underlies it, was linked to concurrent nineteenth-century social transformations: rapid urbanization and industrialization, massive immigration, the growing influence of a new mass media, and the development of a new urban commercial culture centered around pleasure, leisure, and consumption.;By the 1930s, such urban ethnic enclaves were expected to have disappeared as the result of assimilation and stricter immigration policies. However, in contemporary New York, both ethnic neighborhoods and ethnic tourism flourish, largely as a result of post-industrial economic changes which have intensified class and racial polarization in the city and widened the social distance between rich and poor, concentrating many ethnic and immigrant residents in inner-city urban areas. Although such trends have served to make New York a "divided city," they have also helped increase the number and vitality of ethnic neighborhoods in New York.;Today, tourism seems a promising means of economic development for urban ethnic neighborhoods. However, tourism also presents potential threats to such communities in the form of gentrification, displacement of poor residents, and the persistence of tourism as an activity in which social inequality among participants can present an ideal breeding ground for trickery, exploitation, mistrust, and stereotype reinforcement.;Finally, urban ethnic tourism is threatened itself by persistent fears about ethnic neighborhoods as places of danger and disorder, and by new forms of "virtual" urban tourism which recreate cities as theme parks, shopping malls, hotel complexes, or upscale urban neighborhoods, editing out dirt, noise, and urban fear. While such "virtual cities" may reassure timid tourists and city residents, they also serve to further divide urban areas on the basis of race and class, and to widen the ideological chasm between American cities and the nation at large.
Keywords/Search Tags:Urban, Ethnic, New york, Neighborhoods, Cities
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